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DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 & STale* 
 
 BY HARRIET MARTINEAU. 
 
 MANCHESTER: 
 
 J. GADSBY, NEWALL'S-BUILDINGS. 
 1845. 
 
 
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 "*"* °* Bu&rlrZ!!*:** 
 
 ounci/ 
 
 A "« 10,1840 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE. 
 
 1. — Nature and Man at War 7 
 
 2. — Puerile Man and his Gods 14 
 
 3.— The Priest and the Oracle , 25 
 
 4. — More Human Sacrifice . . 32 
 
 5.— Vital Tribute 38 
 
 6. — The Priest and the Advent 48 
 
 7. — A Higher Disclosure 62 
 
 8. — Spiritual Tribute 74 
 
 9. — Nature and Man atPeace 86 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This Tale, written for the purpose, is my offering 
 to the Bazaar of the National Anti - Corn - Law 
 League. 
 
 However small its value, this contribution is 
 made by me without hesitation, because I think 
 that earnestness of conviction on the principle of 
 Free Trade, — as on any principle whatever, — is 
 most effectually evinced and employed by every one - 
 working in his own way for the cause. The sepa- 
 rate gifts of a thousand of us contributors may be 
 of insignificant value in themselves ; but, as evi- 
 dence that a thousand minds, and a thousand pairs 
 of hands have been at work on the ground of a 
 common conviction, the testimony is not unimpor- 
 tant. For my share, therefore, I have written this 
 Tale ; and I shall be gratified by its being granted a 
 place among a myriad of other avowals of interest in 
 the cause of Free Trade. 
 
 H. MARTINEAU. 
 
 Birmingham, April, 1845. 
 
F a voyager were to search 
 through the world for an 
 abode of peace, he would 
 probably choose, for its 
 outward aspect, one of the 
 small tropical islands of 
 the Pacific; and of the 
 whole Archipelago, no one 
 could present a more en- 
 ticing appearance of tran- 
 
8 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 quillity than that which was, while yet unknown to 
 navigators, called by its inhabitants the Island of 
 the Day Spring; or, as we should call it for short- 
 ness, Dawn Island. The lofty summits of the 
 central mountains seemed to bring down to earth 
 something of the unfathomable quietness of the 
 tropical skies which overarched them. The trans- 
 parency of the atmosphere gave an appearance of 
 stability to every object w T ithin reach of the eye, — a 
 clearness of outline, and firmness of position, hardly 
 to be conceived of by inhabitants of regions where 
 every thing is seen through shifting and refracting 
 fogs and mists. The waving of the plumy foliage 
 of the cocoa-nut grove, and the leap and gush of 
 the mountain streams, rather lulled than disturbed 
 the senses of the observer; and if he turned his 
 gaze to the shores, he could not but think that the 
 space between them and the coral reef which sur- 
 rounded the island contained the stillest waters he 
 had ever seen. The coral reef extended to various 
 distances from the shore, now stretching out so 
 as to enclose a lake-like expanse of two miles in 
 breadth, and then bending inwards so as to leave 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 9 
 
 no more room than for two canoes to pass. To any 
 gazer, looking down into the clear depths of these 
 waters, all appeared even calmer than on the sur- 
 face. Fathoms deep, he saw an apparent foliage 
 and fruitage, delicate as vegetation itself — fragile- 
 looking as the slenderest weeds, hut giving way to 
 no lapse of waters, and not stirred hy the gliding 
 of a throng of fishes, as the houghs of trees are hy 
 the flitting of birds. These many-coloured corals, 
 sprouting and branching out from the sandy bottom, 
 gave the idea of a luxuriant garden suddenly over- 
 flowed, and petrified by the deluge. The stillness 
 of the land and w T aters within the reef was made 
 more striking by the chafing of the ocean beyond. 
 The long breakers rolled in, rising in height and 
 force as if they w r ould surmount the barrier, but 
 clear and lovely as opal; and on the first encounter 
 with the reef, their white crests were dispersed in 
 show r ers of spray, which merely dimpled the smooth 
 waters within, and sent a solemn sea music re- 
 sounding through the nearer inland groves. 
 
 While such was the peaceful aspect of Dawn 
 Island in ordinary times, there was one day in the 
 
 B 
 
10 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 history of its inhabitants when all was disturbance, 
 through its length and breadth. Wars were indeed 
 frequent, — aggressive or defensive wars with the 
 people of another island, or conflicts arising from 
 rebellion at home. On the present occasion, an 
 expedition, with the king for its leader, w T as going 
 forth to put down an insurrection on the opposite 
 point of the island, where a dismissed minister 
 had gathered round him all the discontented, and 
 was putting forth a claim to the regency of the 
 island, on the deposition of the king, — the heir 
 being still a child. 
 
 On the king's side, the preparations had been 
 going forward for some days. The weapons were 
 cleaned and pointed, and their handles smeared with 
 resinous gum, to make them fast in the warriors' 
 grasp ; the god Oro was brought out from his temple, 
 and a red feather solemnly taken from the image by 
 the priests, and borne hither and thither with the 
 army, as a symbol of Oro's presence and sanction ; 
 the fleet of canoes was assembled in the lagoon, and 
 the altars were dressed in those which were to con- 
 vey the symbols and sacrifices of the gods. While 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 11 
 
 the priests were preparing for the final ceremonial, 
 and the king was holding a council under the deep 
 shade of a bread-fruit tree, the orators were working 
 up themselves and their hearers of the army into 
 a state of high excitement, bidding the warriors to 
 dart upon their enemies like a sheaf of lightning 
 bolting from the clouds, to fasten upon them as 
 barbed arrows on the flesh of the thigh, to over- 
 whelm them as a waterspout advancing upon a fish- 
 ing fleet, and finally to come home in triumph, to 
 devour their chief foe as the shark swallows the 
 strong man, when most secure in his strength. Some 
 of the hearers were transported with the fervour of 
 the oratory, casting glances of fire on their comrades, 
 and uttering shouts of triumph. Of these comrades, 
 however, some were of a different temperament, and 
 others had their sobriety of mind preserved by the 
 sight of their wives, who were hanging on the rear 
 of the assemblage ; or of their houses, which peeped 
 out from the groves, or nestled in the meadows ; and 
 these remembered that the triumph was premature, 
 and that, till the disposition of Oro was fully ascer- 
 tained, no man could say with any assurance on 
 
12 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 which side would be the victory, and on which the 
 devastation. Among some of these soldiers arose a 
 rumour of " Where is Miava? Who has seen Miava, 
 on this day when he should have been seen by every 
 one?" And this muttered inquiry was taken up and 
 loudly echoed by the women, whose excited imagi- 
 nations immediately caught the alarm. A panic 
 spread lest old Miava should have gone over to the 
 rebels, and carried Oro's favour with him. In haste 
 and trepidation, numbers ran to see whether the 
 presents brought for the priest were sufficient — 
 whether the mats and the cloth were of a handsome 
 quality, and so arranged as to please the old man's 
 eye, and stimulate his zeal in propitiating the god. 
 All was found satisfactory enough, — at least in the 
 eyes of the priest next in rank, who gave notice that 
 Miava had merely retired to the woods, for peace 
 and quiet, till the war should be over. He was now 
 weary of the wars of which he had seen so many; 
 and he left it to younger men to deal expressly with 
 the gods, and receive the reward of their prayers 
 and watchings. As the fatigues and anxieties were 
 left to his juniors, so were the mats and the cloth, 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 13 
 
 and even the canoe which he had heard was intended 
 for him if he obtained a good response on the pre- 
 sent occasion. 
 
 No one ventured to say a word in disparagement 
 of the junior priests ; but all were cast down by the 
 absence of old Miava, who had for many years of- 
 fered with his own hand the last human sacrifice, 
 slain while the warriors stood, ready to start, with 
 their arms in their hands. The king, who kept an 
 eye on all that passed, from his station in the 
 shade, marked the discouragement which fell upon 
 the forces, and the cooling down of the orators, as 
 their hearers turned their heads another way. He 
 gravely observed to his council, "Miava must be 
 brought down from the woods. By sunset, he must 
 have his hand on the stem of the sacred tree." 
 
 " But if he will not come?" objected the chief 
 minister. 
 
 " Then the war cannot proceed; and which of you 
 will suffer that? Miava must come." 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 PUEKILE MAN AND HIS GODS. 
 
 At sunrise of this, as of every day, Miava had 
 come out, to spend his hours in the wood or on the 
 rocks. There was nothing in the abodes of any of 
 the inhabitants of the island to tempt them to stay 
 within, — no coolness, nor cleanliness, nor comfort. 
 Holes in the roof let in the rain and mosquitoes; 
 hollows in the earthen floor held stagnant water; 
 the long grass with which the floor was strewed was 
 never changed, and the food and drink dropped 
 upon it rotted and fermented; so that the litter 
 was presently fit only for a stye. There was no se- 
 parate sleeping place; only the drier parts of the 
 floor were chosen, — the parts near the walls, and 
 there the mats were spread, and a low block of 
 wood was placed for each head that desired the 
 luxury of a pillow. Those who had pigs let them 
 wallow in the midst ; and those who had fowls let 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 15 
 
 them perch where they would. Xo wonder that 
 Miava was out early, exchanging the grunt and 
 cluck of his domestic stock for pleasanter out-door 
 sounds, for the fall of the broad bright cascade 
 which leaped the rocks near his hut, for the rustle 
 and clatter of the long stiff leaves and light leaf- 
 lets of the cocoa-nut trees which sprang from the 
 crevices of the precipice at hand, and for the distant 
 murmur of the sea. 
 
 As he came out, he glanced at the smaller hut 
 which stood a little way behind his own. Women, 
 being regarded as an inferior race, were provided 
 with a sort of kennel, where they might eat their 
 coarser and poorer food, and wait the bidding of 
 the men of the family. They were required to cook 
 for their masters at the superior oven provided for 
 the better abode, to carry in the baskets of food 
 and wait on the eaters, and at night to sleep in the 
 most comfortless corner of the larger dwelling; but 
 further than this they were not indulged. They 
 must eat only when others had done, must not 
 touch anything particularly good nor complain of 
 anything particularly bad, must always be within 
 
16 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 call, and wait standing, must not lie down at night 
 till all the animals were asleep, and must, without 
 fail, be busy at the oven before their masters awoke 
 in the morning. So Miava glanced round at his 
 daughter's kennel and at the ovens, and, not seeing 
 her, ought, according to rule, to have been very 
 angry. 
 
