Niue. 
281 
There is no barrier reef to Savage Island, 
and consequently no harbours. Anchorages 
there are—one at Avatele and one at Alofi, 
the two largest towns—but even these are only 
available during good weather, and when the 
trades are steady. Many a good ship has 
met her fate on the cruel shore of Niue, and 
among them was the second John Williams , 
missionary ship of the London Missionary 
Society ; she was wrecked there in 1867. And 
long, long before the first wandering white man 
ever landed on the island, unknown ships had 
run ashore there, and never a soul was left to 
tell the tale ; for in those days even had the 
sea spared the lives of the castaways, the spears 
and clubs of the ferocious natives would have 
made quick work of them. And even nowa¬ 
days, when every native on the island is 
a decided Christian, and goes to church twice 
a day on week-days and four times on the 
Sabbath, they candidly admit that they do not 
like white people, and only tolerate their 
presence for benefits derivable from intercourse 
with them. 
Though the island is but forty miles in 
circumference, there are over five thousand 
