ingelap, and here all the people lived. The island
itself is not more than two miles in length, and in no place is it
more than a quarter of a mile in width; and Tugulu and Takai are still
smaller. And from one end to the other the islands are covered with a
dense verdure of cocoanut palms, with scarcely any other tree amongst
them, so that when seen from the ship two or three miles away, they
look exactly like a belt of emerald surrounding a lake of silver, for
in their centre is a beautiful lagoon surrounded on three sides by the
land, and on the west protected from the sweeping ocean rollers by a
double line of coral reef stretching from little Takai to the south end
of Pingelap.

There are hundreds of beautiful islands in the Pacific, but not any
one of them can excel in beauty lonely little Pingelap. There are two
reefs--an outer and an inner. Against the outer or ocean reef huge
seas for ever dash unceasingly on the windward side of the island, and
sometimes, in bad weather, will sweep right over the coral and pour
through the shallow channel between Tugulu and Pingelap; and then the
calm, placid waters of the lagoon will be fretted and disturbed until
fine weather comes again. But bad weather is a rare event in those seas,
and usually the lagoon of Pingelap is as smooth as a sheet of glass.
And all day long you may see children paddling about in canoes, crossing
from one shining beach to another, and singing as they paddle, for they
are a merry-hearted race, the people of these three islands, and love to
sing and dance, and sit out in front of their houses on moonlight nights
and listen to tales told by the old men of the days when their islands
were reddened with blood. For until fifteen years before, the people
of Pingelap and Tugulu were at bitter enmity, and fought with and
slaughtered each other to their heart's delight. And perhaps there would
have soon been none left to tell the tale, but that one day an American
whaleship, called the _Cohasset_ touched there to buy turtle from
Sralik, the chief of Pingelap, and Sralik besought the captain to give
him muskets and powder and ball to fight the Tugulans with.

So the captain gave him five muskets and plenty of powder and bullets,
and then said--

"See, Sralik; I will give you a white man too, to show you how to shoot
your enemies."

And then he laughed, and calling out to a man named Harry, he told him
to clear out of the ship and go and live ashore and b