At dawn they sighted land, and by eleven o’clock they were so near that they could see, shimmering in the heat of the midsummer sun, the white beach of coral sand and the drooping palms that make all the island of Nukapu green.[33] Looking out under their hands to the island, the men aboard The Southern Cross could see four great canoes, with their sails set, hovering like hawks about the circling reef which lay between them and the island.  On the reef the blue waves beat and broke into a gleaming line of cool white foam.

The slight breeze was hardly strong enough to help the ship to make the island.  It was as though she knew the danger of that day and would not carry Patteson and his men into the perils that lay hidden behind the beauty of that island of Nukapu.

Patteson knew the danger.  He knew that, but a little time before their visit, white men had come in a ship, had let down their boats and rowed to the men of the island, had pretended to make friends, and then, shooting some and capturing others, had sped back to the ship, carrying off the captives to work for them on the island of Fiji.  The law of the savages of the islands was “Blood for blood.”  And to them all white men belonged to one tribe.  The peril that lay before Patteson was that they might attack him in revenge for the foul crime of those white traders.

Just before noon the order was given to lower a boat from The Southern Cross.  Patteson went down into it, and sat in the stern, while Mr. Atkin (his English helper), Stephen Taroniara, James Minipa, and John Nonono came with him to row.  The boat swung toward the reef.  Between the reef and the island lay two miles of the blue and glittering lagoon.

By the time the boat reached the reef six canoes full of warriors had come together there.  The tide was not high enough to float the boat across the reef.  The Nukapuan natives said they would haul the boat up on to the reef, but the Bishop did not think it wise to consent.  Then two of the savages said to “Bisipi,” as they called the Bishop: 

“Will you come into our canoe?”

Without a moment’s hesitation, knowing that confidence was the best way to win them, he stepped into the canoe.  As he entered they gave him a basket with yams and other fruit in it.

As the tide was low, the Bishop and the savages were obliged to wade over the reef, dragging the canoe across to the deeper lagoon within.  The boat’s crew of The Southern Cross stopped in the outer sea, drifting on the tide with the other four Nukapu canoes.  They watched the Bishop cross the lagoon in the canoe and land far off upon the beach.  Then he went from their sight.

The brown men and the white man in the boat were trying to talk to the islanders in the remaining canoes outside the reef, when suddenly a savage jumped up in the nearest canoe, not ten yards from them, and called out in his native language: