, pulling to and fro on their mission of
collecting coco-nuts. These, as soon as the boats touched the stone
wharf he had built on the west side of the sea-wall, were carried up to
the "Plaza" of the town, where they were quickly husked by women, who
threw them to others to break open and scrape the white flesh into a
pulp. This was then placed in slanting troughs to rot and let the oil
percolate down into casks placed at the lower end. On the other side of
the "plaza" were the forge, carpenter's shop, and boat-builder's sheds,
all of which bustled with activity, especially when the dreaded eye
of the captain looked over toward them. Two hundred yards away was the
Kusaiean village of Utwe, a collection of about twenty handsomely built
houses, and all day long the pale olive-faced Kusaiean men and women
would sit gazing in wondering fear at the fierce Pleasant Island women,
who, clothed in short girdles of grass called "aireere," sang a savage
chant as they husked the nuts. In front of Hayes's house was hung the
_Leonora's_ bell, and at noon and at six in the evening, when it
was struck, the whole of the people who toiled at the oil-making and
boat-building would hurry away with loud clamour for their meals. It
was a truly exciting scene to witness, and were it not for the continual
drunkenness of most of the white traders, who could be seen staggering
about the "plaza" almost at any time, a pleasant one.

After a while, however, Hayes and the white traders began to quarrel,
and dreadful bloodshed would have followed; for the Pleasant Islanders,
who were all devotedly attached to their white masters and were all
armed with Snider rifles and cutlasses, were eager for their white men
to make an assault upon Hayes and the crew of the _Leonora_. One night
they gathered in front of their houses and danced a war-dance, but their
white leaders discreetly kept in the background when Hayes appeared
coming over toward them. He walked through the throng of natives, and in
a very few minutes, although he was unarmed, picked out the biggest man
of the lot and gave him a bad mauling about in the presence of every one
in the village. One of the traders, a young American of thirty or
so, named "Harry," at once declared that he was not going back on
the captain, and would stand by him to the last, whereupon the others
sullenly withdrew to their respective houses, and the trouble ended for
the time.

This "Harry" was formerly a boat stee