Part 9

We soon found the _moniap_ of the harem and sat down beside the King's mother. The women received us with fervent expressions of welcome and pleasure. We passed through several houses on our way, and in every one our attention was called to a "devil box" similar to one we bought from the medicine-man at Apemama, then the only one in the three islands. In the centre of the big _moniap_ was a circular piece of "devil work" with a ring of sacred white shells about it. Tin Jack followed after us, and we got him to act as interpreter. It seems they have been suffering here severely with measles, though there were only four deaths, two men and two women. Children escaped with slight attacks, but grown people were very ill, the King himself being at one time very near death. The first question put to us by the women was concerning Louis's health; then what had we done with our devil box? I fear that our accidental reconversion of Butaritari to Christianity[16] has been offset by our having inadvertently strengthened these Apemamans in their heathen superstitions. A sick foreigner comes, is cured by means of a devil box manipulated by a "dog-star" (doctor), and naturally he desires to possess an article so valuable, going so high in his offers for it as the worth of a ton of copra. The foreigner is a very clever and learned man. "He savee too much," they say. And when measles falls upon the land the first thought is the devil box, and a praying place for devil worship is erected in the very centre of their _moniap_. I wish I could find out if they really worship the spirit of evil or whether, having been enlightened by the missionaries, they have not given their god that name. If the latter, how much better to have accepted their god and shown them where they had mistaken his attributes? And that reminds me that when I heard the people with the scaly disease on the other islands erroneously called lepers I wondered if that could have been the leprosy of the Bible that was miraculously cured. The darkest people turn quite white when covered with the scales.

[16] Butaritari had lapsed into heathenism when we arrived there, but, by showing a magic lantern which included some Bible pictures among the slides, we quite unconsciously reconverted the whole island, King and all.

But to return to Tembinoka, the King. Louis, fortunately, was able to clear up the misunderstanding caused, no doubt, by a white man, though the King loyally refused to give the name. Louis proposed that the King should apologise for the insulting letter, at which his Majesty looked very black, indeed; but when Louis told him that under the same circumstances an English gentleman would certainly offer an apology, his countenance cleared, the apology was handsomely made and accepted, and so, all being well, the King proposed to go on board. We wished some of our party to be on the ship to break out the flag at the right moment, so hunted up our black boys who were filling bags with grass for the ship's sheep; Mr. Hird went off with them, and the rest of us begged permission to accompany the King, who invited us to ride out with him to his boat in the royal litter. I was told to get in first, then Lloyd, then Louis and Mr. Henderson together, and then his Majesty. The black boys passed us on the way with Mr. Hird, and afraid that the flag might be forgotten by some mischance, Mr. Henderson shouted: "Hird, elevate the royal bunting." That was because the King would have understood had he said: "Break the flag." The black boys put their elegant backs into it and were in time to send up the flag in fine style. Every one cried out in admiration; it could not have had a better setting than the "long, low, rakish black" steamer. The King, who steered his own boat, and was greatly pleased to learn that the Hawaiian King was a good sailor as well as himself, had been smiling on Louis, and Louis on him, in the most melting way. He now directed his attention to the flag, and there was no doubt but the sight gave him the keenest gratification. We came down to the cabin, where "champagne was opened," and then Mr. Henderson left Louis and me alone with the King.

The moment that Mr. Henderson was gone the apathy that in these islands "doth hedge in a king" broke down. The dear old man clasped Louis in one arm and me in the other and kissed us and wept over us for joy. He told us how, day after day, he looked through his glass out over the sea pretending to himself that he could see us coming back. Sometimes, he said, he deluded himself so far that he beheld our very faces. This day he had been looking out as usual and was not surprised when our boat came near; he had seen it all like that before in his day-dreams. Suddenly he recognised a particular dress I wore that he had given me. "Then I felt like this," he said, making a gasping sound of surprise and emotion--"O-o-oh!"--and pressing his hand on his breast with a dramatic gesture. Often, he said, he made an errand over to his taro pits that he might look upon the place where our houses had stood. "I too much sorry," he said; "I want see you."

The time came to say good-bye until the _Janet_ came back on her return voyage; the flag was hauled down and presented to the King, and he went off in his boat with a very depressed countenance.

Reuben is now called "the governor." As we were sitting at dinner some one said: "The anchor's coming up. There's a man at the port wants to speak to you, Mr. Stevenson." We all looked up, and there, grinning like an ape, was "Uncle Parker!" (Uncle Parker was a servant the King had lent us when we visited him before.) He thrust as much of himself through the port-hole as was possible, and we all climbed up and shook hands with him. He told us that there had been further trouble with the impudent cook, and in consequence the King had shot him. Louis gave Uncle Parker a magnificent gift of six sticks of tobacco. The King said he had sent us ten mats by Captain Reid. On this island is a house of refuge, an octagon to which criminals may run. I am told that the people have a system of palmistry.

