The
natives rushed into the water, seized the boat and hauled her aground
out of reach of the great waves.
They were startled to see the king and queen come riding on the
shoulders of men. Even when one bearer grew tired and the king or
the queen must get upon another, they were not allowed to touch the
ground. The reason was that all the land they touched became their
own, and the people carried them about so that they themselves might
not lose their land and houses by the king and queen touching them.
So at that place, under the palm trees of Tahiti, with the beating
of the surf on the shore before them, and the great mountain forests
behind, these brown islanders of the South Seas gave a part of their
land to Captain Wilson and his men that they might live there.
The sons of the wild men of the North Sea Islands had met their first
great adventure in bringing to the men of the South Sea Islands the
story of the love of the Father of all.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 11: Ta-hee-tee.]
[Footnote 12: Too-b[=o]-n[=a]-ee.]
[Footnote 13: M[=a]-t[)a]-v[)a]-ee.]
[Footnote 14: Haa-m[)u]-n[=a]y-m[)a]-nay.]
[Footnote 15: Ta-ce-[=o].]
CHAPTER VI
THE ISLAND BEACON FIRES
_Papeiha_[16]
(Date of Incident, 1823)
The edge of the sea was just beginning to gleam with the gold of the
rising sun.
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