第96章 THE KING OF APEMAMA:FOUNDATION OF EQUATOR TOWNOUR(

First sight of Tembinok'was a matter of concern,almost alarm,to my whole party.We had a favour to seek;we must approach in the proper courtly attitude of a suitor;and must either please him or fail in the main purpose of our voyage.It was our wish to land and live in Apemama,and see more near at hand the odd character of the man and the odd (or rather ancient)condition of his island.

In all other isles of the South Seas a white man may land with his chest,and set up house for a lifetime,if he choose,and if he have the money or the trade;no hindrance is conceivable.But Apemama is a close island,lying there in the sea with closed doors;the king himself,like a vigilant officer,ready at the wicket to scrutinise and reject intrenching visitors.Hence the attraction of our enterprise;not merely because it was a little difficult,but because this social quarantine,a curiosity in itself,has been the preservative of others.

Tembinok',like most tyrants,is a conservative;like many conservatives,he eagerly welcomes new ideas,and,except in the field of politics,leans to practical reform.When the missionaries came,professing a knowledge of the truth,he readily received them;attended their worship,acquired the accomplishment of public prayer,and made himself a student at their feet.It is thus -it is by the cultivation of similar passing chances -that he has learned to read,to write,to cipher,and to speak his queer,personal English,so different from ordinary 'Beach de Mar,'

so much more obscure,expressive,and condensed.His education attended to,he found time to become critical of the new inmates.

Like Nakaeia of Makin,he is an admirer of silence in the island;broods over it like a great ear;has spies who report daily;and had rather his subjects sang than talked.The service,and in particular the sermon,were thus sure to become offences:'Here,in my island,I 'peak,'he once observed to me.'My chieps no 'peak -do what I talk.'He looked at the missionary,and what did he see?'See Kanaka 'peak in a big outch!'he cried,with a strong ring of sarcasm.Yet he endured the subversive spectacle,and might even have continued to endure it,had not a fresh point arisen.He looked again,to employ his own figure;and the Kanaka was no longer speaking,he was doing worse -he was building a copra-house.The king was touched in his chief interests;revenue and prerogative were threatened.He considered besides (and some think with him)that trade is incompatible with the missionary claims.'Tuppoti mitonary think "good man":very good.Tuppoti he think "cobra":no good.I send him away ship.'Such was his abrupt history of the evangelist in Apemama.

Similar deportations are common:'I send him away ship'is the epitaph of not a few,his majesty paying the exile's fare to the next place of call.For instance,being passionately fond of European food,he has several times added to his household a white cook,and one after another these have been deported.They,on their side,swear they were not paid their wages;he,on his,that they robbed and swindled him beyond endurance:both perhaps justly.A more important case was that of an agent,despatched (as I heard the story)by a firm of merchants to worm his way into the king's good graces,become,if possible,premier,and handle the copra in the interest of his employers.He obtained authority to land,practised his fascinations,was patiently listened to by Tembinok',supposed himself on the highway to success;and behold!

When the next ship touched at Apemama,the would-be premier was flung into a boat -had on board -his fare paid,and so good-bye.

But it is needless to multiply examples;the proof of the pudding is in the eating.When we came to Apemama,of so many white men who have scrambled for a place in that rich market,one remained -a silent,sober,solitary,niggardly recluse,of whom the king remarks,'I think he good;he no 'peak.'

I was warned at the outset we might very well fail in our design:yet never dreamed of what proved to be the fact,that we should be left four-and-twenty hours in suspense and come within an ace of ultimate rejection.Captain Reid had primed himself;no sooner was the king on board,and the Hennetti question amicably settled,than he proceeded to express my request and give an abstract of my claims and virtues.The gammon about Queen Victoria's son might do for Butaritari;it was out of the question here;and I now figured as 'one of the Old Men of England,'a person of deep knowledge,come expressly to visit Tembinok's dominion,and eager to report upon it to the no less eager Queen Victoria.The king made no shadow of an answer,and presently began upon a different subject.