canoe across the bay, and in it two Swedish sailors,
named, like some fishermen of long ago, Peter and Andrew. These
white men knew some English, but lived, not as Christians, but as the
natives lived.

And after them came a great and aged chief named Haamanemane.[14] This
great chief went up to the "chief" of the ship, Captain Wilson, and
called out to him "Taio."[15]

They did not know what this meant, till Peter the Swede explained
that Haamanemane wished to be the brother--the troth-friend of Captain
Wilson. They were even to change names. Captain Wilson would be called
Haamanemane, and Haamanemane would be called Wilson.

So Captain Wilson said "Taio," and he and the chief, who was also high
priest of the gods of Tahiti, were brothers.

Captain Wilson said to Haamanemane, through Peter, who translated each
to the other:

"We wish to come and live in this island."

Haamanemane said that he would speak to the king and queen of Tahiti
about it. So he got down again over the side of the vessel into the
canoe, and the paddles of his boatman flashed as they swept along over
the breakers to the beach to tell the king of the great white chief
who had come to visit them.

All these things happened on the Sunday. On Tuesday word came that the
king and the queen would receive them. So Captain Wilson and all his
missionaries got into the whale-boat and pulled for the shore. The
natives rushed into the water, seized the boat and hauled her aground
out of reach of the great waves.

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