In answer to inquiries which the eloquence of their gestures enabled us to comprehend, all that we could reply was, that we had come from Nukuheva, a place, be it remembered, with which they were at open war.

This intelligence appeared to affect them with the most lively emotions.
'Nukuheva motarkee ?' they asked.

Of course we replied most energetically in the negative.
Then they plied us with a thousand questions, of which we could understand nothing more than that they had reference to the recent movements of the French, against whom they seemed to cherish the most fierce hatred.

So eager were they to obtain information on this point, that they still continued to propound their queries long after we had shown that we were utterly unable to answer them.

Occasionally we caught some indistinct idea of their meaning, when we would endeavour by every method in our power to communicate the desired intelligence.