considered a great stroke of legislative
reform!

It was the fashion of the native visitors to the _Spray_ to come over
the bows, where they could reach the head-gear and climb aboard with
ease, and on going ashore to jump off the stern and swim away; nothing
could have been more delightfully simple. The modest natives wore
_lava-lava_ bathing-dresses, a native cloth from the bark of the
mulberry-tree, and they did no harm to the _Spray_. In summer-land
Samoa their coming and going was only a merry every-day scene. One
day the head teachers of Papauta College, Miss Schultze and Miss
Moore, came on board with their ninety-seven young women students.
They were all dressed in white, and each wore a red rose, and of
course came in boats or canoes in the cold-climate style. A merrier
bevy of girls it would be difficult to find. As soon as they got on
deck, by request of one of the teachers, they sang "The Watch on the
Rhine," which I had never heard before. "And now," said they all,
"let's up anchor and away." But I had no inclination to sail from
Samoa so soon. On leaving the _Spray_ these accomplished young women
each seized a palm-branch or paddle, or whatever else would serve the
purpose, and literally paddled her own canoe. Each could have swum as
readily, and would have done so, I dare say, had it not been for the
holiday muslin.

It was not uncommon at Apia to see a young woman swimming alongside a
small canoe with a passenger for the _Spray_. Mr. Trood, an old Eton
boy, came in this manner to see me, and he exclaimed, "Was ever king
ferried in such state?" Then, suiting his action to the sentiment, he
gave the damsel pieces of silver till the natives watching on shore
yelled with envy. My own canoe, a small dugout, one day when it had
rolled over with me, was seized by a party of fair bathers, and before
I could get my breath, almost, was towed around and around the
_Spray_, while I sat in the bottom of it, wondering what they would do
next. But in this case there were six of them, three on a side, and I
could not help myself. One of the sprites, I remember, was a young
English lady, who made more sport of it than any of the others.

CHAPTER XIII

Samoan royalty--King Malietoa--Good-by to friends at Vailima--Leaving
Fiji to the south--Arrival at Newcastle, Australia--The yachts of
Sydney--A ducking on the _Spray_--Commodore Foy presents the sloop
with a new suit of sails--On to Melbourne--A shark that