 But Miava was not wont to be angry; and least of 
 all with Idya. Idya was not his own daughter ; but 
 had been adopted under circumstances which en- 
 deared her to him as much as if she were. She had 
 been deserted in her early childhood, — her parents 
 being both slain in war, and no one caring to nou- 
 rish a helpless little creature of a sex not worthy to 
 be offered in sacrifice, and of an age not ripe for 
 cooking and beating fibre-cloth. So she would have 
 perished on some rock or in some recess of the 
 meadows, if Miava, who was of such dignity as to 
 brave public opinion without detriment, had not 
 connived at her continued existence, and tacitly 
 taken some measures to secure it. He threw her 
 some of the inferior sorts of fish which were brought 
 to him in tribute, and did not inquire where she 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 17 
 
 broiled them. She once found in her sleeping hole 
 a mallet for beating cloth, — a mallet which was not 
 too heavy for her strength, — a clear permission to 
 learn to make cloth, if she conld induce any women 
 to teach her. It was even reported that not only 
 had some one provided her with a bark foot-sling, 
 for climbing cocoa-nut trees, but that Miava himself 
 was once caught showing her how to use it, and 
 taking care that she did not fall in her first attempt. 
 By some imperceptible means, Idya grew up to be 
 useful, like other girls, and to be indulged as few 
 other girls were. When, as on this morning, she was 
 not abroad before her proprietor, he did not beat 
 or scold her, but said to himself that he was pro- 
 bably astir earlier than usual, or that Idya looked 
 prettier and pleasanter when she was awakened by 
 the first sun ray or the early breeze, than when 
 scared out of her sleep by a kick or a growl. 
 
 He first repaired to his morning station, a point 
 of rock whence he could overlook in privacy the 
 valley beneath, and a wide range of shore. There 
 he forgot everything in the interest of watching the 
 gathering of the forces, and the reception of the 
 
18 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 king and his council. He was thankful to be on 
 his quiet perch, rather than amidst the prepara- 
 tions, — for other reasons than he could freely avow. 
 His mind w T as troubled by so much strife, and far 
 more deeply troubled by being made, through his 
 office, the abettor of strife. He had only followed 
 custom and tradition in wdiat he had done ; but of 
 late these had failed to sustain him completely, — to 
 steel his heart against the cries of dying men, and 
 to make him glory, for the sake of the gods, in 
 sending the victim's right eye on a leaf for the king 
 to pretend to eat. The slightest qualm of doubt as 
 to the correctness of such proceedings spoiled all 
 the complacency of them; and then again, there 
 was the fear that any such qualm was an offence 
 against the gods. He was glad that years and long 
 service now afforded him an excuse before Oro and 
 the king for being out of the affair altogether. And 
 with this sense of relief he looked down this morn- 
 ing on the moving multitude. 
 
 As he watched, absorbed in thought, he was 
 startled by a rustling in the bushes near, and next 
 by the appearance of a woman whom he knew as 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 19 
 
 the inhabitant of one of the best abodes in the 
 valley below. Her face was now convulsed with 
 fear, and her dress was torn, as if with scrambling 
 through the thickets. She strove to speak, in vain. 
 
 " Feito," said the priest, "your son is now a 
 man; and he must go out with men to the battle. 
 When he was dying under the sorcerer's curse, and 
 you fetched me to save him, was it not your wish to 
 see him a man among men on such a day as this?" 
 
 ' ' It is my wish now," replied the sobbing mother; 
 " but the best hope for him now is that he may be 
 as a beast among the mountains." 
 
 " Is he tabooed?" quickly inquired Miava. 
 
 " He is, — and in him all of us. Many months 
 since, he sent to the king only half the bread-fruit 
 that was expected, though we kept too little for our- 
 selves. Since then, I have lived in fear. My chil- 
 dren said to me still w T hen the new moon appeared, 
 'We are safe;' but they will say so no more. The 
 chief of our valley received the token to find a vic- 
 tim last night. He accepted it. There is no other 
 than my son fit for the sacrifice. We have fled 
 thus far. Tell us where further to fly." 
 
20 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 "Where is Motuaro ? Gone up the mountain 
 before you?" 
 
 " How could he pass the threshold of Idya?" said 
 the mother, with a melancholy smile. 
 
 Miava sighed, as he quickly turned homewards, 
 followed by Feito and her young daughter. He had 
 seen with satisfaction, for some time past, that Mot- 
 uaro loved Idya. He had hoped to see Idya the 
 young man's wife : but now, if the family must leave 
 their bread-fruit tree and their fishing boat, and be 
 outcasts in the mountains, what could he wish? 
 
 As he expected, he found Idya in tears, yet not 
 listening to her lover, but rather hastening from 
 him to meet his mother, to whom she rushed with 
 a wail of grief, as soon as she saw her. The young 
 man, w T ho was following closely and sadly, now 
 turned back, saying, 
 
 " She does not love me. I will go and be the 
 sacrifice, for no one else is so miserable." 
 
 " You will go to the mountain," said Miava, with 
 a tone of authority. "You are young; the king 
 will soon be old, and the taboo may be buried in 
 his grave." 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 21 
 
 " The taboo is everywhere now," cried the mother 
 in despair. 
 
 " I can show you a place where it cannot hurt 
 you," said Miava, wrapping his garment about him, 
 as if preparing to guide the fugitives. 
 
 During the moment of waiting, the ears of the 
 mother, quickened by terror, caught the sound of 
 voices from amidst the wood below. At a sign 
 from her, all listened. It was certain that men 
 were approaching. Not an instant was to be lost. 
 Miava whispered to Idya, 
 
 "Lead Feito and her son up by the path of the 
 torrent to the sorcerers den. They must enter it 
 without fear ; but you must not set foot in it. You 
 must at once return, — and by the other path. No 
 one is in the cave, and nothing shall hurt them. 
 They will find food there till I can show them how 
 to find more." 
 
 At a sign from his hand, the party were gone. 
 
 Miava did not return to his station ; for he 
 desired to intercept the party who were ascending 
 through the wood. As he leaned against the door- 
 post of his hut, awaiting them, the thought that 
 
22 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 more and more haunted his life settled down 
 gloomily on his mind. 
 
 "'The forest- tree shall grow; the coral shall 
 spread and branch out; but man shall cease.' If 
 prophecy is true, this is the truest. My father 
 walked through thirty peopled valleys ; and his 
 father through fifty. Of those fifty I have seen 
 thirty desolate. Our young men die childless out- 
 casts in the dens of the mountain ; and our strong 
 warriors go out and never return. Yes, the tree 
 grows as lofty as ever; and the coral spreads in 
 the sea as the convolvulus on the earth;" — and he 
 looked from side to side, and could see no space 
 between the trees where its bell-flowers did not 
 sprinkle the grass; — "but man is fast dwindling, 
 and will soon cease from our world. Too true is 
 prophecy; and some fearful prophecies remain." 
 
 Here his meditation was interrupted by the 
 messengers from the king, who came to beseech or 
 require him to officiate in the sacrifice below. For 
 some time he resisted. But when it appeared that 
 the greater number of the party were on the point 
 of being despatched in pursuit of a victim for sacri- 
 
DAWN' ISLAND. 23 
 
 fice on the mountain, his concern for Motuaro and 
 his mother, and his immediate power of saving 
 them prevailed. He agreed to go on certain con- 
 ditions : — that the deputation should, to a man, 
 attend him, with such observances as he should 
 prescribe ; that he should select the victim ; and 
 that he should be the watcher in the temple at 
 night for the response of Oro. 
 
 It was with a heavy heart that Miava slowly 
 descended to the shore. The herald blew the 
 trumpet-shell before him, — its harsh blast startling 
 the birds from their hiding places in the trees ; and 
 a young priest in the rear beat the sacred drum, 
 whose dreary sound spread fear of the taboo wher- 
 ever it was heard. 
 
 " I had hoped," thought Miava, " never again to 
 have spread fear through a race already doomed to 
 cease. But by waiting on the god this once more, 
 I may save a man. Yet, is it saving a man, when 
 another must be chosen ?" He put down this pain- 
 ful question by the remembrance, " This, however, 
 is not my affair. It was within the memory of my 
 fathers when the gods first required, by a dream, that 
 
24 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 the highest gift — man himself — should be offered. 
 I am glad I was not the dreamer ; but there can be 
 no doubt of the will of the gods. And it is good to 
 be able to choose the sacrifice, and turn aside the 
 vengeance of the king. And it may be that Oro 
 will give no response to-night ; and then the war 
 must not proceed, and many will be spared. How 
 the people fly from the trumpet and drum ! But 
 the gods must be served, or man will cease at once. 
 Oro perhaps chooses one to save a multitude. At 
 all events, we must entice him from going over to 
 the rebels. And Motuaro is safe for this time.' , 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE PKIEST AND THE ORACLE. 
 
 As soon as the assemblage on the shore perceived 
 that the priest had come to the sacrifice, shouts of 
 joy rent the air. The king did not conceal his ex- 
 ultation ; and at his command, more presents were 
 brought, and laid on the pile of the priests' offer- 
 ings. Miava's heart was somewhat lightened. He 
 unconsciously felt the reality that there must be in 
 any observances which so deeply involved men's 
 passions of hope and fear ; and he was aware of the 
 dignity there was in being the medium between 
 them and the unseen powers. He approached the 
 Aoa, — the sacred tree which none but priests could 
 pass without trembling, — and looked up among its 
 wilderness of boughs with a tranquil gaze. There 
 hung two human bodies, — the sacrifices offered at 
 the beginning of the war-gathering. These he or- 
 dered down, and caused to be enclosed in baskets 
 
26 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 of cocoa-nut leaves, and slung up to the rafters of 
 the temple, to leave the tree clear for the one re- 
 maining victim. 
 
 This tree, much resembling the banian, .was as 
 good an illustration as the vegetable world could 
 furnish of the continuous being and self-diffusion 
 of the deities worshipped in Dawn Island. Every 
 branch sending down roots to the ground, and the 
 sources of life being thus multiplied perpetually, 
 it seemed as if the tree must live for ever. No man 
 could ever learn from his fathers when this grove- 
 like tree was a sapling ; and it was now a firm and 
 universal belief that a bird had brought some seeds 
 from the moon, and had dropped one on Dawn 
 Island in his flight 
 
 While Miava, in examining the interior of the 
 Aoa, retired out of sight beneath its pillar-like stems, 
 the gazers little knew that he met his attendants 
 under the shadow, to give orders fatal to one of 
 themselves. He named the victim, — and in a few 
 moments more the man was felled by a blow on the 
 back of the head, as he stood on the outskirts of 
 the crowd, jesting with a comrade. He was a young 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 27 
 
 man of turbulent temper and vicious habits, who 
 could be spared better than most; yet his heavy 
 fall, and the shrieks of his flying family, penetrated 
 with horror all who saw and heard. Such specta- 
 cles might increase their awe and dread of the gods, 
 and certainly lessened their feeling for the sufferings 
 of men; but the natural anguish of the moment 
 could not be extinguished by custom and famili- 
 arity. 
 
