de Janiero over 10,000 miles and had only
sighted a single sail--a longer journey than any ship had ever sailed
without seeing land.

"Shall we see the island to-day?" the boys on board would ask Captain
Wilson. Day after day he shook his head. But one night he said:

"If the wind holds good to-night we shall see an island in the
morning, but not the island where we shall stop."

"Land ho!" shouted a sailor from the masthead in the morning, and,
sure enough, they saw away on the horizon, like a cloud on the edge of
the sea, the island of Toobonai.[12]

As they passed Toobonai the wind rose and howled through the rigging.
It tore at the sail of _The Duff,_ and the great Pacific waves rolled
swiftly by, rushing and hissing along the sides of the little ship and
tossing her on their foaming crests. But she weathered the storm, and,
as the wind dropped, and they looked ahead, they saw, cutting into the
sky-line, the mountain tops of Tahiti.

It was Saturday night when the island came in sight. Early on the
Sunday morning by seven o'clock _The Duff_ swung round under a gentle
breeze into Matavai[13] Bay and dropped anchor. But before she could
even anchor the whole bay had become alive with Tahitians. They
thronged the beach, and, leaping into canoes, sent them skimming
across the bay to the ship.

Captain Wilson, scanning the canoes swiftly and anxiously, saw with
relief that the men were not armed. But the missionaries were startled
when the savages climbed up the sides of the ship, and with wondering
eyes rolling in their wild heads peered over the rail of the deck.
They then leapt on board and began dancing like mad on the deck with
their bare feet. From the canoes the Tahitians hauled up pigs, fowl,
fish, bananas, and held them for the white men to buy. But Captain
Wilson and all his company would not buy on that day--for it was
Sunday.

The missionaries gathered together on deck to hold their Sunday
morning service. The Tahitians stopped dancing and looked on with
amazement, as the company of white men with their children knelt to
pray and then read from the Bible.

The Tahitians could not understand this strange worship, with no
god that could be seen. But when the white fathers and mothers and
children sang, the savages stood around with wonder and delight on
their faces as they listened to the strange and beautiful sounds.

But the startling events of the day were not over. For out from the
beach came a