startled into wakefulness and animation by the appearance of a flying

jib beyond the western islet. Two more headsails followed; and before

the tattooed man had scrambled to his feet, a topsail schooner, of some

hundred tons, had luffed about the sentinel and was standing up the bay,

close-hauled.

The sleeping city awakened by enchantment. Natives appeared upon all

sides, hailing each other with the magic cry "Ehippy"--ship; the Queen

stepped forth on her verandah, shading her eyes under a hand that was

a miracle of the fine art of tattooing; the commandant broke from his

domestic convicts and ran into the residency for his glass; the harbour

master, who was also the gaoler, came speeding down the Prison Hill; the

seventeen brown Kanakas and the French boatswain's mate, that make up

the complement of the war-schooner, crowded on the forward deck; and the

various English, Americans, Germans, Poles, Corsicans, and Scots--the

merchants and the clerks of Tai-o-hae--deserted their places of

business, and gathered, according to invariable custom, on the road

before the club.

So quickly did these dozen whites collect, so short are the distances

in Tai-o-hae, that they were already exchanging guesses as to the

nationality and business of the strange vessel, before she had gone

about upon her second board towards the anchorage. A moment after,

English colours were broken out at the main truck.

"I told you she was a Johnny Bull--knew it by her headsails," said an

evergreen old salt, still qualified (if he could anywhere have found

an owner unacquainted with his story) to adorn another quarter-deck and

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peking2008