i.'

And he went, without losing an hour, for a cattle-boat was sailing that
very day for the island of the outcasts.

* * * * *

Every Monday a small steamer left Honolulu for Molokai, bearing any
fresh cases of leprosy that had broken out since the departure of the
last boat. On the shore were the friends and relations of the doomed
passengers, weeping tears as bitter as those of the Athenians in the old
story, when the ship each ninth year left the port with the cargo of
youths and maidens for the Minotaur. Molokai was only seven hours
distance from Hawaii, and on the north side, where the two leper
villages lie situated, are high precipices guarded by a rough sea.
Inland there are dense groves of trees, huge tree-ferns, and thick
matted creepers. Here brilliant-plumaged birds have their home, while
about the cliffs fly the long-tailed white bo'sun birds; but as a whole
Molokai cannot compare in beauty with the islands which Father Damien
had left behind him.

A hospital had been built for the worst cases, and when Father Damien
arrived it was quite full. He at once went to see the poor people and
did all he could to relieve them a little; and when that was impossible,
he sat by their bedsides, speaking to them of the new life they were
soon to enjoy, and often he dug their graves, if nobody else could be
found to do so. The rest of the lepers had taken fright, and had built
themselves wretched houses, or, rather, sheds, of branches of the
castor-oil trees, bound together with leaves of sugar-cane or with
coarse grass. They passed their time in playing cards, dancing, and
drinking, and very rarely took the trouble to wash either themselves or
their clothes. But this was not altogether their fault. Molokai, unlike
many of the other islands, was very badly off for water, and the lepers
had to carry from some distance all that they used. Under these
circumstances it was perhaps natural that they should use as little as
possible.

Such was the state of things when Father Damien reached Molokai, and in
spite of his own efforts, aided sometimes by a few of the stronger and
more good-natured of the lepers, such it remained for many months. The
poor creatures seem to have grown indifferent to their miseries, or only
tried to forget them by getting drunk. Happily the end was at hand; for
when a violent gale had blown down all their huts it was plain, even to
them, that something must be do