Louis Becke

“ As the first note of the great grey pigeon sounded the dawn, the trader’s boat sailed softly up to the Salua beach, and old Lupetea rose, and, bidding the crew good-bye, and calling down blessings on the head of the good and clever white man, as she rubbed his and the girl’s noses against her own, she grasped her Basket of Bread-fruit and went ashore. Then the trader, with Salomē nestling to his side, sailed out again into the ocean towards his home. ”

“ The cool land-breeze freshened as the sail was hoisted, and then the crew besought the trader not to run down inside the reef. Bullets, they said, if fired in plenty, always hit something, and the sea was fairly smooth outside the reef. And old Lupetea grasped his hand and muttered in his ear, “For the sake of this my little daughter go outside. See, now, I am old, and to lie when so near death as I am is foolish. Be warned by me and be wise; sail out into the ocean, and at daylight we shall be at Salua in Manono. Then thou canst set my feet on the shore—I and the basket. ”

“ But the girl shall go with thee. Thou canst marry her, if that be to thy mind, in the fashion of the papalagi, or take her fa’a Samoa. [5] Thus will I keep faith with thee. If the girl be false, her neck is but little and thy fingers strong.”
Now the trader thought in this wise: “This is well for me, for if I get the girl away thus quietly from all her relations I shall save much in presents,” and his heart rejoiced, for although not mean he was a careful man. So he steered his boat between the seething surf that boiled and hissed on both sides of the boat-passage. ”