bath, for he had nothing on but the invariable short trousers or bathing drawers, and he was dripping wet.
He took up a soft towel, gave his face and hands a good wipe, and, not troubling himself about the water that trickled down his skin, he snatched up a dressing-gown of some soft silky material that lay on a couch, and wrapped it round his dripping body.
Surveying me with some curiosity, he addressed me in a kindly voice:—
"I see, sir, you are a stranger; shipwrecked, I presume, on our protecting reef?"
I related, to him the particulars of my shipwreck, which interested him much, and he expressed his surprise that apparently I alone, of all the crew, was good enough swimmer to avail myself of the means of escape offered by the life-boat. He said that all who led a seafaring life or even went a sea voyage should be taught to be as much at home in the water as on dry land.
On my expressing doubts as to the practicability of this, he said, "Well, I think you will alter your ideas on that point before you have lived long among us."
He informed me that he was one of a staff appointed by Government to instruct strangers, who might come to their country, in all things that were requisite in order to enable them to become good and useful citizens.
The number of strangers who came hither was not great. Formerly the annual amount was something considerable, but that was in the days of sailing vessels. Since the very general introduction of steam, wrecks had been much rarer; and as these islands were not on any of the great lines of traffic, it was sometimes years before a wreck occurred.
"Do none visit you except the shipwrecked?" I inquired.
"Rarely," he replied; "and it comes to the same thing as though they had been wrecked, for we take care that their ship shall never carry them away again. All that is useful we take possession of, and then blow up the ship."
"Then do I understand," I asked in alarm, "that I am to be detained here a prisoner for life?"
"Well, not exactly," he replied, "because, though, until quite recently, we have never allowed departures from our island, a more liberal policy now prevails. Last year our legislature passed an act permitting strangers to leave the country, if they so wished and an opportunity should offer. Most improbable contingencies," he added, "for, once used to our life here, all other modes of living seem intolerable; and, as for opportunities for leaving the country, they are very unlikely to occur, as vessels that get on our reef speedily become total wrecks, even without our assistance. Moreover, as I told you, we are out of the way of any direct packet-lines—you know it was only owing to the eccentric course pursued by your theoretical captain that you had the chance of being thrown ashore here—so you see you will have to make up your mind to become a citizen of our state, and to adapt yourself to your new circumstances as well as you can. And," he added, "I believe you to be of sufficient intelligence to learn our ways rapidly, and, once you have mastered them, I venture to say you will not be disposed to return to the habits of your native land."
"Indeed, sir," I said, "you make me extremely desirous to commence those studies which I am to go through in order to qualify myself for citizenship in your community. Everything I have observed since I first approached these islands has struck me with the most profound surprise. The tethered barking seals, the aquatic policemen speaking English which seems to be the language of the country, the beauty of your forests, with their gigantic fruit-laden trees, and their magnificent flowering shrubs, the gorgeous colours and varieties of your birds, are to me strange and novel; but the broiling, stifling heat and the plague of flies would soon render a residence in this land intolerable."
"On the land, I grant you," interrupted the Instructor, "but we do not live on the land, but in the water."
"You astonish me more and more," I exclaimed; "how is it possible for human beings to live in the water? Their shape and muscular development are but ill-adapted for swimming, and though some of us have overcome the disadvantages of nature and can swim as well as dogs, still, the inconveniences of always remaining in the water and the fearful heat the head must be exposed to from the burning rays of the sun in this hottest region of the world, would suffice to prevent a long sojourn in such a situation."
"Doubtless," he replied, "if we kept our heads above the water, we should suffer, as you have rightly stated, from the heat of the sun, but we are exempt from this inconvenience, for we live under the water."
"That crowns all the wonderful things I have seen and heard since coming here," I exclaimed. "But how can human beings live beneath the water like fishes? They cannot transform their lungs into gills; their eyes are so constructed that contact with water destroys all useful vision. Then their bodies are of such specific gravity, that, unless they use considerable exertion, they must rise perpetually to the surface. In short," I added, rather petulantly, "I cannot regard what you have told me otherwise than as an attempt to hoax me, and, excuse me, but I think you do no credit to the office you hold under your Government, if you attempt to palm off such sorry jokes on those confided to your care."
He smiled good-humouredly, and replied,—"I am neither surprised nor offended that you refuse credence to what I have said, for it is all so contrary to your previous experience and knowledge that it must be difficult for a man of intelligence and education, which I perceive you are" [here I became somewhat mollified and bowed], "to regard what I have told you otherwise than as a bad joke. However, you shall shortly be convinced that by the ingenuity of man these seemingly insuperable difficulties are capable of being overcome, and that, when driven out of the air by the stifling heat and vermin you have noticed, he can adapt himself to an aquatic life, and prove therein as much superior to the proper denizens of the watery element, as he is, under other circumstances, to the inhabitants of the dry land."
He spoke with so much sincerity and candour, and was so courteous withal, that I begged him to forgive my outburst of petulance, and promised implicit belief to all he was so kind as to inform me of; "for," I said, "what I have already seen is so surprising and incredible that I am not justified in refusing credence to what a gentleman of your courtesy tells me, however opposed it seems to my previous experience."
Our intercourse having been thus put on a pleasant footing, I was fairly installed as his disciple, and he immediately, in reply to my inquiries, began to give me an account of the mysterious country where fate had cast me, and its strange inhabitants. I shall give the substance of our numerous conversations in my Instructor's words, as nearly as I can remember them.
"Some suppose," he said, "that these islands were originally peopled by a shipwrecked crew of men and women emigrating to some other part of the world. But our most learned pundits cite many circumstances that militate against this idea, and refer our origin to a much more remote time and quite a different race of men. And this latter idea is borne out by the fact that, scattered throughout the islands, are many monuments which could never have been constructed by an English race, and these monuments are covered with hieroglyphical inscriptions which have been read by the learned and refer to quite other manners and customs than ever obtained among men of European or, at least, Anglo-Saxon blood.
"That English was not always the language of the inhabitants is evident, not only from these monuments, but from numerous ancient documents preserved in our museums, and also from the presence in our spoken language of many words and forms of speech which were never derived from the English tongue.
"It is believed that the general habit of speaking and writing English dates from only a few centuries back, and is chiefly owing to the great number of English-speaking men and women who have from time to time been added to our community by means of shipwrecks; and as, until a very recent period, men of English race formed the vast majority of the seamen and travellers of the world, this predominance of the