_17th._--Maraki. We stopped at the wrong settlement, and, as men were seen on the beach, Mr. Henderson sent a boat for them in case they wished to go on with us to the other settlement. One was a stranger, the other an old friend known as the "passenger".[17] We heard his meagre news and he heard ours, and drank stout with Louis and Lloyd. It was pleasant to meet him again. He expects to be in Samoa in a twelvemonth. Left the silk dress, "blackee coat," and other presents with him to forward to Maka and the Nan Toks, and I gave a gold ring to the Hawaiian missionary for his wife. This missionary expects to return to Honolulu on the _Morning Star_ in company with Maka, so our presents will fall in at the right moment. Louis also sent one of his photographs to a young Hawaiian I met under peculiar circumstances when we were here before.[18] We stayed a very short time, and then, with several sails set, took our way toward Jaluit. A sheep and a pig struck attitudes and dared each other to fight--a comical sight. Both were delighted when the strained situation was broken by a chance passerby. The black boys are playing cards in the forecastle. Mr. Hird and Foo-foo (black boy) sang in the evening.

[17] We were forced to kidnap "the passenger," Paul Hoeflich, a very pleasant, agreeable German, when we were on the _Equator_. Mr. Hoeflich had taken passage on the schooner from Butaritari to another island, only a few miles distant, where he meant to start business as an independent trader. All his worldly goods, including the stuff for stocking his store, were on board the _Equator_. It was the beginning of the bad season, and we had continual contrary winds with heavy seas. In vain we cruised round and round his island--we could not make a landing. We were losing much time, so my husband informed Mr. Hoeflich that he must join us in a trip to Samoa, our next destination. It so fell out that Mr. Hoeflich, who had helped greatly to lighten the tedium of a long voyage in bad weather (we arrived at Apia in a somewhat wrecked condition, with one foretopmast gone), took an immense liking to Samoa and remained there instead of returning to the Gilberts. He has prospered exceedingly and blesses the day he was kidnapped. At this time, when we met him he had come back to the line islands for a final arrangement of his affairs preliminary to settling permanently in Samoa.

[18] As we neared the end of our walk we came into quite a large village. The aspect of the people was more savage and ugly than we had heretofore seen, the faces brutal and unintelligent. Half-grown children, and, indeed, some more than half-grown, were entirely naked. The young boys were like little old men, their faces hard and their eyes haggard and anxious. I saw one with St. Vitus's dance, several with hydrocephalus, and a number who had affections of the eyes. Many of the little girls had their heads entirely shaved, with the exception of a small tassel at the nape of the neck which gave a very curious effect. The older ones wore their hair bushed out to a great size. Almost all wore necklaces of braided hair with an oval bit of red or white shell hanging to it like a locket. One haughty, impudent, fat young fellow, evidently a beau, swaggered about with a white handkerchief, twisted most ingenuously into a crown, on his head. Almost all of the women wore a girdle of flat, round beads (made of cocoanut shells) above the _ridi_.

As we walked along the village street the whole population joined us. We stopped at the sight of a church neatly made of wattled cocoanut leaves bearing at the peak of its front gable a belfry of braided leaves. There was actually a bell in this belfry which looked as though a breath would disperse it. The floor of the church is covered with mats, which are renewed each new year. A very odd thing was an arrangement of strings which, inside of the building, crossed each other with a sort of pattern just above a tall man's height. All along these strings, at regular intervals, strips of bright-hued calico were tied--I thought in an attempt at ornamentation, but was told it was for a game of the children. I should like to see the game played. Indeed, I do not believe it to be a game. (We found afterward that these decorations were for the purpose of propitiating "chinch," a terrible evil spirit--the devil, in fact.) We asked for the missionary; a fine-looking young Hawaiian came up to us, saluting us with the pleasant "_Aloha!_" His house was our appointed place of meeting with the captain. The missionary, we were told, was in council with the "old men."