 The rites now went forward with order and speed. 
 The chief victim was suspended from the tree ; the 
 hogs were slain and baked, — their heads placed 
 upon the altars, and their flesh partly eaten by the 
 priests. The messengers of the gods, rising in the 
 shape of birds from out of the tree, on a burst of 
 harsh music, were dismissed to the place of abode 
 of the deities, somewhere near the foundation of 
 the world, to announce and invite, in the usual 
 terms: — "There is war in the world. Come up to 
 the place of light, and help your worshippers." 
 
 Before evening, the red feathers, taken from Oro's 
 very image, were deposited in the sacred canoes; 
 and all was ready for starting at daybreak, if only 
 
38 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 the response of the god in the night should be fa- 
 vourable. For its announcement, many waited with 
 anxiety. The king himself lay on his mat before 
 the gate of the temple ; and his council watched on 
 the steps which, on three sides, surrounded the in- 
 closure. Miava was within, — he alone; and his 
 station was in the innermost court. There stood 
 the image of the god Oro, under a sort of wooden 
 canopy. The rest of the court was open to the sky, 
 but so walled round as that no eye could pry into 
 the transactions of the priest and the oracle. 
 
 Miava was intently on the watch for a sign from 
 the god. How it would come, he knew not; whe- 
 ther in the sighing of the breeze, or the piping of 
 the night bird becoming articulate, or in a louder 
 murmur of the waves, or by shooting stars flashing 
 across the sky, (as meteors do in that climate,) or 
 in a dream. After listening till his senses became 
 confused, he lay down before the image, and looked 
 up into the heavens, in order not to miss any token 
 that might be manifested there. His sight was so 
 dimmed by age that even the steady blazing stars 
 of the tropical sky were to him blent in one hazy 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 29 
 
 light; but if Oro wished to communicate with him, 
 he would send a naming meteor sufficiently near to 
 the earth. The uncertain waiting for such a sign, 
 however, wearied his eyes, and he slept, — a broken 
 and anxious sleep. He dreamed, or fancied, that 
 a voice whispered to him, — he knew not whence, — - 
 " The forest-tree shall grow; the coral shall spread; 
 but man shall cease." Anxious to be assured, he 
 cried, "Again!" But his own voice roused him. 
 He started up. Nothing seemed changed. The 
 hideous image of Oro stared, immoveable as ever, 
 and the sounds of the night were all that was 
 heard. 
 
 Miava's heart interpreted the prophecy, recurring 
 at such a moment, as a token that there must be 
 more slaughter, — that the war must proceed. But 
 he would not conclude hastily. The night was not 
 half spent. If Oro, or a messenger spirit from him, 
 had really entered the image, there would be some- 
 thing done to preclude doubt. For hours he waited. 
 The breeze had died away; the piping bird had 
 gone to roost ; the heavens were calm. There was 
 no further sign. 
 
30 DAWN ISLAND- 
 
 As the dawn broke, and objects within the court 
 became more clear, he perceived that something 
 hung from the neck of the idol which was not wont 
 to be there, — the singing-shell used by sorcerers in 
 their divinations. These shells, being never known 
 to refuse to answer, were carefully monopolized by 
 those who had a right to intercourse with the 
 demon which each contained. Miava saw at once 
 that Oro had sent his messenger to speak to him 
 through this shell. 
 
 Reverently and anxiously he lifted the shell to 
 his ear. It sang, of course ; — and to Miava the 
 murmur appeared to be an incessant repetition of 
 the plaint, " Man shall cease." The shell dropped 
 from his hand. He could no longer question the 
 response. He took a red feather from the image, 
 and held it aloft as he issued from the inner court. 
 The first golden spark of the sun was just rising 
 from the brim of the ocean when he came forth. 
 The king started to his feet. The council all 
 arose, and each man uncovered his head and shoul- 
 ders, in devout expectation. 
 
 " The war must proceed," said Miava. 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 31 
 
 " Oro is with us?" inquired the king. 
 
 "He is not against us, for he has replied," said 
 Miava, mournfully. 
 
 "A multitude will return home ?" asked the 
 king, struck by his tone. 
 
 " Many will not return," replied Miava, speaking 
 to the royal ear alone. "All else is made to 
 nourish, but man to war and perish. Forests 
 arise, and see how the corals spread ! But man 
 must cease." 
 
 The king's heart sank as he heard the old pro- 
 phecy, — now confirmed on the threshold of Oros 
 abode. He looked wistfully in the face of the priest, 
 and walked in silence down to the shore where his 
 canoe led the w r ar-fleet. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MOEE HUMAN SACEIFICE. 
 
 The war proceeded. Many indeed of those who 
 went out never returned ; but the destruction of the 
 rebels was the most complete. Except the few who 
 escaped to the recesses of the mountains, and a 
 very few more who got off to sea through a perilous 
 passage in the reef, none survived. Of the first, 
 some soon perished from want, while others became 
 in course of time wild men, forgetting language and 
 such arts of life as they knew, and actually sinking 
 lower than many brutes. Of the fugitives by sea ? 
 a small number reached Evening Island, — the only 
 land visible from Dawn Island, and so far distant 
 on the western horizon, that no one thought of 
 reaching it, except in a struggle for life. The lot 
 of the prisoners taken alive was the worst. They 
 saw first the destruction of their forces and their 
 cause. They saw their huts burned — the women 
 
DAWN ISLAND. oo 
 
 and children slain — their bread-fruit trees felled — 
 the tops of their cocoa-nut trees cut off — total ruin 
 overspreading their settlement. But, more than 
 this, they had eaten their enemies after battle, and 
 they knew that their own time was come. Theirs 
 were not the feelings of disgust with which civilized 
 men regard the act; but rather of a humiliation 
 scarcely to be conceived of by any but a savage ; for 
 civilized men can never be absolute slaves to cir- 
 cumstance and event. They knew the passion of 
 triumphant revenge under which they had swal- 
 lowed the flesh of foes, and the exultation with 
 which they had boasted of sharing with Oro his 
 favourite feast. Now, they were to suffer, not only 
 death by torture, but the contempt and malice of 
 gods and men, — each in solitary despair. 
 
 The festival was indescribable. To Miava it was 
 as tolerable in aspect as it could be to any one ; for, 
 as he saw in the idol Oro not a hideous image cut 
 in wood, but a chosen form into which the war-god 
 descended at will, so he saw in cannibalism a divine 
 rite permitted to valiant men. The spirits of men 
 were believed to be absorbed or imbibed by the dis- 
 
34 DAWN ISLAND 
 
 embodied deities, to whom in consequence had ever 
 belonged the title of "Man-eaters." When human 
 sacrifices were offered, there was no doubt in the 
 mind of a believing priest that the spirit of the 
 victim was drawn out and appropriated by the god, 
 as the plantain from its rind, or the milk of the 
 cocoa-nut from the shell ; and, as spirits thus fed 
 upon spirits, it seemed a sharing of the privilege 
 for body to devour body. Thus, even such an one 
 as Miava had calmly taken his share of the feast of 
 victory, and was able to meditate on the act on his 
 way up through the woods to his home. 
 
 At home, he found a very different kind of enter- 
 tainment going forward. Motuaro was there, pur- 
 suing his courtship of Idya in defiance of personal 
 danger, and of the discouragement of Idya herself, 
 and in neglect of the mother and sister he had left 
 in the wilds. He could not keep out of sight of 
 the poor girl, who wished him far away. He fol- 
 lowed her wherever she went, put jessamine blos- 
 soms in her hair, and declared his love in words of 
 passion ; but the customs of his country and tribe 
 rendered his courtship as laborious and irksome to 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 35 
 
 Idya, as it was unacceptable for other reasons. He 
 never dreamed of not being waited on and provided 
 for by her, as men always were by women. She 
 had to go down to the shore for shell-fish, and even 
 to cast a net for salmon. The leaves in which his 
 food was to be baked must be plucked by her, the 
 stones heated, the plantains gathered; and she 
 must attend upon him during the meal. They w r ere 
 thus engaged, — Motuaro supping in the middle of 
 the floor of the dwelling, and Idya attending on 
 him, when Miava appeared in the door- way. 
 
 Idya sprang to meet him, telling him what was 
 at the moment uppermost in her mind, — that she 
 had been wishing that he had been home, that she 
 longed to wait on him at his meal. 
 
 "Yet," he replied, "you cannot long serve me. 
 As Motuaro's wife, you must soon serve him." 
 
 Motuaro sprang up in joy at hearing these words. 
 But Idya replied, 
 
 "No, — I do not wish to be Motuaro's wife. I 
 wish to live as we have lived ; if only Motuaro would 
 not leave his place of safety to follow me, when I 
 do not desire to see him." 
 
36 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 " I will find a place of safety for him and you," 
 replied the priest. " I see that he will neither be 
 safe, nor provide for his wants, nor give food to his 
 mother in the mountain, while he follows you in 
 vain. You must be his wife, Idya; — it is best; and 
 you must." 
 
 Idya made no reply. The tears ran dow r n her 
 face the whole time she continued to serve the 
 meal ; and when it was clone, she disappeared. 
 
 Miava then told the young man of the utter 
 devastation of the other side of the island, and 
 the undisturbed possession he might take of any 
 spot there, while the district was supposed to be 
 haunted by the demons who delight in such places. 
 An incantation, such as Miava could supply, would 
 protect any retreat from these demons ; and a safe 
 and thriving home might thus be secured for the 
 family, in the very midst of a desolation which would 
 forbid the approach of any one else. Miava pro- 
 mised to go himself in search of a place of abode, 
 if the young man would immediately depart to his 
 retreat in the mountains, and not return till the new 
 moon, when he should receive his bride. Motuaro, 
 
DAWN ISLAND. oT 
 
 all joy and thanksgiving, engaged not to molest 
 Idya by his presence before the marriage -day, and 
 forthwith set out for the mountain, without attempt- 
 ing to take leave of the poor girl whom he now 
 considered securely his own. 
 
 When Idya came, at her guardian's call, to hear 
 the arrangement made, she turned away her face 
 from him, that he might not see in the moonlight 
 the traces of tears. 
 
 After relating to her the plans laid, Miava told 
 her that she ought to rejoice in a prospect of mar- 
 ried happiness so much more promising than was 
 at all common. Xot only did her lover woo her 
 with a passion which was indisputable, but, from 
 their mode of life, it was improbable that he would 
 have more wives, — at least for a long time to come; 
 and before that time, she might, by devotedness 
 and prudence, have obtained an influence over him 
 which would secure her a considerable amount of 
 dignity and authority in the women's house, who- 
 ever might afterwards be the favourite. 
 
 Iclya could at first only weep : but she soon timidly 
 asked why she must many, when she wished to stay 
 and serve her guardian. 
 
38 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 " You are growing old," she said. " If I go, you 
 will grow cold and hungry, more and more ; — and 
 I " 
 
 " That is the very reason," replied the priest. " I 
 could not long give you a home. The cold and 
 weary season of my perishing is at hand ; and the 
 young should be about their business and their 
 pleasures. I had my time of youth and strength. 
 Now my turn with the old men is come ; and I 
 must grow more weak and poor and comfortless, till 
 I can live no longer. And your turn is come to be 
 the young man's wife." 
 
