“That’s exactly what I see, Missi,” continued Nelwang; “but I want you just to think you are in my place, and tell me how you would carry her off. You white men can always succeed. Missi, hear my plans, and advise me.” With as serious a face as I could command, I had to listen to Nelwang, to enter into his love affair, and to make suggestions, with a view to avoiding bloodshed and other miseries. The result of the deliberations was that Nelwang was to secure the confidence of two friends, his brother and the orator Taia, to place one at each end of the coral rocks above the village as watchmen, to cut down with his American tomahawk a passage through the fence at the back, and to carry off his bride at dead of night into the seclusion and safety of the bush! Nelwang’s eyes flashed as he struck his tomahawk into a tree, and cried,— “I see it now, Missi! I shall win her from them all. Yakin and I will be strong for you all our days!” Next morning Yakin’s house was found deserted. They sent to all the villages around, but no one had seen her. The hole in the fence behind was then discovered, and the thirty whispered to each other that Yakin had been wooed and won by some daring lover. Messengers were despatched to all the villages, and Nelwang was found to have disappeared on the same night as the widow, and neither could anywhere be found. The usual revenge was taken. The houses of the offenders burned, their fences broken down, and all their property either destroyed or distributed. Work was suspended, and the disappointed thirty solaced themselves by feasting at Yakin’s expense. On the third day I arrived at the scene. Seeing our old friend Naswai looking on at the plunderers, I signalled him, and said innocently,— “Naswai, what’s this your men are about? What’s all the uproar?” The Chief replied, “Have you not heard, Missi?” “Heard?” said I. “The whole island has heard your ongoings for three days! I can get no peace to study, or carry on my work.” “Missi,” said the Chief, “Nelwang has eloped with Yakin, the wealthy widow, and all the young men are taking their revenge.” “Oh,” replied I, “is that all? Call your men, and let us speak to them.” The men were all assembled, and I said: “After all your kindness to Yakin, and all your attention to her since her husband’s death, has she really run away and left you all? Don’t you feel thankful that you are free from such an ungrateful woman? Had one of you been married to her, and she had afterwards run away with this man that she loved, that would have been far worse! And are you really making all this noise over such a person, and destroying so much useful food? Let these two fools go their way, and if she be all that you now say, he will have the worst of the bargain, and you will be sufficiently avenged. I advise you to spare the fruit trees—go home quietly—leave them to punish each other—and let me get on with my work!” Naswai repeated my appeal.