Upon this Tila went away, leaving the slugs by the boat. He had evidently gone in anger at being played with.

Moreover, the Chief was further soured at this time by a certain domestic disagreement. Two of his wives had offended him in some way, and to keep up his dignity it became necessary to sulk. It was his occupation for the time being. His whole energy was devoted to it. The effort of keeping up sulks to their proper royal level is enormous, and must be continual. Mr. Wakefield once said it made him ache, and even yawn, to think of it. That was in the case of Malagai, whose sulks, of course, had to be more imposing than those of anybody else. You need never aspire to be a Chief in Pombuana unless you feel certain that you have a grand sulking capacity about you. Ascertain that first; for, when in answer to your inquiry where the Chief is, or what he may be doing, the village, with bated breath and eyebrows at surprise, informs your innocence that he is sulking; you will please to understand that the process is as deliberate and important as that of a hen sitting. Tila was sulking.

Those two wives of his, strange to say, had already disturbed the security of the ill-starred strangers on the beach.

Sulks, like sitting, end with hatching. But the chief has decidedly the advantage over the fowl, for every follower and every dependent is anxiously seeking out some means of propitiating the noble sulker. Egyptian stillness settles upon society, until the Baby Great One has grimly allowed it to be understood by means of what toy he will graciously please to be appeased. In this particular case it was a human head. That was the moon he sulked for, and that was the moon he should have.

But, unfortunately, just at that time there was no "black trash" about who could render their hitherto uninteresting heads both useful and ornamental by ceasing to wear them; and it does not do to diminish the fighting strength of the community. Society, though much edified by the high quality of the sulks supplied, began to feel that they had had enough of them. Just then the Minerva's boat appeared. Here was white trash to be had for nothing-white trash, too, that had added ferocity to the chief's gloom and made him dangerous, After this glimpse behind the scenes, let us step out on the beach and see what passes there.

"Heave 'em in," cried the captain, pointing to Tila's fish, " and shove off. May he live till I pay him, that's all! And if he isn't a second Methusalem, why, I'm a Dutchman, that's all! Now, Pomo, look alive!"

I was trying to find out from a man who had come down with Tila what kind of humour he was in, but our conversation was thus cut off.

When we were already some distance from the shore, I wished I had gone to Matanga that night, but I much preferred the Minerva, it was in many ways so like the Aurora, only much smaller, and as we had left the beach I made up my mind that it was too late.

Next morning Captain "Kapala" said he should take the boat ashore himself till noon, and then come off to dinner. After dinner the mate was to go ashore with the other boat, and Charley and I were to pull the Captain along the coast towards Uri, to get soundings and look for another good place for slugs.

Charley and I took up our station as usual in one of the curing houses, and bought the scanty dribbling lots of fish which the few fishers chose to bring. Tila was hanging about, but did not ask for the price of his fish. I advised the Captain to pay him; but he replied that he didn't want the fish, and wasn't going to pay for them.

"Let 'Stealer'" (he seemed mightily pleased with this grim joke) "come and ask for his trade if he wants it; and if not, let him go without."

I found that I had quite another kind of man than Mr. Wakefield to deal with. He did not always take my advice; but he always considered it well, and never spoke in this light and frivolous manner, nor treated our Chiefs with disrespect. We were quick enough in recognising a gentleman and the opposite. This foolish conduct of our Captain revived my fears, which I communicated to Charley, who said:

"It's no good talking to him; it only makes him worse.

So after that I said nothing; but the people were still sore from their late outrageous treatment, and had no reason that I could see to be particularly nice in their dealings with these "Treacherous White Men." Their treachery-that was what they complained of.

Tila was continually counting over the names of his stolen people, always keeping those of his own sons to the last, and then exclaiming with a stamp of his foot and a twirl of his spear that I knew too well:

"They deceive us they steal us-they betray us-they kill us these white traitors! What have we to do with them ?"

And Tila's notions of geography were limited. How could he be expected to realise the fact, which he had learned from me late in life, that the Bishop's home was a thousand miles away from the home of these men-stealers, and that he had no communication with them?

It was enough for them that we were black-set apart by God, as I have heard them say, first to be enslaved and then to be exterminated to aid, as far as it was in their power to make us, the onward march of the great Anglo-Saxon race, and then to be put out of the way lest we should impede its progress. So that they who slew us thought (said, at all events)

that they were doing God's service-the only willing service, I suspect, that He ever received at their hands.

It was enough for Tila that they were white.

As we shoved off at noon, I saw him and Taorémbé (who had been on board several times, and had made friends with everybody, and got a good deal out of everybody, besides what he laid his sticky fingers upon)-I saw him and Taorémbé standing by the middle curing-house, looking intently after us for a few moments, and then turn sharply round and walk in shore. Tila had said to Taorémbé, as I learned from Diara and others afterwards:

"They have not given me the price of my fish. What shall we do to them?-kill them, or what? These are they who steal and kill us."

And Taorémbé answered:

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They called me a thief this morning, Cousin! And that foolish Matey rope's-ended me."

"You were the fool, younger brother of mine, to be rope'sended for nothing."

"True, my Chief. And how about your fish? Let me dance for Matey this afternoon upon the beach."

"And for Kapiténi; perhaps he will pay me for my fish." "He goes to Uri in the boat this afternoon."

"Consume the Uri! They get everything and we get nothing; they have their own vessel-shall they have ours, too?" "This is the vessel of Diara and the Matambala, so they say." "And we have none. How close in shore she lies!"

"I could dive beyond her."

"And be shot when you come up on the other side. How many guns have they?"

"You cannot see the cabin ceiling for guns."

"Malagai's vaka wouldn't give him a gun."

"If we had guns we should be safe. By Hauri! it would be well to have guns!"

TAOREMBE PROPOSES A DANCE.

"Let us ask Kapiténi for some."

"And be answered with a rope's-end."

"Or with dust and a ball!"

"The payment of your fish!"

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"Brother, I will not be extortionate; they shall have my fish for nothing, they shall."

"And my dancing too. Stay! I go to call my men together and make arrangements for the dance."

"The Séruka, friend Tao! They will like that. It is a lively dance."

"The Séruka it shall be. Matey has never seen it yet." "And perhaps never will again."

CHAPTER XXXV.

IN "MINERVA" BAY.

I HAD some salt junk with my friends at anchor in the Bay, (which was henceforth to have a foreign name) trying to imagine all the time that I was on board the Aurora; and after we had bolted some duff, which is an indication that it was Thursday (as I knew it was not Sunday), the boat floating astern was hauled up to the gangway, and Captain Campbell, Charley, and I stepped down into it. "Take the other boat ashore, Martin" (the mate), " and buy up all the fish you can. Take one of my good hatchets for that pesky old Stealer, and keep him in a good humour. George will take charge on board. I don't suppose they'll come off when there's trade going on ashore. Is the lead in the boat?"

"Yes sir," said Charley.

"When will you be back, sir?" asked George.