peated. And indeed in our case the mouth had
the most to do with it, and it was by our talk that we gained admission
to the island; the king promising himself (and I believe really
amassing) a vast amount of useful knowledge ere we left.

The terms of our admission were as follows: We were to choose a site,
and the king should there build us a town. His people should work for
us, but the king only was to give them orders. One of his cooks should
come daily to help mine, and to learn of him. In case our stores ran
out, he would supply us, and be repaid on the return of the _Equator_.
On the other hand, he was to come to meals with us when so inclined;
when he stayed at home, a dish was to be sent him from our table; and I
solemnly engaged to give his subjects no liquor or money (both of which
they are forbidden to possess) and no tobacco, which they were to
receive only from the royal hand. I think I remember to have protested
against the stringency of this last article; at least, it was relaxed,
and when a man worked for me I was allowed to give him a pipe of tobacco
on the premises, but none to take away.

The site of Equator City--we named our city for the schooner--was soon
chosen. The immediate shores of the lagoon are windy and blinding;
Tembinok' himself is glad to grope blue-spectacled on his terrace; and
we fled the neighbourhood of the red _conjunctiva_, the suppurating
eyeball, and the beggar who pursues and beseeches the passing foreigner
for eyewash. Behind the town the country is diversified; here open,
sandy, uneven, and dotted with dwarfish palms; here cut up with taro
trenches, deep and shallow, and, according to the growth of the plants,
presenting now the appearance of a sandy tannery, now of an alleyed and
green garden. A path leads towards the sea, mounting abruptly to the
main level of the island--twenty or even thirty feet, although Findlay
gives five; and just hard by the top of the rise, where the coco-palms
begin to be well grown, we found a grove of pandanus, and a piece of
soil pleasantly covered with green underbush. A well was not far off
under a rustic well-house; nearer still, in a sandy cup of the land, a
pond where we might wash our clothes. The place was out of the wind, out
of the sun, and out of sight of the village. It was shown to the king,
and the town promised for the morrow.

The morrow came. Mr. Osbourne landed, found nothing done, and carried
his complaint to Tembinok'. He he