There is no need of saying that the address afforded us great satisfaction. Early the next morning land was sighted, and a favorable wind soon brought us within a mile of the shore. A curious-looking boat, containing three natives, approached. It was curious in that it had so little beam and was so light and fragile. It was built for speed and not for carrying merchandise. One of the men boarded our vessel, and from signs he made and from his familiar air, we knew that he offered himself as hostage and that he had already served in that capacity. His dress consisted of a cloth around the loins and a broad-brimmed straw hat. He was brown-skinned and his arms were tattooed.
Soon we saw boats leaving the shore, and we dropped our boats to meet them. All the articles and fittings which a whaleboat carries were taken out of two of our boats, and what little trade we took (and we didn’t take much) was placed in one of them. Each was towed by a whaleboat, one of which was in charge of the captain and the other of Lakeum. The meeting was about half a mile from the shore. The sea was remarkably calm. While the boats of the South Sea islanders are generally not made for commercial purposes, the two which approached were exceptions. They were large, clumsy affairs, each propelled by two men, and in one of them was a white man with a scraggly beard and a repulsive countenance. He wore a tattered straw hat, rusty trousers and an old dirty shirt. There was no need of an introduction. We knew that he was Pete Ellyon. Our own captain did not even deign to address him. In one of these boats were yams which resembled potatoes, some of which weighed from twelve to fifteen pounds, tarrows, which resembled turnips, oranges, bananas, breadfruit, coconuts and other vegetables and fruits, and in the other boat goats, pigs and fowl. The trading went on slowly. Bargains were made largely by signs, Ellyon serving as a hindrance; for as he spoke both English and the local jargon, he constantly interrupted the proceedings and always, of course, in the interests of the islanders. It took the whole morning to transfer the entire merchandise to our boats, and I was astounded to see how little of our own trade we parted with. I remember particularly two transactions greatly to our advantage—one in which the captain gave a small hatchet for about five bushels of oranges and a dozen bunches of bananas, and the other, in which he traded three yards of cotton cloth for a large pig.