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- 2026-01-30T20:48:18.535Z
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- CHAPTER XXII.
What Befel The Brigantine At The Pearl Shell Islands
The vessel was the Parki, of Lahina, a village and harbor on the coast
of Mowee, one of the Hawaian isles, where she had been miserably
cobbled together with planks of native wood, and fragments of a wreck,
there drifted ashore.
Her appellative had been bestowed in honor of a high chief, the tallest
and goodliest looking gentleman in all the Sandwich Islands. With a
mixed European and native crew, about thirty in number (but only four
whites in all, captain included), the Parki, some four months previous,
had sailed from her port on a voyage southward, in quest of pearls, and
pearl oyster shells, sea-slugs, and other matters of that sort.
Samoa, a native of the Navigator Islands, had long followed the sea,
and was well versed in the business of oyster diving and its submarine
mysteries. The native Lahineese on board were immediately subordinate
to him; the captain having bargained with Samoa for their services as
divers.
The woman, Annatoo, was a native of a far-off, anonymous island to the
westward: whence, when quite young, she had been carried by the
commander of a ship, touching there on a passage from Macao to
Valparaiso. At Valparaiso her protector put her ashore; most probably,
as I afterward had reason to think, for a nuisance.
By chance it came to pass that when Annatoo’s first virgin bloom had
departed, leaving nothing but a lusty frame and a lustier soul, Samoa,
the Navigator, had fallen desperately in love with her. And thinking
the lady to his mind, being brave like himself, and doubtless well
adapted to the vicissitudes of matrimony at sea, he meditated suicide—I
would have said, wedlock—and the twain became one. And some time after,
in capacity of wife, Annatoo the dame, accompanied in the brigantine,
Samoa her lord. Now, as Antony flew to the refuse embraces of Caesar,
so Samoa solaced himself in the arms of this discarded fair one. And
the sequel was the same. For not harder the life Cleopatra led my fine
frank friend, poor Mark, than Queen Annatoo did lead this captive of
her bow and her spear. But all in good time.
They left their port; and crossing the Tropic and the Line, fell in
with a cluster of islands, where the shells they sought were found in
round numbers. And here—not at all strange to tell besides the natives,
they encountered a couple of Cholos, or half-breed Spaniards, from the
Main; one half Spanish, the other half quartered between the wild
Indian and the devil; a race, that from Baldivia to Panama are
notorious for their unscrupulous villainy.
Now, the half-breeds having long since deserted a ship at these
islands, had risen to high authority among the natives. This hearing,
the Parki’s captain was much gratified; he, poor ignorant, never before
having fallen in with any of their treacherous race. And, no doubt, he
imagined that their influence over the Islanders would tend to his
advantage. At all events, he made presents to the Cholos; who, in turn,
provided him with additional divers from among the natives. Very
kindly, also, they pointed out the best places for seeking the oysters.
In a word, they were exceedingly friendly; often coming off to the
brigantine, and sociably dining with the captain in the cabin; placing
the salt between them and him.
All things went on very pleasantly until, one morning, the half- breeds
prevailed upon the captain to go with them, in his whale-boat, to a
shoal on the thither side of the island, some distance from the spot
where lay the brigantine. They so managed it, moreover, that none but
the Lahineese under Samoa, in whom the captain much confided, were left
in custody of the Parki; the three white men going along to row; for
there happened to be little or no wind for a sail.
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