imagined what a
pace they put on! At a little distance they were very puzzling, looking
more like a water-beetle grown fat and lazy than aught else.

And so, in everything floatable, the whole male population of that part
of the coast came to visit us. We were speedily the centre of a great
crowd of canoes, some of which were continually capsizing and spilling
their occupants, who took no more notice of such incidents than one
would of a sneeze. Underneath a canoe, or on top, made but little
difference to these amphibious creatures. They brought nothing with
them to trade; in fact, few of their vessels were capable of carrying
anything that could not swim and take care of itself. As they came
on board, each crossed himself more or less devoutly, revealing the
teaching of a Roman Catholic mission; and as they called to one another,
it was not hard to recognize, even in their native garb, such names as
Erreneo (Irenaeus), Al'seo (Aloysius), and other favourite cognomens of
saints.

A laughing chattering good-tempered crowd they were--just like a bevy of
children breaking up, and apparently destitute of the slightest sense
of responsibility. They spoke a totally different dialect, or maybe
language, to that of Vau Vau, for it was only an isolated word here and
there that Samuela could make out. But presently, going forward through
the crowd that thronged every part of the deck, I saw a man leaning
nonchalantly against the rail by the fore-rigging, who struck me at
once as being an American negro. The most casual observer would not
have mistaken him for a Kanaka of those latitudes, though he might
have passed as a Papuan. He was dressed in all the dignity of a woollen
shirt, with a piece of fine "tapa" for a waistcloth, feet and legs bare.
Around his neck was a necklace composed of a number of strings of blue
and white beads plaited up neatly, and carrying as a pendant a George
shilling. Going up to him, I looked at the coin, and said, "Belitani
money?" "Oh yes," he said, "that's a shilling of old Georgey Fourf,"
in perfectly good English, but with an accent which quite confirmed my
first idea. I at once invited him aft to see the skipper, who was very
anxious to find an interpreter among the noisy crowd, besides being
somewhat uneasy at having so large a number on board.

To the captain's interrogations he replied that he was "Tui
Tongoa"--that is, King of Tonga, an island a little distance away--but
that he was at pres