ie took her seat
in the circle, lighted her pipe, commenced nodding to, and chatting
most affably with, her relatives, and looking so kind, that it seemed
impossible to believe that an intense longing for bloodshed and cruelty
had so shortly before lurked in the breast of the pretty, smiling
little savage who was now beside us.

During the task of pacifying Lizzie, the "heap" had again sunk into
comparative silence, and only a confused murmur was audible from its
depths. Allowing no time to be lost, Dunmore said to Lizzie--who was
puffing out huge mouthfuls of smoke, greatly to the astonishment of the
other gins, who looked as if they expected to see her suddenly blaze
up--

"Lizzie, you ask, suppose they been see any white fellow on island?
White fellow in plenty big canoe. That fellow canoe been come like 'it
shore. You tell them, 'Baal white fellow hurt you, suppose you been
show, where brother belonging to him sit down.' You tell them that,
Lizzie."

Lizzie proceeded with the greatest gravity, and evidently with an
overwhelming sense of self-importance, to put the required questions,
whilst we anxiously awaited her replies.

"Well, what they been say?" exclaimed Dunmore at last, when there was a
momentary break in the conversation.

I should imagine that the vernacular of the Hinchinbrook Islanders was
not pre-eminently adapted for the noble intricacies of diplomatic
intrigue. In the first place it contains but few words, and none
representing any number higher than five, so that even the courtly
nobleman now presiding over Foreign Affairs, would find the smooth flow
of his amenities subjected to rude shocks; and as for expressing any
large number either in words or figures--say, for instance, the Alabama
indemnity of three millions--to do so, would tax to the utmost the
genius of the late Chancellor of the Exchequer. Lizzie, in her first
flash of pride, as representing a plenipotentiary armed with
extraordinary powers, had commenced negotiations with the dignity and
slowness of speech adapted to so exalted a personage. But the shrill
chorus which emanated from the audience was decidedly antagonistic to
grave deliberation, and the anxious curiosity of the woman superseding
the self imposed role of the diplomatist, our envoy lost the pompous
tone she had first adopted, and a volley of queries and replies was
exchanged so rapidly, and with such appalling shrillness, that we
onlookers ran a great risk of be