Papua (New Guinea).]

[Footnote 40: V[=a][=a]-boo-ree.]

[Footnote 41: Poo-o-t[)a].]




CHAPTER XIV

A SOUTH SEA SAMARITAN

_Ruatoka_ (Date of Incident, about 1878)


It was a dark night and silent. The swish and lapping of the waters on
the Port Moresby beach on the southern shore of the immense island of
New Guinea, filled the air with a quiet hush of expectation.

In a little white house sat a tall, dark man with his wife. The man
was Ruatoka. If you had asked "Who is Ruatoka?" of all the Papuans for
miles around Port Moresby, they would have wondered at your ignorance.
"Ruatoka," they would have told you, was a "Jesus man." He walked
among their villages, and did not fear them when they threatened him
with spears and clubs. He gave them medicines when they were ill, and
nursed them. He spoke strong words to them which made their hearts
turn to water within them when he showed that they did wrong. He often
stopped them from fighting.