The stories of some of the deeds they have done
and are to-day doing, we shall read in later chapters in this book.
Book Two: THE ISLAND ADVENTURERS
CHAPTER V
THE ADVENTUROUS SHIP
_The Duff_
(Date of Incident, 1796)
A ship crept quietly down the River Thames on an ebb-tide. She was
slipping out from the river into the estuary when suddenly a challenge
rang out across the grey water.
"What ship is that?"
"_The Duff_," was the answer that came back from the little ship whose
captain had passed through a hundred hairsbreadth escapes in his life
but was now starting on the strangest adventure of them all.
"Whither bound?" came the challenge again from the man-o'-war that had
hailed them.
"Otaheite," came the answer, which would startle the Government
officer. For Tahiti[11] (as we now call it) was many thousands of
miles away in the heart of the South Pacific Ocean. Indeed it had only
been discovered by Captain Cook twenty-eight years earlier in 1768.
_The Duff_ was a small sailing-ship such as one of our American ocean
liners of to-day could put into her dining saloon.
"What cargo?" The question came again from the officer on the
man-o'-war.
"Missionaries and provisions," was Captain Wilson's answer.
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