332 
Wild Lije in Southern Seas. 
the Tahiti people was like to that of the 
dwellers on Hao. This ship had spent many 
days at Tahiti, and, when she came to Hao, 
was sailing to the eastward, back to the white 
men’s country. 1 
For many months during the time that the 
Hao people remained on Vahitahi, they spoke 
of the strange things told them of the doings 
and customs of the white men, who had 
brought a new God to Tahiti ; and the people 
of Vahitahi, as they listened, wondered and 
wished to see white men and their ships. 
Some there were of us—old men and women— 
who said that in their childhood’s days a great 
sailing canoe without an outrigger had passed 
by Vahitahi, and her masts pierced the clouds, 
but no one of the people dared to launch a 
canoe and venture out to look closely, and 
they were pleased to see the ship sail away 
beyond the sea-rim. 
So the years passed on, and the canoe from 
Hao and the tale her people had told had 
1 This was undoubtedly one of the two returning ships 
of a Spanish colonising expedition which had been 
despatched from Peru to Tahiti by the then Viceroy, 
prior to Cook’s time. 
