Evening star., 1942-10-22
81 Days Adrift on a Raft

held out his hand, smiling encour-
agingly. I gave him the whistle
and Immediately he turned and rar
off among the coconut trees, footing
the whistle vigorously. We looked
at each other in great relief. AT
least the natives were friendly.
Our visitor was gone for perhaps
a half hour. He returned with 9
party OF several natives and q mar
who seemed to be the leader. This
was the resident commissioner. Not
knowing who we were, he had
brought assistance in case we might
turn out to be enemies.
should explain here, perhaps
that as this account is written the
events are still SO recent that the
Navy intelligence considers it wiser
for the security Of our country that
I withhold the identification of the
island on which we landed, and the
close location of the particular area
of the South Pacific in which our
adventure occurred. can say, how
ever, that the island was a tiny
one, and SO far from the trade routes
or any other regular contact with
the world that probably few who
read this chronicle have ever heard
of it.
At any rate: The first native
recognized from out eyes that we
were white men, by our burned skins
he could not tell whether We were
white, brown, yellow, red or black.
He was quite sure, however, that we
were not Japanese. He told the
commissioner that he thought we
were New zealanders or Australians,
so of course the commissioner ex-
pected us to be from allies of his
country, as of course we were. He
was taking no chances, though, and
brought some manpower along.
There are no weapons on the island
except knives.
The commissioners first question
was as to our nationality. Upon
learning that we were American
sailors, he showed his delight imme-
diately. He explained, then, several
peculiar aspects of our experience
with the shack. In the first place,
we had got into the only "tabu
shack" on that section of the island.
The various sheds we saw were for
the storing of copra-in fact, there
were about 4 tons of copra in the
shacks at this time-but the one we
had staggered into was the only
shack that had a tabu; it was re-
served for the higher ranking men
OF the island people. The natives
were not only afraid to enter, they
hesitated even to come near. The
two naives of the night before, who
Gene thought had seen us, did see
us indeed, but they were afraid to
say so for fear they would incur the
wrath of their chief for venturing
so near the forbidden.
Commissioner Surprised.
The commissioner was curious as
to how we had reached this partic-
ular part of the island. Had we
walked there? We merely turned
and pointed seward. He was
astounded. That, he said, was i'm
possible! He could not believe we
had come upon this beach from the
sea. No one had ever come over
that reef and lived to tell the tale!
1t was our turn to be astonished.
But after a surprised glance at each
other we pointed to our little raft
tied to the piling near the shack.
The commissioner walked out ex-
citedly and took a look at the raft.
He examined it carefully, feeling it
all over with his hands, the natives
chattering among themselves and
looking back at us wonderingly.
Then he came slowly back into the
shack, put his hands on his hips and
grinned down at us-he just grim
ned, speechless, shaking his head
from side to side. We were now
beginning to feel like curiosities for
fair.
The commissioner explained that
it was considered impossible for any
man to come over that reef. There
was a lookout tower on this beach,
he said, and it was constantly
manned by sharp-eyed natives on
the watch for enemy craft, but as
rule they didn't consider it neces-
sary to pay any attention to the
impossible reef. Fo rthis reason.
and also, perhaps, because our boat
was so small, our fight against the
waves and our last faltering march
across the beach had gone unnoticed
by the practical watchers only few
yards off.
Our dialogue meant nothing to the
natives, who spoke no English, but
they knew that something unusual
was afoot. When the commissioner
explained to them who we were and
what we had done, when they were
told that we had actually come in
over this reef in such a craft, they
just stood around with their mouths
open, staring at us as if we were
Supermen or gods.
A Lucky Choice.
I was becoming little embar-
raSSed by their awe stricken regard
so tried to explain to the commits
sioner that our fat-bottomed air.
borne raft drew no water, and thus
enabled us to cross the giant break
ers, where the heavy, native-built
canoes might fail The commits
sioner just shook his head again, his
admiring grin spreading until ]
thought it would cut his face in two
The natives were still staring at us
saying nothing but "Oh" and "Ah.'
At length the commissioner gave
an order in the island language, and
the husky, handsome brown natives