United States or Laos ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
I have now sought to render without extenuation the impressions received: of dignity, plenty, and peace at Malie, of bankruptcy and distraction at Mulinuu. And I wish I might here bring to an end ungrateful labours. But I am sensible that there remain two points on which it would be improper to be silent.
The clansmen of the prisoners, to the number of near upon a hundred, lay in Vaiusu, a village half way between Apia and Malie; there they talked big, thence sent menacing messages; the gaol should be broken in the night, they said, and the six martyrs rescued.
Frewen was about to touch and awaken him but pity for a badly wounded man predominated, so he let him lie undisturbed. "Now, Mr. Raymond, I am at your service. Will you ask Malië to man his boats, and we will start towing again." "With pleasure. But let us first call our good men together and drink success to ourselves and the Esmeralda.
Mataafa at Vaiala, where he was the pledge of peace, had perhaps not always been deemed worthy of particular attention; Mataafa at Malie was seen, twelve hours too late, to be an altogether different quantity.
Closely followed by the five native boats, that in which Raymond was seated with Maliê, and which was steered by Randall Cheyne, first came alongside, and the latter called out to Foster, who was standing in the waist, to pass down the end of the tow line.
Now I am not a rich man, and even if you were willing to sell it to me for five thousand dollars, I could not buy it. But I will lease it from you for one year. I will not disturb any of your people, but at the end of the year I will make you another offer. There is some mischief on foot, Maliê. Let you and I go to Apia and find out who this man is, and why he is so eager to buy your land."
With excess of zeal on the other side, the officials trooped to their boats and proceeded almost in a body to Malie, where they seem to have employed every artifice of flattery and every resource of eloquence upon the fugitive high chief. These courtesies, perhaps excessive in themselves, had the unpardonable fault of being offered when too late.
This was at once done, and then, as Maliê and Raymond left the boat and ascended to the deck, Cheyne went ahead with his tow line, and was soon joined by the native craft, and within a quarter of an hour the Esmeralda was moving through the water. The instructions given to the half-caste by the chief and Frewen were to tow the ship to the south-east, with the land on the port hand.
"Ah, yes, I daresay it would," he said meditatively; then, as if struck with a sudden inspiration, he added quickly, "What about Malië? He has any number of boats a dozen at least." "Just the man!" replied Raymond. "He will let the captain have all the boats and men to man them that are wanted but he'll want to be paid for it."
On this occasion, however, Talitaua had merely come with Malië as a personal friend anxious to learn privately what he would probably have to communicate to the assembled people as soon as the discussion with Raymond was concluded.
Word Of The Day