486 MYSTIC ISLES 



roots, which were exchanged for nails and beads." 

 From the very pool into which I dived Cook's hearties 

 filled their casks with fresh water, after shooting "two 

 muskets and a great gun along the shore to intimidate 

 the Indians who were obstinate." 



Cook, on his third voyage to Tahiti, found here a 

 larffe wooden cross on which was inscribed in Latin: 



'to' 



Christ conquered 

 Charles the Third Emperor 

 1774 



It was plain that Spaniards had erected the cross, for 

 Charles III was King of Spain. These Enghsh tars 

 hated the dons, with whom they had but recently been 

 embattled. When they were convinced that a Spanish 

 ship had been at Tautira twice since they had departed, 

 and that the builders of the cross had earned the respect 

 and affection of the natives, the Britons, in their old way 

 of fair and assertive dealing, left the cross standing after 

 carving on the reverse in good Latin as a claim of pre- 

 discovery: 



George III King 

 1767, 1769', 1773, 1774, 1777. 



Two Spanish priests, they learned, had lived in the 

 village between the arrival and return of the Spanish 

 ships from Peru. They left no imprint of their Catho- 

 lic religion except the cross and a memory of kindness; 

 and why they resigned their mission to Tahiti is not 

 known. The British missionaries did not come until 

 1797, on the Dujf. They planted gardens and worked 

 diligently and prayed. They had vast patience, and 



