Louis Becke

“ Had not Atupa been filled with vain fears, he had killed the man who caused him to lose so many of our people.”
“So,” said the white man, “and wouldst thou have killed the man who brought thee the new faith? Fie!”
“Aye, that would I—in those days when I was po uli uli. [1] But not now, for I am Christian. Yet had Atupa killed and buried the stranger, we could have lied and said he died of a sickness when they of his people came to seek him. And then had I now my son Tāgipo with me, he who went into the bellies of the sharks at Tia Kau.” ”

“ Like ravening wolves the sharks dashed upon their prey, and ere the people had time to give more than a despairing cry, those hideous jaws and gleaming cruel teeth had sealed their fate. Maddened with fear, the rest of the people threw everything out of the six other canoes to lighten them, and as the bundles of mats and baskets of food touched the water the sharks seized and bit, tore and swallowed. ”

“ And for this was Atupa sending off some of his people to Nanomea with gifts of goodwill to the chiefs to beseech them to consult their oracles also, so that the two islands might take concerted action against this new foreign god, whose priests said that all men were equal, that all were bad, and He and His Son alone good.
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The night was calm when the seven canoes set out. Forty men and thirty women and children were in the party, and the craft were too deeply laden for any but the smoothest sea. ”