nd, when close to the beach, where the
natives awaited the landing of the party with warlike demonstrations, he
slipped out of his clothes into the water and swam ashore--the Bible, in
the native tongue, being tied carefully on the top of his head to keep
it dry.

Surprise at this mode of proceeding caused the natives to receive him
with less violence than before. Their curiosity led them to listen to
what he had to say. Then a chief named Tomeo took him by the shoulders,
placed his nose against that of Waroonga and rubbed it. This being
equivalent to a friendly shake of the hand, the missionary signalled to
his friends in the boat to go away, which they accordingly did, and left
their courageous brother to his fate.

It is not our purpose to recount the whole history of this good man's
enterprise. Let it suffice to say that the natives of Ratinga turned
round, childlike--and they were little more than grown up children--
swallowed all he had to say and did all he bid them do--or nearly all,
for of course there were a few self-willed characters among them who
objected at first to the wholesale changes that Waroonga introduced in
their manners and customs. In the course of a few months they formally
embraced Christianity, burned their idols, and solemnly promised that if
any more unfortunate ships or boats chanced to be wrecked on their
shores they would refrain from eating the mariners. Thus much
accomplished, Waroonga, in the joy of his heart, launched a canoe, and
with some of his converts went off to headquarters to fetch his wife.
He fetched her, and she fetched a fat little brown female baby along
with her. Missionaries to the Southern seas, as is well known,
endeavour to impress on converts the propriety, not to say decency, of a
moderate amount of clothing. Mrs Waroonga--who had been named Betsy--
was therefore presented to the astonished natives of Ratinga in a short
calico gown of sunflower pattern with a flounce at the bottom, a bright
yellow neckerchief, and a coal-scuttle bonnet, which quivered somewhat
in consequence of being too large and of slender build. Decency and
propriety not being recognised, apparently, among infants, the brown
baby--who had been named Zariffa at baptism--landed in what may be
styled Adamite costume.

Then Waroonga built himself a bamboo house, and set up a school. Soon
after that he induced a half Italian, half Spanish sailor, named Antonio
Zeppa, who had been bred in