This island is a republic governed by the "old men." To arrive at the distinction of being an "old man," one must be either very rich or have performed some prodigy of valour in war time. Accompanied by the Hawaiian, we wandered along to the Council House. The missionary looked extremely like a mixture of native and Chinese--a large, imposing man with a long, thin, white moustache and thick, grey hair. As we sat outside in the circle surrounding the Council House, conversing with the Hawaiian, it occurred to me that I might buy one of the cocoanut beaded girdles worn by most of the women. The Hawaiian turned to one of them and asked what she would take for her girdle; a dollar was the answer; at that I handed a half dollar and two quarters to the young man who, saying that it was too much, gave me back half the money. "They sell them for two fish-hooks," he said, "and this is simply extortion; however, as she has seen the money she will do her best to get it, so you might as well give her the half dollar." The exchange was made, and after a moment's confabulation with a crowd of her neighbours the woman demanded the other half dollar. At this the Hawaiian asked for the piece of money she had, took it, and gave back the girdle. In an instant the whole place was in an uproar. Men bounded up with furious gestures; the old men in the Council House shouted with threatening yells, while the Hawaiian, leaping to his feet, his eyes flashing like a cat's in the dark, defied them all. Fearful that harm might come to him after we were gone, I begged him to let me give the people whatever they might ask for, but he would not hear of it, and matters were the worse for my offer, as the people evidently understood it had been made. Finally, leaving the crowd in a state of ferment, we walked away with the Hawaiian to his very pleasant house, he entertaining us on the way with a list of the laws made that day by the "old men." They were as follows: "Dancing, one dollar fine; concealed weapons, five dollars; murder, fifteen; stealing, twenty-five, and telling a lie, fifty dollars." Pretty soon the crowd began surging round us; there was more furious talk, the Hawaiian looking very fine as he walked toward the mass of people, shaking his fists and, I am bound to say, interlarding his language with English oaths. When he had forced the crowd back by, I really think, the fire of his eye, he laughed in their faces contemptuously and turned to me translating the meaning of the scene. The "old men" had made another law, against him, placing him under tapu so that he could neither trade nor be traded with. I felt very miserable at being the innocent cause of so much trouble. He said he did not care a rush and meant to leave the island anyway. He had married a native of Maraki, bringing her home to visit her people, with whom she had proposed they should stop, but now, he said, she was as eager to go as he was. When we left he presented us with a girdle that he had somehow got hold of and his wife gave me a young fowl. I, very fortunately, had a handsome wreath of flowers on my hat which I took off and gave the wife. It was amusing to watch the dandy of the village, the haughty and insolent fat young man who had been too languid to see us before, trying to keep all speculation out of his eyes when I passed over the wreath. He could not do it. The red imitation currants held his gaze like fish-hooks.

We sailed away quite gaily from Maraki, fell into a calm, and had to turn and come back again, so had yet another day, and all together four, before we really got away. All the time, more or less, we were overrun by the traders, who came to beg drink and buy and sell.

We have now seen the South Sea "bad man" of the story-books, Peter Grant. He always comes with "Little Peter," a kindly, simple lad who has been on the island since he was thirteen and speaks excellent English with the native tossing and eyebrow lifting. (Little Peter died from poisoning some years after; it was supposed to be a murder.) Peter Grant is the most hideous ruffian I have ever beheld. The skin of his face has the quality of a burn scar and is crossed with wrinkles in places where no other human being has wrinkles. His forehead is narrow and retreating, his eyes very light, with a strange scaly look, not a pair in size, colour, or movement, and set too close together in a large, gaunt face. His nose, hooked at the end until it almost touches his upper lip, is unusually bony and is bent over to the left as though from a blow. His coarse-lipped, stupid mouth is creased with slashes like cuts. One of his unpleasant peculiarities is what Louis calls "crow's-feet between the eyes."

The next to the last day at Maraki Lloyd and I went ashore with the captain, who had, as he said, "business to attend to" with a missionary. (The Hawaiian missionary who was to travel in the _Morning Star_ with our dear Maka of Butaritari.) I knew the business had something to do with a tapu put upon Peter Grant some six months ago, but that a concerted attack was to be made upon the old missionary I did not suspect or I should never have gone. We were met by my friend the young Hawaiian, who accompanied us to the missionaries' house. There the best seat was offered me, all being received with dignified hospitality as they dropped in, one horror after another. Little Peter was appointed interpreter. The missionary was charged, first, with having instigated the natives to tapu Peter Grant. It was supposed he denied this, but in reality he did not. Head and shoulders above the rest he sat, a fine, massive figure, with impenetrable Chinese eyes, master of the situation. I only noticed once any sign of perturbation in him; that was when the head of the "old men" was brought in to be questioned. The missionary made a quick attempt to put the old man on his guard, but was instantly checked by a trader, who leaped to his feet and shook his fist in the missionary's face, ordering him to be silent. The missionary smiled contemptuously, but a thick sweat gathered upon his face and neck, his hands trembled slightly, and his great chest rose and fell, slowly and heavily. Feeling that to gaze upon him was an indelicacy, though I was doing so in sympathy and admiration, I made a slight movement to turn away; as though he knew my thought, the missionary suddenly looked me in the eyes with a charming smile, fanned me a moment with a fan that lay beside him, then handed me the fan with a bow.

