of their stay here,
when we come to explore the island more thoroughly."

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

ABOUT TEWA.

A DULL CHAPTER, BUT NECESSARY--WAKATTA AND ATOLLO--A GENTLE HINT--MAX AS
AN ARCHITECT.

"In the forest hollow roaring,
Hark! I hear a deepening sound,
Clouds rise thick with heavy lowering,
See! the horizon blackens round."

It must not be inferred from the occasional bursts of holiday humour, in
which we indulged, that we had become reconciled to our exile, and were
now ready to subside into a state of indolent contentment satisfied with
security from present danger, and the abundant means of subsistence
which we had discovered.

Not even a tropical paradise, with its warm, glowing sky and balmy
atmosphere, its "ambrosial fruits and amaranthine flowers," could charm
us into oblivion of home, and those who made it dear; or diminish the
bitterness of the thought of being cut off for ever from human
intercourse, and of having all our plans of life deranged and
frustrated. Though we did not brood continually over our unfortunate
situation, we were far from being insensible to it. The loveliest
island that ever reposed in undiscovered beauty, upon the bosom of the
"blue summer ocean," though rich in all things necessary to supply every
material want, must still have seemed to us but as a gilded and
luxurious prison, from which we should never cease to sigh for an
escape.

Arthur's conclusion, mentioned at the end of the last chapter, seemed in
itself so probable, and was confirmed by so many circumstances, that it
was readily adopted by us all; and believing that the party, of whose
presence at one time upon the island the hat was an evidence, had left
it years ago, the occurrence no longer appeared to possess any
importance, and we dismissed it altogether from our thoughts.

Eiulo, when questioned on the subject of the white men living among his
own people, repeated substantially his former statement, that they came
from an island lying south of his father's, and distant from it less
than a day's sail. It seemed, also, that before the arrival of the
whites, an island lying in the direction from which they had come, had
been known to some, at least, of the natives, and visited by them. In
the course of the conversations which he had with Arthur, at various
times, about his father's people and their affairs, Eiulo had often
spoken of an old warrior, Wakatta by name, famous for his courage and