erest. This perplexed him, but, supposing that it must result from
suspicion of his integrity, he took no notice of it, save that he became
more resolute than ever in reference to "honour bright!" Big Chief also
came to look on and wonder, but, although he kept a sharp eye on his
slave, he did not seem to desire intercourse with him.

When the bellows were finished, it was found that they did not work
properly. The upper box did not fill well, and, when tried, they were
not satisfied with blowing wind out, but insisted on drawing fire in!
They were, in short, a failure! Deep were the ponderings of the
missionary as to how this was to be remedied, and small was the light
thrown on the subject by the various encyclopaedias and other books
which he possessed; but the question was somewhat abruptly settled for
him by the rats. These creatures devoured all the leather of the
bellows in a single night, and left nothing but the bare boards!

Rats were an absolute plague at that time at Raratonga. Mr Williams
tells us, in his interesting "Narrative," that he and his family never
sat down to a meal without having two or more persons stationed to keep
them off the table. When kneeling at family prayer, they would run over
them in all directions, and it was found difficult to keep them out of
the beds. On one occasion, when the servant was making one of the beds,
she uttered a scream, and, on rushing into the room, Mr Williams found
that four rats had crept under the pillow and made themselves snug
there. They paid for their impudence, however, with their lives. On
another occasion, a pair of English shoes, which had not been put in the
usual place of safety, were totally devoured in a night, and the same
fate befell the covering of a hair-trunk. No wonder, then, that they
did not spare the bellows!

Poor Jarwin sorrowed over this loss fully as much as did the missionary,
but he was forced to conceal his grief.

Still bent on discovering some method of "raising the wind," Mr
Williams appealed to his inventive powers. He considered that if a pump
threw water, there was no reason why it should not throw wind.
Impressed with this belief, he set to work and made a box about eighteen
or twenty inches square and four feet high, with a valve in the bottom
to let air in, a hole in the front to let it out, and a sort of piston
to force it through the hole. By means of a long lever the piston could
be raised, and by heavy we