IV Huahine, Raiatea, and Taha 79 



fair and square with its long beak, it would probably 

 have done for him.^ 



' From Huahine we sailed to Raiatea and Taha, 

 two islands about thirty miles away, both enclosed 

 within the same reef, with the wild rocky mass of 

 Bora -Bora backing up the gap between them 

 beautifully. They were magnificently rugged and 

 green, and covered with wild guaras, fringed with 

 cocos and bread-fruits. Here we had a grand 

 present of pigs, plantains, and poultry from the King, 

 a shrewd but reprobate monarch, who had nearly 

 blown his arm off in a Malthusian effort to diminish 

 the population with an old rifle. He, the Queen 

 (a graceful and pleasing brown woman who spoke 

 English), and the Prime Minister came on board to 

 visit us ; and we were boarded later on by a hundred 

 and odd school-children — a most charming business. 

 The missionary discreetly turned his back and 

 allowed the youngsters to carry on, which they did 

 to such an extent that he was obliged at last to 

 whack some of the more intense devotees of the 

 can-can over their pates with his umbrella. Ten 

 minutes more and the yacht would have been a 

 pandemonium. 



1 ' There is in all these waters a gar, or guard fish [Hetniramphiis), 

 some two feet long, with a hard, sharp, prolonged lower jaw. This 

 fish has an unpleasant custom, when suddenly startled, of leaping out 

 of the water with such extreme velocity as to transfix any soft substance 

 which happens to be in his way. Cases of severe wounds, even of 

 death, from this cause are by no means unknown.' — South Sea Bubbles, 

 5th ed. p. Si. 



