By Reef and Palm

by Louis Becke

  A TRULY GREAT MAN

  A Mid-Pacific Sketch

  Then the flag of "Bobby" Towns, of Sydney, was still mighty in theSouth Seas. The days had not come in which steamers with brass-boundsupercargoes, carrying tin boxes and taking orders like merchants'bagmen, for goods "to arrive," exploited the Ellice, Kingsmill, andGilbert Groups. Bluff-bowed old wave-punchers like the SPEC, the LADYALICIA and the E. K. BATESON plunged their clumsy hulls into therolling swell of the mid-Pacific, carrying their "trade" of knives,axes, guns, bad rum, and good tobacco, instead of, as now, whiteumbrellas, paper boots and shoes, German sewing-machines and fancyprints--"zephyrs," the smartly-dressed paper-collared supercargo ofto-day calls them, as he submits a card of patterns to Emilia, thenative teacher's wife, who, as the greatest Lady in the Land, must havefirst choice.

  * * * * *

  In those days the sleek native missionary was an unknown quantity inthe Tokelaus and Kingsmills, and the local white trader answered allrequirements. He was generally a rough character--a runaway from someAustralian or American whaler, or a wandering Ishmael, who, for reasonsof his own, preferred living among the intractable, bawling, andpoverty-stricken people of the equatorial Pacific to dreaming away hisdays in the monotonously happy valleys of the Society and MarquesasGroups.

  * * * * *

  Such a man was Probyn, who dwelt on one of the low atolls of the ElliceIslands. He had landed there one day from a Sydney sperm whaler with achest of clothes, a musket or two, and a tierce of twist tobacco; withhim came a savage-eyed, fierce-looking native wife, over whose baredshoulders and bosom fell long waves of black hair; with her was a childabout five years old.

  The second mate of the whaler, who was in charge of the boat, notliking the looks of the excited natives who swarmed around thenewcomer, bade him a hurried farewell, and pushed away to the ship,which lay-to off the passage with her fore-yard aback. Then theclamorous people pressed more closely around Probyn and his wife, andassailed them with questions.

  So far neither of them had spoken. Probyn, a tall, wiry, scanty-hairedman, with quiet, deep-set eyes, was standing with one foot on thetierce of tobacco and his hands in his pockets. His wife glareddefiantly at some two or three score of reddish-brown women who crowdedeagerly around her to stare into her face; holding to the sleeve of herdress was the child, paralysed into the silence of fright.

  * * * * *

  The deafening babble and frantic gesticulations were perfectlyexplicable to Probyn, and he apprehended no danger. The head man of thevillage had not yet appeared, and until he came this wild license ofbehaviour would continue. At last the natives became silent and partedto the right and left as Tahori, the head man, his fat body shiningwith coconut oil, and carrying an ebony-wood club in his hand, stood infront of the white man and eyed him up and down. The scrutiny seemedsatisfactory. He stretched out his huge, naked arm, and shook Probyn'shand, uttering his one word of Samoan--"TALOFA!" [Lit., "My love to you",the Samoan salutation] and then, in his own dialect, he asked: "What isyour name, and what do you want?"

  "Sam," replied Probyn. And then, in the Tokelau language, which thewild-eyed people around him fairly understood, "I have come here tolive with you and trade for oil"--and he pointed to the tierce oftobacco.

  "Where are you from?"

  "From the land called Nukunono, in the Tokelau."

  "Why come here?"

  "Because I killed an enemy there."

  "Good!" grunted the fat man; "there are no twists in thy tongue; butwhy did the boat hasten away so quickly?"

  "They were frightened because of the noise. He with the face like afowl's talked too much"--and he pointed to a long, hatchet-visagednative, who had been especially turbulent and vociferous.

  * * * * *

  "Ha!" and the fat, bearded face of Tahori turned from the white man tohim of whom the white man had spoken--"is it thee, Makoi? And so thoumadest the strangers hasten away! That was wrong. Only for thee I hadgone to the ship and gotten many things. Come hither!"

  Then he stooped and picked up one of Probyn's muskets, handed it to thewhite man, and silently indicated the tall native with a nod. The othernatives fell back. Niabong, Probyn's wife, set her boy on his feet, puther hand in her bosom and drew out a key, with which she opened thechest. She threw back the lid, fixed her black eyes on Probyn, andwaited.

  Probyn, holding the musket in his left hand, mused a moment. Then heasked:

  "Whose man is he?"

  "Mine," said Tahori; "he is from Oaitupu, and my bondman."

  "Hath he a wife?"

  "Nay; he is poor, and works in my PURAKA [A coarse species of taro (ARUMESCULENTUM) growing on the low-lying atolls of the mid-Pacific.] field!"

  "Good," said Probyn, and he motioned to his wife. She dived her handinto the chest and handed him a tin of powder, then a bullet, a cap,and some scraps of paper.

  Slowly he loaded the musket, and Tahori, seizing the bondman by hisarm, led him out to the open, and stood by, club in hand, on the alert.

  Probyn knew his reputation depended on the shot. He raised his musketand fired. The ball passed through the chest of Makoi. Then four menpicked up the body and carried it into a house.

  * * * * *

  Probyn laid down the musket and motioned again to Niabong. She handedhim a hatchet and blunt chisel. Tahori smiled pleasantly, and, drawingthe little boy to him, patted his head.

  Then, at a sign from him, a woman brought Niabong a shell of sweettoddy. The chief sat cross-legged and watched Probyn opening the tierceof tobacco. Niabong locked the box again and sat upon it.

  "Who are you?" said Tahori, still caressing the boy, to the white man'swife.

  "Niabong. But my tongue twists with your talk here. I am of Naura(Pleasant Island). By-and-by I shall understand it."

  "True. He is a great man, thy man," said the chief, nodding at Probyn.

  "A great man, truly. There is not one thing in the world but he can doit."

  "E MOE [true]," said the fat man, approvingly; "I can see it. Look you, heshall be as my brother, and thy child here shall eat of the best in theland."

  Probyn came over with his two hands filled with sticks of tobacco.

  "Bring a basket," he said.

  A young native girl slid out from the coconut grove at Tahori'sbidding, and stood behind him holding a basket. Probyn counted out intoit two hundred sticks of tobacco.

  "See, Tahori. I am a just man to thee because thou art a just man tome. Here is the price of him that thou gavest to me."

  Tahori rose and beckoned to the people to return. "Look at this man. Heis a truly great man. His heart groweth from his loins upwards to histhroat. Bring food to my house quickly, that he and his wife and childmay eat. And to-morrow shall every man cut wood for his house, a housethat shall be in length six fathoms, and four in width. Such men as hecome from the gods."