 Idya did not dream of disputing this, — so fixed 
 was the idea in all minds that the helpless, whether 
 from age, sickness, or desertion, had arrived at their 
 turn to perish. She therefore offered only a plea 
 for herself. She represented that there might 
 be some time yet before the feebleness of age 
 came on ; that Miava was not imperious and 
 requiring as young men were ; that she was now 
 free from ill-usage and hardship ; and that she had 
 rather not bind herself to such toils and sufferings 
 as a husband would inflict on her. She preferred 
 the kind voice and contented temper of her guardian 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 39 
 
 to Motuaro's present love ; and if he ceased to love 
 her, he might he very tyrannical. 
 
 This was true, Miava admitted : hut matters 
 would he made worse by delay. To he a first wife 
 was an opportunity not to he lost ; and she must 
 make no further ohjection. 
 
 Idya did make no further ohjection. At the 
 next new moon, she w T as married to Motuaro, with 
 such celehrations as the priest's influence could 
 provide, without the affair coming to the knowledge 
 of the king, or other enemies of the bridegroom, and 
 without danger of the young people being tracked 
 to their new and unsuspected home. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 VITAL TEIBUTE. 
 
 The home of the new-married pair was in a spot 
 which united safety and beauty with healthy influ- 
 ences. Wherever, through the whole circumference 
 of the island, a stream descended along a valley to 
 the shore, there was an opening in the reef opposite 
 the mouth of the valley and river, affording access 
 to the open sea just where fresh water was in abun- 
 dance. Where such openings occur may commonly 
 be found islets at the point of the reef, — the soil 
 brought down by the river, and the weed and drift 
 wood washed up by the sea, being accumulated 
 against the barrier, and rising at last to the height 
 of some feet above the water, affording a favourable 
 spot for seeds to germinate, for roots to bind the 
 soil, and at length for trees and shrubs to supply a 
 covert for birds and game. Such an islet was 
 chosen by Miava for the abode of the young people, 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 41 
 
 — removed so far from the scene of battle as to be 
 out of sight and reach of its effects, and yet so 
 decidedly in the district of desolation as to be safe 
 from the intrusion of any person on the other side 
 of the island. The little green platform was not 
 more than half a mile round. Three cocoa-nut 
 trees rose in the midst ; and a good deal of shrub- 
 bery afforded fuel at once, and promise of conceal- 
 ment in case of need. 
 
 In the dead of night, Motuaro ventured to the 
 little cove, near his former home, where his canoe 
 lay. and brought it round in the smooth water. It 
 was not long before Iclya had obtained enough of 
 the fibres of the cocoa-nut tree to make nets, where- 
 with she procured fish for their support. Their 
 abode was merely a hut of poles, set up between the 
 three trees, wattled with twigs, thatched with cocoa- 
 nut leaves, and the earthern floor strewn with dry 
 grass. Their only luxuries were the beauties of the 
 air, earth, and sea. These Motuaro continued to 
 enjoy a good deal of; as he did little but bask on 
 the shore, or bathe in the inlet. But Idya had no 
 time or thought to spare from the business of 
 n 
 
42 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 living, — poor as was the living obtained by her 
 utmost care and industry. For months after her 
 marriage, she rarely had news of her guardian. He 
 was hardly strong enough now to make so distant 
 an excursion ; — she could not be spared from home ; 
 and she did not dream of asking her husband to 
 take so long a walk to satisfy any anxiety of hers. 
 
 A season was at length approaching, in the pros- 
 pect of which Idya earnestly desired to see the 
 friend whom she loved best in the world. One 
 evening, her husband found her resting on the 
 ground, — apparently playing with the blossoms of 
 the white convolvulus, w T hich spread over the grass 
 and the coral sands, down to the very edge of the 
 water. Motuaro expected to find her at the oven, 
 baking his supper ; and he was not quite pleased. 
 He asked her what she was thinking of, to be 
 lying there. She replied, as she slowly rose, that 
 she was wondering whether Miava knew that a 
 child would soon be born to her. 
 
 Her husband asked if she felt afraid of being 
 alone with him. If this had been a fourth child, 
 which was to live, it would be necessary to have 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 43 
 
 some one with them, to take care of it. But he 
 knew how to dispose of it, and 
 
 Idya said it was about that that she wished to 
 see Miava. She supposed, however, that no mother 
 would be right in preserving her first child. 
 
 " No; nor the second," her husband replied. Of 
 course, she could have no time to attend to it, in 
 their present way of life ; — that was what he had to 
 say about it. Miava had other reasons to give, he 
 believed, which would show it to be very irreligious 
 and shocking to preserve a first child. Nobody did 
 it, as she well knew. 
 
 Idya had lived so much in the woods, alone with 
 her guardian, that she did not know much of what 
 was done in society. She wished she had asked 
 Miava about it ; for, she now would like to hear the 
 reasons why her heart ought not to feel so sad. 
 
 Motuaro told her that he thought he would go up - 
 to the priest's dwelling, this very night. He had a 
 reason. He had found a fine turtle ; and a turtle 
 could not be eaten by any man without the sanction 
 or participation of a priest. He would try to per- 
 suade Miava to come down, and eat the turtle with 
 
44 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 him. She must immediately supply him with food 
 to support him on the way ; and, as soon as he was 
 gone, she must hury the turtle in the sand, to 
 await his return. 
 
 Idya obeyed with alacrity. She had no interest 
 in the turtle, — no woman being permitted to taste 
 food so much more worthy of men : but she would 
 have undertaken any task for the chance of seeing 
 Miava. 
 
 She saw him the next evening. When the meal 
 of turtle was finished, and Motuaro dropped asleep, 
 and she stood behind the priest on the moon-lit 
 shore, she spoke with a beating heart the question 
 that lay so heavily there. She supposed that Mot- 
 uaro must destroy their infant, as soon as it should 
 be born. 
 
 " Certainly," replied Miava. "Can you doubt it ?" 
 
 Idya was silent. 
 
 " Motuaro said something to me of your having 
 feelings different from other women," continued the 
 old priest : " and you have lived very much out of 
 their way. But, besides the custom, there are the 
 reasons for the custom." 
 

 DAWN ISLAND. &5 
 
 " What are they?" cried Idya eagerly. " Could I 
 not carry my child on my shoulder while I am 
 baking and making cloth, and let it lie in the canoe 
 while I am fishing?" 
 
 " No," replied Miava. " Motuaro would not like 
 it. But it would also be a disrespect to the gods. 
 The brothers of Oro were bound to celibacy. Their 
 followers were bidden to live and die childless. 
 They could not let their children live. It is neces- 
 sary that some of our children should be reared : 
 but respect for the gods forbids that many should 
 live ; and among these, there must be no first- 
 born." 
 
 Idya had nothing to say to this. It was some 
 relief to her to hear that there were reasons extend- 
 ing beyond her husband and herself. Looking 
 forward without hope, she felt but little grief at the 
 time. She never heard the cry of her child, and 
 did not know the moment when its new breath was 
 stopped. The first time she raised her head from 
 her mat, Miava showed her the exact place in the 
 earthen floor where the infant had been trodden 
 down, a few inches below the surface. Some fresh 
 
46 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 grass was strewed over it ; and on the precise spot 
 did Motuaro many a day afterwards sit, to take his 
 meals. 
 
 Miava thought he perceived that Idya, when 
 she soon arose from her mat in order to bathe, 
 avoided treading on that spot ; and Idya thought 
 she perceived that Miava watched, to see whether 
 she did so or not. 
 
 She might be right ; for Miava's mind was far 
 from being at rest while haunted by the old pro- 
 phecy. As he sat alone in the canoe that evening, 
 apparently enjoying the lulling motion given by the 
 ebb and flow of the waves through the opening in 
 the reef, his meditations were not altogether as 
 serene as his position and the scene before his eyes. 
 
 " The shark is a horrid foe," thought he; "and 
 no year passes but a shriek is heard from the shore, 
 and blood is seen upon the waters, because the 
 shark is there. — The water-spout is very fearful ; 
 and in the stormy months, we know that some 
 canoe or fleet is doomed to be engulphed, and the 
 rowers to be seen no more. — War is more fatal than 
 ten water-spouts or a hundred sharks. — But for ten 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 47 
 
 warriors there die a hundred infants. Those who 
 are born should be more than those who die ; but if 
 every man has one or two living children, and many 
 more dead, how are our valleys to be peopled again ? 
 and will not rather the twenty peopled valleys 
 become two?" He looked up the valley, and marked 
 the clumps and groves that bordered the stream. 
 He then gazed down into the clear depths of the 
 inlet, and sighed forth the too familiar words, " The 
 forest-tree shall grow, — the coral shall spread, — but 
 man shall cease." 
 
 % 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE PRIEST AND THE ADVENT. 
 
 When Idya bathed, she did it with all the energy 
 and enjoyment of the women of her tribe, who, 
 having few other pleasures and much fatigue, revel 
 in this mode of refreshment. It was her delight to 
 dive to the deepest hollow of the white sands, for 
 any tempting object she perceived there; and to 
 swim out through the opening in the reef, to sport 
 with the breakers beyond. — One day, before the old 
 priest had returned to his home, and when he was 
 sleeping away among the shrubs the hottest hour of 
 the day, Idya had thus gone out some way into the 
 open sea, for the pleasure of being brought back by 
 the tide, when, rising from a dive, she saw some- 
 thing more wonderful than all that the coral caves 
 contained. 
 
 On wakening Miava, and as she stood beside 
 him with dripping hair and her garment hastily 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 49 
 
 wrapped round her, she told him that she had seen 
 a floating island, carried along by wings. At first 
 she had thought it a very large bird, sent from the 
 moon ; but on looking again, she doubted about its 
 being alive. 
 
 As she spoke, Miava looked extremely grave. He 
 observed that there was an old prophecy which his 
 father had desired him never to forget, or permit to 
 be forgotten, — that some day a canoe without an 
 out-rigger* would arrive from another world, and 
 would be the cause of great changes. 
 
 " But this is not a canoe," objected Idya. 
 
 "Not like a canoe a hundred times larger than 
 ours?" 
 
 " No. And besides, no canoe could hold men, or 
 swim for a moment without an out-rigger." 
 
 " So said the people to the prophet, at the time. 
 But he launched his wooden dish on a pool, and it 
 floated; and he said it was thus that the great 
 canoe would come." 
 
 * An out-rigger is an appendage to a single canoe -whereoy 
 its "balance is preserved, and it is prevented from sinking 
 when loaded. 
 
50 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 "Let us climb the tree," said Idya, " and see 
 whether the swimming island is in sight. — O ! can- 
 not you climb at all? — I will tell you what I see; 
 but you will not believe me." 
 
