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.  The captain of a little ship, that tossed and rolled on the tumbling ocean, looked out anxiously over the bow.  Around him everywhere was the wild waste of the Pacific Ocean.  Through day after day he had tacked and veered, baffled by contrary winds.  Now, with little food left in the ship, starvation on the open ocean stared them in the face.

They were searching for an island of which they had heard, but which they had never seen.

The captain searched the horizon again, but he saw nothing, except that ahead of him, on the sky-line to the S.W., great clouds had gathered.  He turned round and went to the master-missionary—­the hero and explorer and shipbuilder, John Williams, saying: 

“We must give up the search or we shall all be starved.”

John Williams knew that this was true; yet he hated the thought of going back.  He was a scout exploring at the head of God’s navy.  He had left his home in London and with his young wife had sailed across the world to the South Seas to carry the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people there.  He was living on the island of Raiatea:  but as he himself said, “I cannot be confined within the limits of a single reef.”  He wanted to pass on the torch to other islands.  So he was now on this voyage of discovery.

It was seven o’clock when the captain told John Williams that they must give up the search.

“In an hour’s time,” said Williams, “we will turn back if we have not sighted Rarotonga.”

So they sailed on.  The sun climbed the sky, the cool dawn was giving way to the heat of day.