26 THE AFRICAN TRADER.

wavelets of the ocean, which glittered in the radi-
ance of a blue and cloudless sky, and her sails
filled with the fresh sea breeze, these feelings
rapidly wore off. Now, on either side, appeared a
fleet of fishing canoes, the wild songs of their naked
crews coming across the water, as with rugged
sails of matting lolling at their ease, they steered
towards the shore. We overtook some of them,
and such a loud jabber as they set up, talking to
each other, or hailing us, I had never heard.

Being near enough to the dangerous coast, we
hove-to, and watched them as they fearlessly made
their way to shore on the summits of a succession
of rollers which burst in fearful breakers on the
beach. With our glasses we could see hundreds

 

of dingy figures like black ants, hurrying down to
meet them, and to assist in hauling up their canoes.
As I cast my eye along the coast I could see many
a bay and headland bordered with a rim of glittering
white sand, fringed by an unbroken line of spark-
ling surf. Now we could make out the mud walls
and thatched roofs of the native villages, scattered
here and there along the shore, mostly nestling
amid groves of graceful cocoa-nut trees, while
further inland appeared, at distant intervals, that