250 
Wild Life in Southern Seas. 
any of his people who accepted Christianity 
would have his life cut short. And, as Apinoka 
was ever a man of his word, the people of 
Apamama obeyed. 
A hundred yards from the white beach that 
faced the inner and eastward side of the lagoon 
he built his state house, a cool, airy building of 
semi-European design and construction, and 
here he sat day after day, surrounded by his 
Danites—grim, black-haired, and truculent— 
dictating his commands to his American secre¬ 
tary and another white, his interpreter and chief 
cook, Johnny Rosier. All round the spacious 
front room were boxes and cases of all sorts and 
descriptions of island trade and merchandise— 
tins of biscuits, kegs of beef, cases of gin, sar¬ 
dines, salmon, and piles of old-fashioned muskets 
and modern rifles. 
But although he kept a white secretary and 
interpreter, the King did not like white men. 
He had once bought a schooner, and although 
he engaged a white captain and mate, and paid 
them liberally, he treated them otherwise with 
scarcely disguised contempt. They were neces¬ 
sary to him— that was all ; and at any moment 
his dark, heavy face might put on a dangerous 
