AN ENAMORED QUEEN. 



443 



nails of their own, had drawn all the stout hammock-pins, and 

 had ripped out the belaying cleats. Every artifice was prac- 

 tised to discover the thieves, but without success. 



On the 11th of July, a tall woman of pleasing countenance and 

 majestic deportment came on board. She proved to be Oberea, 

 sovereign of the island. She seemed quite fascinated by Wallis, 

 who was recovering from a severe illness, and invited him to go 

 on shore and perfect his convalescence. He accepted the in- 

 vitation, and the next day called upon her at her residence,— an 

 immense thatched roof raised upon pillars. She ordered four 

 young girls to take off his shoes and stockings and gently chafe 

 his skin with their hands. While they were doing this, the 

 English surgeon who accompanied Wallis took off his wig to 

 cool himself. Every eye was at once fixed upon this prodigy 

 of nature. The whole assembly stood motionless in silent as- 

 tonishment. They would not have been more amazed, says 

 Wallis, had they discovered that the surgeon's limbs had been 

 screwed on to the trunk. Oberea accompanied Wallis on his 

 way back to the shore, and whenever they came to a little 

 puddle of water she lifted him over it. 



It was now discovered that one Francis Pinckney, a seaman, 

 had drawn the cleats to which the main-sheet was belayed, and 

 had then removed and bargained away the spikes. Wallis called 

 the men together, explained the heinousncss of the offence, 

 and ordered Pinckney to be whipped with nettles while he ran 

 the gauntlet three times round the deck. To prevent the ship 

 from being pulled to pieces and the price of provisions from 

 being disproportionately raised, he directed that no man should 

 go ashore except the wooders and waterers. 



Oberea now became romantic and tender. She tied wreaths 

 of plaited hair around Wallis' hat, giving him to understand 

 that both the hair and workmanship were her own. She made 

 him presents of baskets of cocoanuts, and of sows big with 

 young. She said he must stay twenty days more ; and, when 



