Louis Becke

“ Charley? Oh, he fine, plenty copra. Tāpā! my bowels are filled with the sea—for one dollar! Here ariki vaka (captain) and you tuhi tuhi (supercargo) ,” said the native, removing from his perforated and pendulous ear-lobe a little roll of leaf, “take this letter from the mean one that giveth but a dollar for facing such a galu (surf) . Hast plenty tobacco on board, friends of my heart? Apā, the surf! Not a canoe crew could the white man get to face it. ”

“ Sometimes we had got near enough to see Long Charley’s house and the figures of natives walking on the yellow beach; and then the westerly current would set us away to leeward again. But that night a squall came up, and in half an hour we were running down to the land. When the lights on the beach showed up we hove-to until daylight, and then found the surf too heavy to let us land.
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We got in close to the reef, and could see that the trader’s copra-house was full, for there were also hundreds of bags outside, awaiting our boats. It was clearly worth staying for. ”

“ Charley during his absence at another island of the group, and negotiations with various local young women had been broken off owing to his having run out of trade. In the South Seas, as in the civilised world generally, to get the girl of your heart is usually a mere matter of trade. ”