"Not to go ashore," said Mr. Grafton. "I have passed in sight of it, and I have been in and anchored at Ascension, which is beyond it to the northward and westward. I hear that ships visit Strong's Island quite frequently of late. I suppose the people are similar in appearance and character to those of Ascension. We shall reconnoitre there a little, and perhaps the old man will decide to go in, if he finds it a good harbor to stay our leak in; if not, we shall keep on to Ascension or Guam." "Are these people anything like those at Kingsmill's Group?" "Not at all," replied the mate. "Neither in appearance, language nor general character. There is something very interesting about them; at least, those that I have seen at Ascension. They are handsomer, and lighter in color than those islanders we have left behind; and they are also more intelligent and ingenious. The women, especially, are more delicate, with good figures; some of them are really pretty. Then, in place of the gibberish of uncouth sounds spoken in most parts of Polynesia, these people have a musical language, full of soft liquids and ringing consonants, that seems more like Chinese than like anything we are accustomed to recognize as a 'Kanaka language.'" "Are they safe people to deal with?" I asked. "Well, no more so than the generality of savages. Indeed I think they are quite as treacherous, though not as hardy and warlike as Marquesans or New Zealanders. None of these races are to be trusted, and we must be always on our guard in our intercourse with them; treating them well, but never placing ourselves entirely in their power." "Power makes right, with them, as it does with civilized nations," I answered, "and the same rule of diplomacy which you have mentioned will apply to our dealings with the best of them, I think." "That's true," said Father Grafton, reflectively. "I suppose, after all, we are no better than they are, only we have a more genteel way of doing things and do them on a larger scale. We should not kill and eat a man or two whom we caught on board our ship; but if it suited our purposes, we should very likely take possession of a whole island or group of islands, and kill the people in a legal way, if they resisted; as is being done even now, by enlightened France, at the Marquesas and Society Islands." "And if they don't take possession of all Oceanica," said I, "it is only because it is not worth their while, or as we Yankees would say, 'it wont pay.'" "Just so," assented the mate. "And if, as some think, England will protest against this occupation by the French, it will not be because of any injustice done to the natives but because it might be thought dangerous to her interests to permit France to have these naval stations in the Pacific."