steamer's crew, for the genial boiler and its
excitant fire compensate for the dust and dirt
of the coals and cinders. But they are too
highly valued by their companion voyagers
to be lightly parted with. A pair of sea-born
kittens would be a worthy offering to an
island king. Indeed cats have increased the
excitement caused by the arrival of our
modern missionaries amongst an isolated and
untaught people. During Mr. Williams's
bold campaign in Polynesia, a favourite cat
was taken on shore by one of the teachers'
wives at their first visit to the island of
Rarotonga. But Tom, not liking the aspect
of his new acquaintance, fled to the
mountains. Under the influence of the apostles
of the new religion, a priest named Tiaki had
destroyed his idol. His house was situated
at a distance from the settlement; and at
midnight, while he was lying asleep on his
mat, his wife, who was sitting awake by his
side musing upon the strange events of the
day, beheld with consternation two fires
glittering in the doorway, and heard with
surprise a mysterious and plaintive voice.
Petrified with fear, she awoke her husband,
and began to upbraid him with his folly for
burning his god, who, she declared, was now
come to be avenged of them.

"Get up, and pray!" she cried.

The husband arose, and, on opening his
eyes, beheld the same glaring lights and
heard the same ominous sound. He
commenced with all possible vehemence to
vociferate the alphabet, as a prayer to the powers
above to deliver them from the vengeance of
Satan. The cat, on hearing the incantation,
was as much alarmed as the priest and his
wife: so he escaped once more into the
wilderness, leaving the repentant priestly pair
in ecstacies at the efficacy of their exorcism.
The nocturnal apparition of a cat in the
flesh had nearly reinstated an overthrown
idol.

Subsequently, puss, in his perambulations,
—perhaps he had hopes of finding a native
fur-clad helpmate,—went to the district of
the Satanee; and as the maral, or temple,
stood in a retired spot, and was shaded by
the rich foliage of ancient trees, Tommy,
pleased with the situation, and wishing to
frequent good society, took up his abode with
the wooden gods. A few days after, the
priest came, accompanied by a number of
worshippers, to present some offering to the
pretended deities; and, on opening the door,
Tom greeted them with a respectful mew.
Unaccustomed to such salutations, the priest,
instead of returning the welcome with a
reciprocal politeness, rushed out of the sanctuary,
shouting to his companions, "Here's a
monster from the deep! A monster from
the deep!" The whole party of devotees
hastened home, collected several hundreds
of their brethren, put on their war-caps,
brought their spears, clubs, and slings, blackened
themselves with charcoal; and, thus
equipped, came shouting on to attack the
enemy. Tom, affrighted at the formidable
array, sprang towards the open door, and
darting through the terror-stricken warriors,
sent them scampering in all directions. In
the evening, while the brave conspirators
were entertaining themselves, and a numerous
company, with a war-dance to recruit
their spirits, poor Tom, wishing to see the
sport and bearing no malice in his heart,
stole in amongst them to take a peep. Again
the unarmed multitude fled in consternation,
while the dusky heroes seized their weapons
and gave chase to the unfortunate cat ; but
the monster of the deep was too nimble for
them.

Some hours afterwards, when all was quiet,
Tom unwisely endeavoured to renew his
domiciliary relations with man. In the dead
of the night he entered a house, crept
beneath a coverlet under which a whole native
family was lying, and fell asleep. His purring
awoke the man in the hospitality of whose
night-cloth he had taken refuge; and who,
supposing that some other monster had come
to disturb his household, closed the doorway,
awoke the inmates, and procured lights to
search for the intruder. Poor Tom, fatigued
with the two previous engagements of the
day, lay quietly asleep, when the warriors,
attacking him with their clubs and spears,
thought themselves models of bravery in
putting an end to him.

But cats, though thus misunderstood and
maltreated, seem to have been as welcome
and valuable an introduction to the country,
as those exported by Whittington of old.
One of Mr. Williams's means of proselytism
was the exercise of a useful handicraft.
The Christian teacher did not scorn to
turn blacksmith. But, to increase his
perplexity in working a forge, Rarotonga was
devastated by a plague of rats. In vain
he constructed bellows of goatskin. They
congregated in immense numbers during
the night, devouring every particle of leather;
so that, when the master entered his workshop
in the morning, he found nothing
remaining of his bellows but the bare
boards.

The rats, however, were not permitted to
have everything their own way. The
missionaries, paying a professional visit to
another vowel-sounding island, Aitutaki,
returned to Rarotonga with a singular cargo,
principally consisting of pigs, cocoa-nuts, and
cats; the king having secured about seventy
of the first, and an indefinite number of the
last. The cats were so precious, that a single
one was a treasure in herself; the rats being
so astonishingly numerous, that the Christian
adventurers never sat down to a meal, without
first appointing two or more persons to
keep the vermin off the table. While the
party were kneeling down at family prayers,
the rats would run over them in all
directions; and it was with difficulty that the