Fortunately, the attempt to warn the "old man" had been enough, for he seemed idiotic in his apparent endeavours to understand what was wanted of him. The charge against the missionary then changed to theft. He was said to have stolen a murdered man's property. In answer to that he said: "Then place the affair in the hands of either the first man-of-war that comes to the group or the _Morning Star_," which is daily expected. The traders all cried out with fury at the mention of the _Morning Star_, and, all speaking at once, charged him with instigating the natives to all sorts of evil when he should be setting them a good example. For the first time he retorted, saying that the missionaries came only to try to make the people better, and that the only difficulty was the wickedness of the white men. I am sorry to say that I got the impression that there was something in danger of being discovered which would have been to the disadvantage of the missionary, but not exactly what the traders were looking for. They were too stupid to see that, and were forced to come to a pause, having gained nothing. Both Lloyd and I had a distressed feeling that we might be confounded with their party in the mind of the missionary, but he reassured us with his eyes, and, pushing aside those in his way, shook hands with Lloyd and then with me. I held his hand and pressed it and said all that eyes and smile could manage.

As we went out of the house the missionary's wife made me a present of a fowl. The Hawaiian joined us as we passed his place and his wife ran out with another fowl. I had made up a little parcel for her, a red comb, a bead necklace, a bottle of fine scent, and a striped blue-and-white summer jersey, with a large silk handkerchief for her husband. The next day they, with their little daughter, came to pay us a visit on board, fetching with them three young fowls and a very fine, beautiful mat of a pattern I had not seen before. Louis was greatly pleased with my friends and promised to send the man his photograph. When he said good-bye, to our surprise he asked for Louis's card, which was a piece of civilisation we were not prepared for. We have touched at no island where there has not been at least one person we were sorry to leave and should be glad to meet again, though this was the only place where these friends were foreign to the land.

* * * * *

_18th._--Very hot weather. Our sails are still up, and one of the boats hanging over the side has its sail also set. It looks very odd.

_19th._--Jaluit, the German seat of government for the Marshalls. We could see the commissioner's house, painted a terra-cotta red, looking very pretty under the green trees. Went on shore, a blazing hot day. We were all dressed up for the occasion, Louis with his best trousers, yellow silk socks of a very odd shape, knitted by his mother for a parting present, dirty white canvas shoes, and a white linen coat from the trade room that could not be buttoned because of its curious fit. It was hoped, however, that a gold watch and chain might cover all deficiencies. I wore a blue linen native dress, entirely concealed by a long black lace cloak, and on my head a black turban with a spotted veil. Our feet were certainly the weak point, my stockings being red and my shoes cut in ribbons by the coral. Not having gloves, I put on all my rings which flashed bravely in the sun. On board ship our appearance caused a decided sensation and was considered most respectable, and reflecting great credit on the _Janet_. The commissioner received us at his door, offered us wine, and while we were drinking it in came Captain Brandeis,[19] a slender, sallow man with a small head and the most extraordinary eyes of glittering blackness which seemed to shrink from meeting one's gaze and yet to challenge it with a nervous defiance. He was pale, and I thought he was prepared for an unpleasant meeting with Louis; that wore off very quickly, and the two were soon deep in conversation, I talking twaddle with the commissioner that Louis might have the captain alone. Louis is fascinated by the captain and I do not wonder; but his eye is too wild, he is too nervous, and his nose is not to be depended on--a weak and emotional nose. A man, I should say, capable of the most heroic deeds, sometimes preternaturally wise, and sometimes proportionately foolish; a born adventurer, but never a successful one.

[19] A political refugee from Samoa.

The commissioner showed me the "garden," an acre or so of high-island plants grown in foreign soil brought in vessels. The commissioner's room was decorated with trophies of native arms, armour, etc. He promised to have a native sailing chart made for Louis. These charts are very curious things, indeed, made of sticks, some curved, some straight, caught here and there by a small yellow cowry. The cowries represent islands, the sticks both currents and winds and days' sailing. The distances between the islands have nothing to do with miles, but with hours only. These charts are very little used now, only one old chief knowing how to make them, but the time was when each young chief must pass his examination in the charts, knowing them by heart, as they were never taken to sea but kept at home for reference and continual study. We lunched with the commissioner and, the steam-whistle calling us soon after, we went on board to start immediately for Majuro.

_20th._--At Majuro early in the morning, a pearl of atolls. The lagoon, large and round, but not so large that we cannot distinctly follow the coastline. At the entrance it is broken into the most enchanting small islets, all very green and soft, the lagoon clear and in colour like a chrysoprase. Mr. Henderson offered us a little house on the windward side, so we took our mats and blankets and a lantern with us in the boat. The house was the old "lookout" consisting of a single room with latticework running along two sides of the wall under the roof; this lattice served for windows. The door had a padlock so we could lock it as we came and went.