 From the loftiest of the three trees, she saw very 
 well what she wanted. But, after a while, she slid 
 rapidly down the stem, being unable to endure the 
 vision any longer. The vessel was coming nearer 
 and nearer; and she had perceived that there were 
 living and moving beings on board. 
 
 In silent consternation, she and Miava sat watch- 
 ing just within the verge of the shade. At length, 
 Idya uttered a loud shriek, and even Miava hid his 
 face in the grass for a minute, as an awful spectacle 
 presented itself. A large and strange boat appeared 
 in the opening, and it had no out- rigger ! This boat 
 held ten personages, who were rowing somewhat as 
 men paddle; but Miava could not think they were 
 men, from their appearance. At all events, they were 
 not inhabitants of the world, as he told Idya, — im* 
 ploring her not to shriek again, but to let the ap- 
 parition pass by. The shriek had, however, been 
 heard. The strange boat did not immediately stop, 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 51 
 
 but proceeded to the shore ; but one of the rowers 
 pointed out to his comrades something on the islet. 
 Of course, the cowering pair thought they were 
 perceived; and they shook in every fibre of their 
 frames ; but it might be only the roof of the hut, or 
 the cocoa-nuts on the trees that were observed by 
 the stranger. 
 
 "It is true; — the day is come!" exclaimed the 
 old priest, as soon as he dared speak. "We have 
 seen the out-riggerless canoe ; and these visitors are 
 people from behind the sky." 
 
 " They have faces," said Idya, whose eyes were 
 better than the old man's. " They have faces; but 
 they are almost as white as the sand ; and in 
 nothing else are they like men. — What shall we 
 do? Shall we drown ourselves?" 
 
 "Not yet," said Miava. "We can still do that, 
 if they prove too dreadful. And they may be mes- 
 sengers from the foundation of the world. We 
 must wait." 
 
 They were nearly sick with waiting and ex- 
 pectation, when Motuaro appeared. He popped 
 up his head from the smooth water, scrambled on 
 
52 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 shore, and threw himself down beside the priest 
 and Idya. 
 
 He had seen them, — seen more of the strangers 
 than any one else yet. He had been fishing, — an 
 exercise which he had had the grace to undertake 
 while his wife was recovering her full strength. He 
 was coming home with a good supply of fish, — sing- 
 ing at the top of his voice, and not looking behind 
 him as he paddled, trusting to the accustomed soli- 
 tude of the region, when he heard a shout from the 
 shore. What a sight he beheld ! There were several 
 pale man-like beings splashing about in the shallow 
 part of the stream, while two or three were on their 
 knees higher up, drinking greedily. He rubbed 
 his eyes ; but the vision remained ; and the appeal 
 to his ears left no doubt. The strangers beckoned 
 him to approach ; and their gestures were so dis- 
 tinct that he dared not disobey. He slowly paddled 
 towards them ; but his terror w r as so great when 
 two of the beings ran into the water to meet him, 
 laid white hands on his canoe, and shouted at sight 
 of the fish, that he threw himself over the stern, 
 dived to the lowest depths, swam for home, and left 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 53 
 
 his property as a sacrifice to the people from behind 
 the sky. 
 
 These strange people, meantime, when they had 
 satisfied their thirst by bathing and drinking in the 
 stream, looked about for fruit and other fresh food ; 
 but, within the range of their view, all was desolate. 
 Nothing but rank and barren vegetation overspread 
 the scene of the late war. The voyagers turned 
 from the bare stems of the cocoa-nut trees, and the 
 prostrate bread-fruit trunks, and from the naked 
 rafters where fowls had once roosted, to look at the 
 islet whence they had heard the shriek. Presently, 
 their boat was nearing its little beach; and then 
 Miava appeared from the shade, approaching to 
 meet them. Xo other idea had entered his mind 
 than that they were messengers of evil, — all the 
 changes he had known in his life being for the 
 worse. He therefore confronted them first, — partly 
 that he might be their immediate victim, if neces- 
 sary, rather than his young companions ; and partly 
 that he might try the power of spells upon person- 
 ages so strange. 
 
 When he came near, he found that they were not 
 
54 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 all white. One man, though 'in all other respects 
 like the rest of the party, was of a complexion 
 nearly as brown as Motuaro's. This man not only 
 made signs of amity to the priest, but spoke so 
 that his words were for the most part understood. 
 He said that the white men came from another 
 country, far away. 
 
 "From another world, — from behind the sky," 
 replied Miava. " Have they a sun? or do they live 
 in a region of night ? They have the skins of those 
 who live in darkness, but they have eyes given 
 them for our sun." 
 
 " They live in our world, and our sun shines 
 upon them when it leaves us," said the interpreter. 
 
 Miava looked to the east, and from that horizon 
 to Evening Island he gazed slowiy round, and 
 shook his head. 
 
 " There are other islands, besides these two," 
 declared the interpreter. " I come from one fur- 
 ther towards the sunset than yonder island, and yet 
 the sun sets still far to the west. The foundations 
 of the world are further off than you know of; and 
 these men live between you and those regions of 
 
 

 DAWN ISLAND. 55 
 
 night. They not only live in the light of our sun, 
 but they eat food as we do, — hogs, and fowls, and 
 fruit." 
 
 The Europeans heard the familiar names of these 
 last articles, and, supposing the conference had 
 reached a practical point, now advanced, and hold- 
 ing out some unknown curiosities, repeated the 
 words denoting hogs, fowls, fruit. 
 
 Miava looked from one to another in bewilder- 
 ment. The sailors were not disposed to wait his 
 time. One threw sticks at the cocoa-nuts on the 
 trees, and brought down ripe and unripe at random- 
 One cut a stalk of sugar-cane, and found it so deli- 
 cious that others joined him. Two caught a hog, 
 and put it into a sack, and then into the boat. 
 They trusted to their commander's paying for what 
 they took; but when he perceived how unused 
 Miava was to barter, how unaware of the value of 
 the articles produced, he stopped the proceedings. 
 
 First, he caused all the cocoa-nuts to be piled in 
 one heap, and offered, through the interpreter, that 
 Miava should select from his goods what he thought 
 would pay for them. As it now indeed appeared 
 
56 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 that the visitors were not messengers of evil, the 
 priest was anxious to relieve his companions from 
 their terror ; and Motuaro and Idya came at his 
 cheerful call. Of many articles offered, they 
 could not at once perceive the value ; but there 
 were some which they coveted on the instant, — even 
 before Miava could satisfy himself that they were 
 not unhallow T ed. Above all, Idya, who spent many 
 a weary hour in kindling and watching the fire of 
 the oven, was struck and charmed by a little box 
 whose contents would make fire in a moment. She 
 considered it worth more than a whole grove of 
 cocoa-nuts. But her husband thought quite as well 
 of a pewter spoon, with which he saw a sailor help- 
 ing himself to the juice out of a sugar-cane. Motu- 
 aro at once saw the use of this, and how T it w T ould 
 aid him in his favourite occupation of feeding. The 
 captain accommodated matters by giving the spoon 
 in exchange for the canes. The hog then remained 
 to be paid for. 
 
 Miava eagerly insisted on the choice of an equi- 
 valent being his : and it was granted on a cry of 
 delight and admiration escaping from one usually 
 

 DAWN ISLAND. 57 
 
 so composed. The captain had observed that the 
 old man's sight had failed a good deal ; and he 
 placed first on his own nose, to show that they were 
 harmless, and then on Miava's, a pair of spectacles. 
 As soon as he could be persuaded to open his eyes, 
 how great was his amazement ! He saw distinctly 
 the faces of all around him, and the leaves of dis- 
 tant trees, and the crests of the waves beyond the 
 reef, and the blossoms of plants growing within the 
 wood. He gazed around him, uttering new excla- 
 mations at every discovery of some long-lost object 
 of sight, and then hurried away alone into the 
 shrubbery, in the fear that some accident or quarrel 
 might deprive him of his new treasure. 
 
 But what he saw during the daylight hours did 
 not affect him nearly so much as the revelations of 
 the night. When Idya had, wdth a beating heart, 
 lighted a match to kindle the fuel of the oven, and 
 Motuaro had supped, using his spoon for every 
 mouthful, they were glad to sleep after the fatigues 
 of so exciting a day. But the re-awakened sense of 
 the old man would not permit sleep to approach 
 him. As he cast his eyes upwards, trying whether 
 
58 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 he could see anything at midnight, he saw, through 
 a hole in the roof, a shining star. A starry night 
 was one of the fairest pictures in his memory. Now 
 it occurred to him that hy this magic power he 
 might enjoy it again. He rose hastily from his 
 mat, and went out, escaping from the canopy of the 
 trees to the open shore. There he remained for the 
 succeeding hours,— hours which made him young 
 again, not only in sensation, hut in emotion and 
 thought. 
 
 " Nothing is settled," thought he, " even to the 
 oldest, to whom the young come as to oracles. 
 News may arrive, even to our latest day ; and what 
 we knew and had forgotten comes again like news. 
 No one could better tell once where particular stars 
 were to he looked for than I; hut there had so 
 long been to me only a misty shine in the sky in 
 summer nights that I had almost forgotten the 
 sights that were behind it. And now the little yel- 
 low fires burn clearly, — so many that the gods 
 themselves can hardly count them. What would 
 Teoro think of them ; he who has always been dim- 
 eyed ? I will seek him out, and try to make him 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 59 
 
 see them. But I know something of what he will 
 feel, for I have this day been shown some wonder- 
 ful things, about which I have been dim-eyed from 
 my birth. I thought there had been no men but 
 those like ourselves, all living in the islands of this 
 wide sea ; but I am told, and I must believe it, 
 that very different men live somewhere in the world, 
 — knowing our sun, being able to float and fish in 
 our sea, and to drink water and eat flesh and fruit 
 as we do. They must be men, because they did 
 not draw out and devour our spirits, but chose rather 
 to eat fish and a hog. Yet they must have to do 
 with the gods, because they have magical powers, 
 and can give them to us, — causing fire to come in a 
 moment where there was none before, and making 
 dim eyes old and young by turns. If there are 
 such different kinds of men, how can I tell how 
 many sorts there may be ? And if there should be 
 many kinds, how much longer will it take for man 
 to cease ? At first, before I knew these strangers 
 to be men, I feared that they were sent to bring 
 men to an end quickly ; but now, if the world is so 
 very large, and the same sun shines on so many 
 
60 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 tribes, the end must be a good way off. The forest 
 tree may raise its head till it reaches the cloud that 
 hides the mountain-top, — the coral may spread out 
 till it binds together all the islands of the sea, 
 before man ceases altogether. Ah ! but," pondered 
 the old man, sinking from his mood of exultation 
 to despondency, "though this may be true about 
 the race altogether, may not our part of it be near 
 perishing ? Have I not seen it dwindle mournfully 
 in my day ? And who knows but these strangers 
 may come to hasten the destruction ! Yet no !" he 
 considered, brightening again. " The strangers 
 who w r ere to arrive in an out-riggerless canoe were 
 to cause remarkable changes ; and it would be no 
 change, but a sad continuation, if men were to 
 dwindle till they cease. These predictions seem to 
 contradict each other, as that about the wonderful 
 canoe contradicted the knowledge of all men. Yet 
 that one became clear. And these may become 
 clear. If these pale strangers should ever appear 
 again, I will ask whether men become fewer in other 
 parts of the great world, and whether their trees 
 grow tall and their corals spread wide. But I can 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 61 
 
 think of all this to-morrow ; and to-morrow the stars 
 will not be seen, and no one can look at the sun till 
 evening. Ah ha ! the moon is near the brim of the 
 sea! Can she have waned so much ? She looks as 
 if she had but five nights left; but her light is 
 strong on the waves, and I see them heave and 
 sparkle as I never do when she is roundest. Can 
 she be made young as my eyes are?" 
 
