t Kusaie,
where they were at that moment causing old King Togusa a terrible amount
of trouble by their wild and insolent demeanour. Their leader was a
white-haired old ex-man-of-war's man, named Harry Terry. He was the
doyen of the hardy, adventurous class among whom he had lived for over
fifty years, and though exceedingly fond of square gin, was a thoroughly
decent old fellow, and tried to restrain his own and his comrades'
native followers as much as possible. Harry, when he came on board,
was accompanied by about half a dozen other white men, all armed with
revolvers, and all half-seas over. After a brief consultation with
Hayes, they agreed to pay him a thousand dollars to take them and their
belongings to Eniwetok (or Brown's Range) and Arrecifos (Providence
Island) two large atolls situated about 10 degrees North. Both of these
places were very thinly populated, and Arrecifos was Hayes's secret
rendezvous in the North Pacific. His was the first ship that had ever
sailed into its lagoon, and the vast groves of coco-nuts that clothed
the low-lying island had decided him to return there at some future time
with native labourers and turn the coco-nuts into oil. The traders were
highly delighted at the prospect of securing homes in two such places
to themselves, and agreed to sell Hayes all the oil they produced during
the next five years, and give him one barrel out of every five as
a tribute of recognition of his ownership of Providence Island and
Eniwetok.

On the following day the whole lot came on board, and we left Lele
Harbour to proceed down the coast to a little harbour named Utwe, where
Hayes intended to water the ship and buy fresh provisions for the voyage
to Providence Island. Just before we sailed, the King and Queen--the
latter a very pretty and charming little woman about five-and-twenty
years of age--came on board to make some purchases from my trade-room,
and I had the distinguished honour of fitting on and selling to Queen Se
a yellow silk blouse and two pairs of patent leather shoes. His Majesty,
who was a curious combination of piety and inborn wickedness, and spoke
whaler's English with great facility, bought about 200 dollar's worth of
prints and cutlery, and then proceeded to get drunk. He said that he was
very glad the _Leonora_ was taking all the white men away from Kusaie,
as he was afraid of their Pleasant Island retinue killing him and all
his people, and taking possession of the island.