at impossible, we concluded
to abandon it entirely. We took from it a few cocoa-nuts, and, as our
last resort, all took refuge in the boat. We saved the compass, and did
not so much regret the loss of the canoe, as it had cost us already an
incalculable amount of anxiety, toil, and suffering.

But new difficulties now stared us in the face. Most of our provisions
had been lost by the upsetting of the canoe, and we had but a very small
quantity of water. It was therefore deemed expedient to divide among us
the means of subsistence remaining. We had four cocoa-nuts for each
person, and a few pieces over, which were distributed equally. At this
time no objects were seen, except a few sea birds. We continued in this
condition for nine days and nights, with actual starvation before us, as
the most probable end of our anxieties and sufferings. We were about
settling down into a state of confirmed despair, when, to our
inexpressible joy, we discovered land apparently about ten miles off. We
exerted all our remaining strength to reach it. When within six miles we
saw, approaching us, a fleet of eighteen canoes, filled with the natives
of the small island we were approaching.

At first the small canoes came near us, for the purpose of ascertaining
who and what we were. The appearance of these natives was such as to
excite at once our astonishment and disgust. Like the inhabitants of the
island we had left, they were entirely naked; and, as our subsequent
experience proved, they were infinitely more barbarous and cruel. Very
soon the large canoes came up, when the wretches commenced their
outrages. They attacked us with brutal ferocity, knocking us overboard
with their clubs, in the mean time making the most frightful grimaces,
and yelling like so many incarnate devils. They fell upon our boat and
immediately destroyed it, breaking it into splinters, and taking the
fragments into their canoes. While this was going on we were swimming
from one canoe to another, entreating them by signs to spare our lives
and permit us to get into their canoes. This they for a long time
refused, beating us most unmercifully, whenever we caught hold of any
thing to save ourselves from sinking.

After they had demolished our boat, and kept us in that condition for
some time, they allowed us to get on board. They then compelled us to
row towards the land. They stripped us of all our clothing immediately
after we were taken in; and the reader may for