 This point might have been settled in a moment 
 by Miava's looking at the vanishing moon under 
 ordinary conditions ; and this, of course, he was 
 well aware of. But it was hard to part with his 
 new enjoyment for a moment; and while he was 
 considering about it, the moon dropped beneath the 
 waves. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 A HIGHER DISCLOSURE. 
 
 After this night of wondrous enjoyment, misfor- 
 tune was in store for the old man. Having seen 
 some of the beautiful things in which he had once 
 delighted, he had a mind for more. He desired 
 Idya to take him in the canoe to the clearest and 
 smoothest part of the inlet, that he might gaze 
 down, and once more see the branching corallines. 
 In the midst of his pleasure, the spectacles fell 
 from his nose into the water, and sank fathoms 
 deep. Miava covered his face with a corner of his 
 garment; for he was sorely grieved. Idya pre- 
 sently leaped into the water, and dived again and 
 again ; but it was some time before she could find 
 the spectacles ; and when she did, one glass was 
 gone, and the other broken. Idya wept abundantly ; 
 and there were tears on the old man's cheeks as 
 they drew to the shore. 
 
DAWK ISLAND. 63 
 
 There they found a fearful sort of consolation. 
 The white men were come again; at least, their 
 boat was riding in the cove. No one was visible 
 but two men who had been left in charge of the 
 boat, and who had found a pine- apple, a little way 
 off, which they were busily eating, — supposing they 
 had the beach all to themselves. Idya made a sign 
 of silence to the priest, pushed her canoe behind 
 some bushes, entered the water again, and swam to 
 the ship's boat, whence she soon returned with a 
 pair of spectacles, a spoon, and a box of matches. 
 
 Miava stroked her head, in sign of approbation of 
 her skill, and, drawing back a good way from the 
 water, put on his new spectacles. But where was 
 the beneficent power gone ? All objects were dim 
 and confused, — worse than when he used only his 
 own eyes. 
 
 He could not recover from his mortification and 
 perplexity, — with which was mingled a fear of the 
 displeasure of the god to whom he ought to have 
 promised an offering before Idya did the deed, — 
 Hiro, the god of thieves. 
 
 The Europeans landed, wholly unaware of the 
 
64 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 loss of their property. They came prepared for 
 barter on a somewhat larger scale, as well as to fill 
 their water-casks from the springs on the shore. 
 The captain was surprised at the depression of the 
 old man, whom he had seen so dignified and self- 
 possessed the day before ; but Motuaro, who pre- 
 sented himself in a trice, was as energetic a cus- 
 tomer as could be desired. The difficulty was that 
 the islanders had scarcely any thing to exchange for 
 the many articles they wished to have. The captain 
 first, to their great joy, offered to pay them for the 
 fish the sailors had taken the day before. For this, 
 he gave Idya a piece of cloth which looked to her 
 very curious and pretty. She wrapped it round her, 
 and found it much lighter and easier than that 
 which she herself had, with hard and protracted 
 toil, beaten out of the fibres of trees. Motuaro saw 
 at once the use of an axe, for which he gave a 
 hog, — his last hog, — saying to himself that Idya 
 must catch more fish, and he would try and find 
 turtle. There were knives and scissors ; and the 
 young people saw how useful such things might be 
 made ; but they had nothing to give for them. 
 
DAWN ISLAND. DO 
 
 They promised to collect fruits and fowls, and to 
 make some mats, if allowed a few days ; but in their 
 own minds they resolved to take what they wanted, 
 in some sly way, from the boat. 
 
 When the whites were about to depart, Miava 
 roused himself to use his present opportunity, and, 
 approaching the interpreter, begged him to win over 
 the captain to put the magic again into his spec- 
 tacles, that he might once more see beautiful things 
 with them. 
 
 The captain examined the spectacles, consulted 
 with one of the sailors, and then bade the interpre- 
 ter ask Miava how long he could see beautiful things 
 with that instrument. He told eloquently what he 
 had beheld yesterday and during the night, add- 
 ing that he had lost his treasure in the sea this 
 morning, and Idya had gone to the bottom to re- 
 cover it, 
 
 " The lie and the theft may be the woman's," 
 observed the captain to his men. " These are Dr. 
 Symons's spectacles, — unfit for old eyes. He must 
 have them back, of course ; and we must come to an 
 
66 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 understanding with these people. Get the old man 
 to sit down, Turoa," he added to the interpreter, 
 " and be sure you make him understand what I 
 say." 
 
 The captain and Miava sat down opposite to one 
 another on the grass, and the interpreter stood 
 beside them, — the sailors being ordered to fall back 
 out of hearing, and look well to the goods and the 
 boat. 
 
 " You are a priest, Turoa tells me," the captain 
 began ; " and therefore you must be thought wiser 
 than your neighbours." 
 
 Miava looked grave, and said that messengers 
 came and went between the gods and the priests. 
 
 "And do not the gods permit men to make 
 themselves comfortable by exchanging things with 
 one another, as we have been doing to-day ?" 
 
 "We grow fruit, and rear fowls and hogs, and 
 catch fish, each for ourselves," replied Miava, " and 
 when we send out warriors to plunder from our 
 enemies, and bring home wealth, the god Hiro goes 
 with them, — if we, the priests, can induce him." 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 67 
 
 " And then some of the wealth is brought to the 
 priests ?" 
 
 "Certainly. They have toil in praying and 
 watching." 
 
 " And what does Hiro say when you take plunder 
 from one another ?" 
 
 Miava looked shocked, and. said that was a crime 
 for which men and women were sometimes pun- 
 ished with death. Against such, guard was kept. 
 Large pieces of cloth were drawn up to the roof, 
 where thieves could not get them ; and small ones 
 were laid beside the pillow every night; and the 
 fowls and hogs were housed within the dwellings; 
 and every body was against thieves, and they were 
 always punished, when they could be caught. 
 
 "And if a pair of spectacles, like those, were 
 stolen from my boat, would the thief be put to 
 death?" 
 
 " Certainly not," replied Miava. "They would be 
 taken from strangers; and there is no harm in that." 
 " The old fellow is in earnest," observed the cap- 
 tain, aside to a comrade: "but I must make him 
 a little wiser, priest as he is. — Did your young 
 
68 DAWN ISLAND- 
 
 friend there find his canoe safe, after we were gone 
 yesterday ?" he inquired of Miava. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "And is he satisfied with what my men gave 
 him for his fish ?" 
 
 " Ask him." 
 
 " Why do you suppose we did not take the canoe 
 and the fish without troubling ourselves to give any 
 thing in return? We are strong men, — strong 
 enough to carry away by force all that we wish for 
 from this island." 
 
 " There are many warriors on the other side," 
 declared Miava. 
 
 "Yes; but warriors cannot stand against thun- 
 derbolts ; and we can blow thunder and lightning 
 upon your people till they lie dead upon the ground, 
 thicker than the skeletons we saw heaped together 
 yonder." 
 
 " And," interposed Turoa, " they are struck dead 
 by these thunderbolts before they have time to 
 throw a spear. And, besides, the whites can do 
 this from such a distance that no spear can reach 
 them." 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 69 
 
 " Is this true ?" asked Miava, bewildered. 
 
 " Quite true," said the captain: "but we do not 
 w T ish to blow our thunder here, — unless you would 
 like to see it." 
 
 Miava was quite satisfied with hearing of it. 
 
 "Well; why do you suppose we do not take all 
 you have by force ?" 
 
 " We might hide our things, and go away into 
 the mountains in the night." 
 
 "Just so. We should not get what we want if we 
 frightened you away, and spoiled your property. 
 We wish to be friends with you ; and for several 
 reasons. We like to see people look cheerful and 
 glad when we come among them. We like to sup- 
 ply you with things which make you comfortable 
 and pleased ; and w r e like to be able to come to your 
 island, and get fresh water when we are thirsty, 
 without putting any body into a fright, or having to 
 hurt any one. But if you hurt us, w T e shall be angry 
 perhaps ; and if not, we must go and give our useful 
 and wonderful things to some other people." 
 
 " We cannot hurt people who blow thunderbolts," 
 humbly observed Miava. 
 
70 DAWN ISLAND 
 
 " Yes, you can, though you cannot kill us. A 
 wise man who is my friend cannot see the small 
 plants on the ground, nor the leaves on the tall 
 trees to-day, because you have got his spectacles," — 
 pointing to the pair held by Miava. The old man, 
 in indistinct shame at the detection, and in an 
 equally vague fear of seeing a thunderbolt issue 
 from some one's mouth, hastened to surrender the 
 spectacles. No one would receive them, as they 
 belonged to no one present ; but Dr. Symons was 
 within hail, and he came gladly to recover his pro- 
 perty. 
 
 " Now try these," said the captain to Miava, ten- 
 dering him a pair like those of the day before. 
 Again the old man's delight burst all his restraints 
 of shyness and fear. He produced the frame of the 
 unlucky pair brought up from among the corallines. 
 
 " Why did not you show me these before ?" asked 
 the captain. "You see I can help you. Now — 
 what will you give me for these new ones ?" Observ- 
 ing a glance pass between one of his comrades and 
 another, he observed, "Ay, I would give him spec- 
 tacles, and any thing else he had a mind to, with 
 

 DAWN ISLAND. 71 
 
 all my heart ; but don't you see, the best kindness I 
 can do him and the people of the island is to teach 
 them to trade, — and honestly? A few sugar-canes 
 and hogs are cheap payment for the best lesson any 
 one ever taught them." 
 
 The sailors agreed in this; but one could not 
 resist adding to the value of the article by tying the 
 spectacles on the old man's head with a piece of 
 black ribbon out of his own private store. Miava 
 promised any thing and every thing in his power, 
 as the price of this purchase. In consideration of 
 the accident by which he lost the first pair, a turtle, 
 duly consecrated by him, was accepted in payment. 
 
