were taking out its contents," he explained. "He was
much mystified by the books and anxious to know of what use they were.
When I explained he asked me to teach him to read, and so I worked with
him whenever I could. He is very intelligent and learns quickly.
Before I left he had made great progress, and as soon as he is
qualified he is going to teach others to read. It was mighty hard work
getting started, though, for everything had to be translated into
Pellucidarian.

"It will take a long time to solve this problem, but I think that by
teaching a number of them to read and write English we shall then be
able more quickly to give them a written language of their own."

And this was the nucleus about which we were to build our great system
of schools and colleges--this almost naked red warrior, sitting in
Perry's little cabin upon the island of Anoroc, picking out words
letter by letter from a work on intensive farming. Now we have--

But I'll get to all that before I finish.

While we were at Anoroc I accompanied Ja in an expedition to South
Island, the southernmost of the three largest which form the Anoroc
group--Perry had given it its name--where we made peace with the tribe
there that had for long been hostile toward Ja. They were now glad
enough to make friends with him and come into the federation. From
there we sailed with sixty-five feluccas for distant Luana, the main
island of the group where dwell the hereditary enemies of Anoroc.

Twenty-five of the feluccas were of a new and larger type than those
with which Ja and Perry had sailed on the occasion when they chanced to
find and rescue Dian and me. They were longer, carried much larger
sails, and were considerably swifter. Each carried four guns instead
of two, and these were so arranged that one or more of them could be
brought into action no matter where the enemy lay.

The Luana group lies just beyond the range of vision from the mainland.
The largest island of it alone is visible from Anoroc; but when we
neared it we found that it comprised many beautiful islands, and that
they were thickly populated. The Luanians had not, of course, been
ignorant of all that had been going on in the domains of their nearest
and dearest enemies. They knew of our feluccas and our guns, for
several of their riding-parties had had a taste of both. But their
principal chief, an old man, had never seen either. So, when he
sighted us, he put out to overwhel