availing, took a few trinkets in his hand, and springing overboard,
swam through the surf to the shore. The personage in the tiputa waited
to receive him, continuing to wave the green branch, and to make
amicable signs. Rokoa advanced, and greeted him in the Tahitian
fashion, by rubbing faces. The two then walked together to the skirts
of the wood, where the others still kept themselves, and Rokoa after
distributing his trinkets, came down to the beach again, and beckoned us
to come ashore, supposing that our crew might by this time be so far
reassured as to venture it. Sinbad was about to remonstrate again, when
Barton drew a pocket-pistol, with a pair of which he was provided, and
threatened to shoot him, unless he kept quiet. This effectually
silenced the croakings of the Hao-man, for the time at least and we
finally induced some of the others to take to the paddles, and push
through the surf to the spot where Rokoa awaited us. As soon as the
canoe was beached, and we were all fairly ashore, the natives came
forward, somewhat hastily, from the skirt of the wood, probably in the
expectation of receiving further presents; but our men, mistaking this
sudden advance for a hostile movement, laid hold of the canoe, and would
have put her into the water again, had not Rokoa, armed with a heavy
paddle, and backed by Barton with his pistols, interfered with so much
decision and vigour, that their fears began to take a new direction and
they came to the sensible conclusion, that they had better run the risk
of being roasted and eaten by the cannibals, than encounter the far more
immediate danger of having their heads broken by the club of their
chief, or their bodies bored through by the pistol-balls of the young
Papalangi.

"On the other hand, the leader of the party of natives spoke to them,
and restrained their impatience; then, advancing before the rest, he
waved his hand, and throwing himself into an oratorical attitude, made a
little speech, thanking Rokoa for his gifts, and welcoming us to the
island. The language which he spoke was a dialect of the Tahitian,
differing from it so slightly that I had no difficulty in understanding
what he said.

"When he had finished, Rokoa made an appropriate reply, according to the
rules of Polynesian etiquette. He commenced by paying our
gaudily-attired friend some florid compliments. He then gave a graphic
account of our voyage, describing the storm which we had encountered