 The captain then opened to the awakened mind 
 of the old man a view of the comforts which would 
 be at the command of the islanders, if they could 
 trade. He showed him axes enough for half the 
 householders in the region. He showed him clasp- 
 knives, tin-bowls, looking-glasses, hammers, and 
 nails, and promised to prove to him at night that he 
 could make his dwelling light in the inside, while 
 all was dark without. But he explained that many 
 men had worked hard to make these wonderful 
 
72 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 things, and that something that was wanted must 
 be given in return, or there would be no encourage- 
 ment to bring them. Both promised to consider 
 well what the islanders could offer, or learn to pro- 
 vide, in exchange for such beneficial supplies. 
 
 For hours did Miava ponder this conversation. 
 One of the practical conclusions he drew was of 
 some importance. 
 
 " When neighbours in a valley can exchange 
 things so as to please one another, there is cheerful- 
 ness, and none of the anger and danger that there 
 are when men snatch or steal what they wish for, 
 without considering whether the owner likes to part 
 with the property. If these neighbours were always 
 to consider each what he himself would like to be 
 done to him, and do so to the other, there would be 
 continual peace between them. And if all in the 
 valley were to do the same, there would be peace 
 from end to end. And if," he continued, brighten- 
 ing, "it were so through the whole island, there 
 would be no more war. And if other kinds of men 
 and ourselves were to do the same, there would be 
 no terror, nor blowing of thunderbolts, and we 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 73 
 
 should have their wonderful gifts, and they would 
 have our fresh fruits when they are thirsty, and our 
 mats for a shade at noon. If every where men 
 could so please one another as they would be 
 pleased themselves, and there was peace, man 
 would not cease for a long time yet. But then — " 
 and his heart sank — "how could it be about the 
 sacrificing of men to the gods ? for no man likes to 
 be sacrificed to Oro; and yet somebody must be 
 devoted by the priests. I must think about this," 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SPIBITUAL TKIBUTE. 
 
 The strongest desire was excited in the minds of 
 Miava and his companions to obtain more of the 
 precious articles brought by the strangers. All the 
 rest of that day, they consulted about raising the 
 means of purchase. Idya was to work harder than 
 she had ever done in her life before, and Motuaro 
 himself promised to go fishing. Idya prepared to 
 go to a marshy place at the foot of the mountains, to 
 catch wild ducks, — a delicate process, about which 
 she was very clever, — swimming softly and slowly, 
 her head covered with a calabash, and thus ap- 
 proaching the birds unseen, and then pulling them 
 quickly under the water by the feet, before they 
 could give notice to their companions. She was also 
 to take her sling, and bring down some wood pigeons. 
 On receiving this last order, she looked grave. 
 
 Miava observed that these were all things to eat 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 75 
 
 and drink, — things that would soon disappear, and 
 leave no trace for the foreigners to remember them 
 by. If the strangers could cany something to their 
 own country which people there would admire or 
 could use, the captain might return, and bring more 
 wonderful gifts to the island. Idya must go 
 through the whole thicket, and see how many cotton 
 shrubs there were, and what prospect of seed there 
 was, that she might plant some, and raise cotton, — 
 as the interpreter said was done in his island. And 
 she might mark the sandal-wood trees for the cap- 
 tain to look at. Some of his men had talked of 
 bringing axes on shore, Turoa had declared, to fell 
 and carry away sandal- wood, 
 
 Idya made no reply but by a shudder till her hus- 
 band had gone out, — which he presently did when 
 there was talk of real work to be done. She then 
 entreated Miaya not to send her alone into the 
 bushes, for she was afraid, — not of any man, — not 
 of the gods, — but of her own babe. On the lagoon 
 or the shore, she could look around her and fear 
 nothing ; but in the thickets, the spirit of her child 
 appeared to be every where, — she could not escape 
 
70 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 from the spectacle of it ; and into the bushes she 
 really dared not go. 
 
 Miava attempted to console her by saying that in 
 this vision there was nothing uncommon. He 
 named several women whom he knew to be thus 
 haunted by their lost babes, till some of their off- 
 spring were allowed to live, when the liability 
 usually ceased. A sinful thought here crossed his 
 mind, — so shocking that he put it down, — that it 
 was ungrateful and unkind of the gods to torment 
 thus the mothers who showed respect to their celi- 
 bacy, while, if the same women indulged their own 
 natural affections, they would not be afraid in the 
 thickets, or any where else. 
 
 Miava's compassion for his young daughter made 
 him wish, as he said, that Motuaro would under- 
 take that part of their business which she shrank 
 from ; but, while thieving from strangers was con- 
 sidered an innocent act, there was no chance of 
 men being roused from their indolence to honest 
 industry. Motuaro was now swimming off to the 
 ship, hoping to bring away some booty from the 
 boat, or by a sly and adventurous visit on board. 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 77 
 
 He swam round once, unperceived, and he found 
 something so desirable in the course of that circuit, 
 that he had no immediate wish to look further. The 
 ship's flag was hanging so low as to touch the 
 water. Its gay colours and wonderful fabric at- 
 tracted Motuaro's cupidity, and he seized it, and 
 had nearly cut away half of it when a shout from 
 on board warned him to retreat. He had, of course, 
 no idea of the sacredness of a flag. The captain 
 knew this, and thought the present a proper oppor- 
 tunity for duly impressing the islanders with a 
 sense of it. He ordered guns to be fired after the 
 swimmer, — taking care that the aim should not be 
 at him, but at the cocoa-nut trees which oversha- 
 dowed his dwelling. 
 
 The middle tree rocked and fell with a crash 
 which terrified Miava and Idya as thoroughly as 
 the captain intended. Idya could see the men on 
 board stoop to the guns, as they took aim, and then 
 send forth flame, noise, and destruction. 
 
 "They are blowing thunderbolts !" she and 
 Miava exclaimed at the same moment. 
 
 They next saw that Motua.ro was swimming 
 
78 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 homewards at his utmost speed, and for a moment 
 they wondered that he had been spared. But it 
 was only for a moment. He shrieked out, "The 
 shark !" — leaped half out of the water with a cry of 
 agony, and then disappeared amidst the wide stain 
 of his own blood, which dyed the breakers and the 
 lagoon to the very shore. 
 
 The captain was concerned, — not doubting that 
 a shot had unintentionally reached the thief. He 
 sent out a boat to pick up the victim, whose mangled 
 remains showed at a glance what had been the man- 
 ner of his death. 
 
 That night, the captain stood, with Miava and 
 the interpreter, beside the bier, on which the dead 
 man was placed in a sitting posture, his ghastly 
 face appearing above the coverings which hid the 
 rest of the body. No countenance and manner 
 could be less formidable to most people than those 
 of the captain; but Miava regarded him with a 
 painful awe. One cause of this was that the captain 
 had fulfilled his promise of making a dwelling light 
 within, while all was darkness without. He had 
 caused the shed (to which one end of the dwelling 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 79 
 
 was now reduced by the fall of the tree) to be lighted 
 up with lamps, — a spectacle perfectly new in the 
 island. The unwholesome floor had also been 
 swept out, and strewn thick with white coral sand, 
 which seemed to glitter in the lamp light. 
 
 " Tell me," said Miava, solemnly, " are the 
 sharks your messengers ? The blue sharks are the 
 messengers of our gods ; and you come from near 
 their region of night. If the sharks are your ser- 
 vants, tell me so." 
 
 " They are not," replied the captain, with a con- 
 vincing seriousness. " I did not desire this man's 
 death. If I had, I could have struck him dead in 
 a moment, as I knocked down your tall tree. I 
 wished him to live, and remember that he must not 
 steal from foreigners, — and particularly that he 
 must not touch their sacred things." 
 
 Turoa here conveyed to the priest some idea of 
 how and why national flags were tabooed; and 
 Miava promised to teach the king and his subjects 
 so distinctly that there could be no mistake, that no 
 one of them could lay hands on this token of world- 
 wide citizenship, and hope to live. When Miava 
 
80 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 heard that no men on earth need ever hope to buy 
 it, — that no captain would ever sell it for the wealth 
 of the whole world, he was so deeply impressed as 
 to wonder no longer that the gods had taken up the 
 cause of the white men, and had sent a shark to 
 destroy Motuaro. 
 
 He timidly inquired whether, in the country of 
 the flag, Motuaro's widow and family would he 
 tabooed. He was relieved and surprised by the 
 answer that individuals were answerable for their 
 own sins, and that Idya would be pitied and aided, 
 — she being innocent of all offence. 
 
 "Then," he exclaimed, "you will not cause her 
 to be tabooed here." 
 
 " Certainly not. Show me how I can serve her, 
 and I will prove to you how we think on these mat- 
 ters. Where and how will she live ?" 
 
 "Where and how would you wish her to live?" 
 asked Miava submissively, — affording an opportu- 
 nity for a lesson which the captain did not throw 
 away. 
 
 "What person in the world does she love best?" 
 
 " She loves no one but me." 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 81 
 
 "What? has she no child?" 
 
 That sad story was soon told ; and the mournful 
 impression it made on the captain struck Miava 
 forcibly. 
 
 " Did she love her husband?" 
 
 " No," replied Miava tranquilly. " It was neces- 
 sary that she should marry him ; but she loved only 
 me, her father." 
 
 " Then we need not be so sorry for her, after all," 
 said the captain, " except indeed about her babe. 
 If that infant had lived, she would have had some 
 one to love besides you, — some one to care for after 
 you are dead. And you would have had that little 
 one to play about your knees as you sit in the 
 shade, and lead you about when you grow more 
 blind. And you let that child be murdered !" 
 
 "You are displeased now," pleaded Miava ; " and 
 the gods, and the priests, and the king, would have 
 been angry if the child had lived." 
 
 " How do you know that your gods would have 
 been angry ?" 
 
 " They would have sent misfortunes on Idya and 
 all of us. if we had let a first-born child live ?" 
 
82 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 " Have you ever tried ? I will answer for it there 
 are many mothers willing to try whether it is really 
 so, if you would let them have their way. Would 
 not Idya herself, if you had not overborne her ?" 
 
 " She would. But to show this disrespect to the 
 gods ! — who could dare to permit it ?" 
 
 The captain quietly said that he doubted whether 
 the gods were satisfied with things as they were. 
 He would show respect to them in a different way. 
 
 With extreme eagerness, Miava inquired his 
 meaning, saying, 
 
 " You come from near the foundations of the 
 world. You may know more of these things than 
 we do. How may we best show respect to the 
 gods ?" 
 
 " Do they show your people any lasting favour 
 now?" asked the captain. " If I saw yonder valley 
 full of happy families, I should think you had 
 found a way to please your gods ; but I see it deso- 
 late and spread with skeletons. I look for husbands 
 and wives who love each other, and carry their 
 infants in their arms ; and here I find a widow who 
 cannot mourn that her husband is dead in his 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 83 
 
 prime, and who dares not go among the bushes lest 
 she should be haunted by the murdered child who 
 ought now to be asleep upon her bosom. What is 
 plainer than that she is punished by the gods for 
 some dreadful mistake? If such is the state of 
 things on the other side of your island, I should 
 say that the gods are so displeased that it would be 
 wise in you to try a new and a better way." 
 
