So Captain Wilson said "Taio," and he and the chief, who was also high priest of the gods of Tahiti, were brothers. Captain Wilson said to Haamanemane, through Peter, who translated each to the other: "We wish to come and live in this island." Haamanemane said that he would speak to the king and queen of Tahiti about it. So he got down again over the side of the vessel into the canoe, and the paddles of his boatman flashed as they swept along over the breakers to the beach to tell the king of the great white chief who had come to visit them. All these things happened on the Sunday. On Tuesday word came that the king and the queen would receive them. So Captain Wilson and all his missionaries got into the whale-boat and pulled for the shore. The natives rushed into the water, seized the boat and hauled her aground out of reach of the great waves. They were startled to see the king and queen come riding on the shoulders of men. Even when one bearer grew tired and the king or the queen must get upon another, they were not allowed to touch the ground. The reason was that all the land they touched became their own, and the people carried them about so that they themselves might not lose their land and houses by the king and queen touching them. So at that place, under the palm trees of Tahiti, with the beating of the surf on the shore before them, and the great mountain forests behind, these brown islanders of the South Seas gave a part of their land to Captain Wilson and his men that they might live there. The sons of the wild men of the North Sea Islands had met their first great adventure in bringing to the men of the South Sea Islands the story of the love of the Father of all. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 11: Ta-hee-tee.] [Footnote 12: Too-b[=o]-n[=a]-ee.] [Footnote 13: M[=a]-t[)a]-v[)a]-ee.] [Footnote 14: Haa-m[)u]-n[=a]y-m[)a]-nay.] [Footnote 15: Ta-ce-[=o].] CHAPTER VI THE ISLAND BEACON FIRES _Papeiha_[16] (Date of Incident, 1823) The edge of the sea was just beginning to gleam with the gold of the rising sun. The captain of a little ship, that tossed and rolled on the tumbling ocean, looked out anxiously over the bow. Around him everywhere was the wild waste of the Pacific Ocean. Through day after day he had tacked and veered, baffled by contrary winds. Now, with little food left in the ship, starvation on the open ocean stared them in the face. They were searching for an island of which they had heard, but which they had never seen. The captain searched the horizon again, but he saw nothing, except that ahead of him, on the sky-line to the S.W., great clouds had gathered. He turned round and went to the master-missionary--the hero and explorer and shipbuilder, John Williams, saying: "We must give up the search or we shall all be starved."