Waqavuka

They rejected Southern Cross and sought a more expressive name for the thing which lay at rest on Naselai Beach. It was a boat, for it had come across the water to Fiji, bearing men. But they had never seen a boat which flew in the air like a bird. The inspiration came suddenly. "Waqavuka" (bird-boat) they cried, and their brown hands fluttered about the plane and the four men who stood beside it.

Capt. Charles F. Kingsford-Smith and Capt. Charles T. P. Ulm, Australians, with Capt. Harry W. Lyon and James Warner, of the U. S., lingered curiously, glanced at their watches. Behind them were 5,538 miles of the vast Pacific. Before them lay "Aussie"*and safety and, for two of them, secure places in the list of illustrious Australian airmen. They thought of Wilkins, warming his hands after spanning the roof of the world (TIME, April 30); they thought of Bert Hinkler, lone voyager in an incredibly tiny plane (TIME, March 5); they thought back to Sir Ross Smith, pioneer of Australian aviation, who had flown 11,500 miles from England to Australia in 1919. A short hop of 1,795 miles, and they, too, would bring new honors to "Aussie," land of aviators.

Fiji did not give up Waqavuka easily. The bird-boat might not fly until brown eyes had seen the 200-sovereign purse given by the mayor of Suva to help pay the debts of the white men. Brown noses pressed forward to inhale the perfume of garlands and of a floral American flag tenderly woven by little brown children. Brown fingers touched Waqavuka's talisman, the omnipotent Tambua, tooth of the sacred whale.

The motors roared; Fijians retreated, howling with fear and regret. Into their lives had come something more thrilling even than the bucking bronchos of the Wild West films, at which they had been wont to wail untiringly. The triumph of the trimotored plane, the mapping of Pacific air routes--these meant nothing to the 7,000 natives of a remote island. Their three-day marvel was leaving them. They wept.

The Southern Cross flew across 7,300 miles of water, 500 miles of land in ten days, in 89 flying hours. Modest Kingsford-Smith landing at Sydney behind schedule (one day), apologized. Rewards came quickly: $25,000 from proud grateful "Aussie"; the Southern Cross, the gift of its owner G. Allen Hancock, Los Angeles financier.

Rested, "Aussie's" continent-linking sons faced West, planned to circle the Earth.

*Affectionate diminutive for Australia, used by Captain Ulm in radio messages.