 " There is an old prophecy which sounds in my 
 mind in every place at all times," said Miava. And 
 he mournfully repeated the familiar words. 
 
 "Why, there is a plain warning for you!" exclaim- 
 ed the captain. " Your men must cease while you 
 have wars, and murders at the altars and at the 
 birth of infants. If the forest-tree and the coral are 
 not good enough to offer to the gods, and man alone 
 is so, surely he is too good to perish out of the 
 world while forest-trees and corals are growing. — 
 Ah ! I see your difficulty. You think the gods must 
 have the best of created things devoted to them ; 
 and so do I." 
 
 " You do ?" 
 
 " Yes ; but in a very different way from yours. If 
 
84 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 you knew the gods to have one wish stronger than 
 any other, would you not think it most respectful to 
 observe it? Well! all that we know the gods to 
 have made and done shows to my mind that they 
 intend men to grow and ripen, like the fruit on the 
 trees, and not to fall till it is fully ripe. If you 
 planted a tree, and children and foolish people 
 plucked and threw away the fruit, — some as soon as 
 it showed itself, and the rest before it was ripe,— 
 would you not be displeased, and leave the tree to 
 perish ?" 
 
 " I w r ould taboo the fruit," observed Miava. 
 " That is right," said the captain. " I wish you 
 would taboo men's lives. That would be the best 
 respect to the gods, who made men live." 
 
 The priest covered his face in the agitation caused 
 by this suggestion of a vast idea. The captain 
 quietly left him, beckoning to Turoa to follow^ him. 
 "Taboo the life of man !" thought Miava, as he 
 stood alone beside the bier. " What then w T ould be 
 the tribute paid to the gods ? Would it not still be 
 the spirits of men, — of living instead of dead men ? 
 If the gods had rather that the spirits of men 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 85 
 
 should ripen and multiply, and be full of wisdom 
 and joy before they go to them in the region of 
 night, no wonder they are displeased at the number 
 of immature and unhappy wretches that we have 
 offered to them ! No wonder priests are haunted 
 by the warning that man shall cease ! My spiiit is 
 heavy and sad ; for their displeasure is terrible. 
 But if we can learn a better way, the anger and the 
 curse may be withdrawn, and man may again 
 increase. True was the prophecy, that the out- rig- 
 gerless canoe should bring about great changes in 
 our world !" 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 NATURE AND MAN AT PEACE. 
 
 The captain was not sorry that it suited his pur- 
 poses to move round to the peopled side of the 
 island, for he saw how the germs of civilization 
 which he and his traffic had planted in this new 
 soil might be fostered by his appearing before the 
 king and his subjects as the friend of the influen- 
 tial old priest. The funeral of Motuaro taking 
 place necessarily the next day, the body was con- 
 veyed round by the widow and Miava in their 
 canoe, a short time before the ship left her station. 
 
 A great number of eager inquirers were as- 
 sembled round the body, and the king had assured 
 himself that his tabooed subject was beyond the 
 reach of his wrath, when the attention of all was 
 called away by the spectacle of the vessel, so many 
 times larger than any they had ever seen, coming 
 round the point. Miava's explanations of this 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 81 
 
 vessel being the one indicated in the old prophecy 
 fell upon excited minds ; and all who heard were 
 ready to obey his directions to prepare for barter. 
 
 The exchanges of food and foreign goods were 
 carried on with more order than is usual on the 
 first occasion of a newly-discovered people being one 
 of the parties ; and when even the most fortunate 
 sellers found that, much as they had gained, there 
 were many other desirable things which they could 
 not have till they could offer commodities less 
 perishable and more valuable than food, it was 
 not difficult to bring them to a purpose of prepara- 
 tion for a better traffic, if the Europeans would pro- 
 mise to come again. Those who had axes engaged 
 to furnish sandalwood ; and others, enamoured of 
 cotton and linen cloths, and being assured that 
 they, by industry, could produce the cotton and 
 flax needed for such fabrics, began to inquire how 
 they could be instructed in the art of growing them. 
 Matting and cordage they could soon supply, to a 
 small amount; and tortoise-shell could be added, 
 when its European value was known. It was only 
 the comprehensive mind of the old priest which 
 
88 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 could grasp at once all these details, and take in 
 the prospect opened by the advent of Commerce 
 in his world. For him it was almost too much. 
 His breast heaved, as he put the question to the 
 captain, 
 
 "What shall I offer to our gods when I send 
 messengers to tell them that the out-riggerless 
 canoe has come ?" 
 
 "Lay before them," said the captain seriously, 
 " an axe, and a knife, and a looking-glass, and a 
 garment of cotton. These good things come out of 
 the spirits of men; and they will please the gods 
 till they themselves send natural death to bring the 
 spirits of men to them, when all the work is done 
 that they can do in your world." 
 
 The king understood Turoa's words of interpreta- 
 tion, and looked confounded. 
 
 " No more sacrifices of men !" he cried. 
 
 " No more," said the captain emphatically, 
 " unless you wish to offend the gods who send you, 
 by that vessel, the changes foretold long ago." 
 
 " But how shall I deal with my disobedient sub- 
 jects?" asked the king, innocently, " if I cannot rid 
 
DAWN ISLAND. b\) 
 
 myself of them, and keep them in fear by the 
 sacrifice ?" 
 
 " The gods will show favour very soon, and make 
 your world happier, and your subjects more con- 
 tented, and better able to pay tribute than ever 
 before ; so that there will be less need to make them 
 afraid. And men will increase ; and the more men 
 the more tribute." 
 
 " Men will increase ?" 
 
 "Yes; as surely as the forest- tree rises, and as 
 fast as the coral branches out over the sands of the 
 sea. But not unless you make one great change 
 which you have never yet been told." 
 
 " Tell us now," cried the king and priest in a 
 breath. 
 
 " I have told you that the gods will henceforth 
 have what the spirits of men can make and do, 
 rather than the spirits themselves ; mens works 
 and men's thoughts, rather than their bodies in 
 sacrifice. Do you hear me ?" 
 
 "Yes. Tell us the other great change." 
 
 " No one knows when the spirits of men begin to 
 work, or when they leave off ; or whether they work 
 o 
 
90 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 best when their bodies are weak, or when they are 
 strong. Every human creature that has a spirit in 
 him must therefore be taken care of, and kept alive 
 as long as possible, that his spirit may do all it can 
 in the world." 
 
 "How many spirits have we sent .away too 
 early !" exclaimed Miava. 
 
 "That was before these changes," said the cap- 
 tain. "When you try the new ways that are now 
 to begin, you will find how the spirits of old men 
 speak wise things, and how the spirits of little chil- 
 dren promise what they will do as men, — -just as 
 the day-spring promises what the noon will be. 
 And then your old men, and your blind and sick 
 people will not be left to perish because they are 
 weak; and no more infants will be destroyed." 
 
 "But w^hat can our women do, with so many 
 children?" 
 
 "In our country," the captain began 
 
 " That is near the foundation of the world ; — he 
 comes from nearer the gods than we are," the priest 
 solemnly reminded the king. 
 
 "In my country," pursued the captain, " we men 
 
DAWN ISLAND. Ul 
 
 do differently from you, because we love our chil- 
 dren, and do whatever we are permitted to keep 
 them alive. We ourselves get food and build 
 houses and obtain clothes. Our women make the 
 clothes, and keep the houses clean, and cook the 
 food, and take care of the children." 
 
 " And must we do as you do ?" 
 
 "You will do it because you like it, w T hen once 
 you let your infants live to show that they have 
 spirits. If a husband and a wife smile, like those 
 people there," — pointing to a man and woman who 
 were amused at their child's gambols, — "if one 
 child makes them smile so, think how their spirits 
 would laugh if all that they have destroyed were at 
 play beside them ! When every dwelling has such 
 laughter in it, you will know that the gods are 
 favourable, and that man will not cease." . 
 
 His hearers being absorbed in the contemplation 
 of these wondrous changes, their instructor, whom 
 they now regarded as a messenger from the gods, 
 gravely asked, 
 
 "Where is the mother of that dead man ?" 
 
 Miava looked doubtfully at the king. 
 
92 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 " Speak," said the king. 
 
 " But the taboo !" 
 
 " She must not be hurt," declared the captain. 
 " The taboo is to be buried in her son's grave." 
 
 " Then Motuaro's dwelling, yonder, in the valley 
 " said the priest. 
 
 " Is for her and for Idya to live in, and for you, 
 Miava, if you will, that all may see that the taboo 
 is taken off, and that the old and the feeble are to 
 be taken care of, for their spirits' sake. If you are 
 willing," he continued, turning to the king, " I will 
 fix a sign on the house which shall make all men 
 know and remember." 
 
 The king having nothing to object, a white flag 
 was presently fixed on the roof of Motuaro's dwell- 
 ing, marking it at once for safety, and as the abode 
 of the old priest. 
 
 That done, the captain and his people took leave 
 of the king and priest with parting presents, and 
 promises of further intercourse, either in their own 
 persons or by other messengers from the uttermost 
 parts of the world. 
 
 Groups were assembled on every headland, and 
 
DAWN ISLAND. 98 
 
 the tallest trees were occupied by men to watch the 
 sailing away of the mighty vessel. 
 
 " It has left behind the will of the gods," thought 
 Miava, " and great gifts from them. I too, whose 
 eyes were so dim, can see it depart as the young 
 men do. We know now of such changes as were 
 never told to men before since our world was made ; 
 and when these messengers come again, they will 
 perhaps show us more. But they have told us the 
 greatest news, — that man shalVnot now cease. That 
 curse is taken off." 
 
 " You were like a preacher or a prophet to these 
 poor people," observed Dr. Symons to the captain, 
 as they stood on deck, watching the receding shores 
 of the beautiful island. " Were my spectacles your 
 text? If so, they are highly honoured." 
 
 " Every thing is honoured, be it what it may," 
 replied the captain, "which is an instrument for 
 introducing the principles and incitements of civili- 
 zation among a puerile people. Yes, — I was their 
 preacher and prophet just now ; — and without affec- 
 tation, — without any hypocrisy. I thought of 
 
94 DAWN ISLAND. 
 
 nothing less, when I landed, than giving such a 
 discourse; but it warmed my heart and filled my 
 head to see how these children of nature were 
 clearly destined to be carried on some way towards 
 becoming men and Christians by my bringing 
 Commerce to their shores." 
 
 THE END. 
 
 MANCHESTER: 
 PRINTED BY J. GADSBY, NEWALL's-BUTLDINGS. 
 
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