IV 



Tubuai 8 i 



but our man said that it had been ascended. The 

 King was a fine young fellow, quite six feet two. 

 His " Motu " or Windsor Castle was an open shed 

 with one end thatched in with palm leaves, and the 

 royal bed was a mattress on a mat with two or three 

 plaid coverings ; at its head were a double-barrelled 

 gun and a small accordion. 



' Our next island was Tubuai. This island was 

 but little above the water : a mere fringe of cocos 

 with a protecting reef. We put out the old fish- 

 fag,^ but failed to find an entrance through the reef, 

 on which the surf was breaking fiercely. Birds in- 

 numerable flew around us, terns, young tropic-birds, 

 and grand fork-tailed frigate-birds who bullied the 

 others tremendously, and forced them to pay tithes 

 of their fishing. The green of the trees on the white 

 sandbanks, and the glory of the purple and crimson 

 evening sky, were indescribable. The next morning, 

 guided by a group of men bearing a big white flag, 

 we pulled over the rollers, and were dragged, boat 

 and all, clean over the reef and on to the glittering 

 white beach by a lot of jolly brown Savage islanders,^ 

 headed by Mr. Blackett, a Nova-Scotian who rents 

 the island from the King of Bora-Bora for the 

 purpose of making palm-oil. A walk of a quarter 

 of a mile brought us to his house — a large, roomy hut 



^ The ship's boat in which they usually went fishing. 



^ I don't mean the savage islanders of the story books, but the 

 Savage Islanders of the Admiralty Chart ; the place where they ran 

 at Captain Cook "like wild boars." — South Sea Bubbles. 



G 



