Читать книгу Pitcairn's Island. Sea Adventure Novel онлайн

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“There have been people here before us,” she said.

“Here? Nonsense, Maimiti! What makes you think so?”

“I know it,” she replied gravely. “It must have been long ago, but there was once a path where we are now walking.”

Christian smiled incredulously. “I can’t believe it,” he said.

“Because you are not of our blood,” the girl replied. “But Moetua would know, or Minarii. I felt this as we were climbing up from the landing place. Now I am sure of it. People of my own race have lived here at some time.”

“Why have they gone, then?”

“Who knows?” she replied. “Perhaps it is not a happy place.”

“Not happy? An island so rich and beautiful?”

“The people may have brought some old unhappiness with them. It is not often the land that is to blame; it is those who come.”

“You can’t be right, Maimiti,” Christian said, after a moment of silence. “What could have brought them so far from any other land?”

“It is not only you white men with your great ships who make long voyages,” she replied. “There is no land in all this great ocean that people of my blood have not found before you. Even here they have come.”