eft in charge of the canoes, quickly finished him with
their paddles. Another set flung themselves upon the captain, who
defended himself for a long time with his pocket-knife, but, overpowered
by numbers, perished also under the blows of these murderers. I next saw
(and that was the last occurrence of which I was witness before quitting
the ship) the sailors who were aloft, slip down by the rigging, and get
below through the steerage hatchway. They were five, I think, in number,
and one of them, in descending, received a knife-stab in the back. I
then jumped overboard, to escape a similar fate to that of the captain
and Mr. M'Kay: the women in the canoes, to whom I surrendered myself as
a slave, took me in, and bade me hide myself under some mats which were
in the pirogues; which I did. Soon after, I heard the discharge of
firearms, immediately upon which the Indians fled from the vessel, and
pulled for the shore as fast as possible, nor did they venture to go
alongside the ship again the whole of that day. The next day, haying
seen four men lower a boat, and pull away from the ship, they sent some
pirogues in chase: but whether those men were overtaken and murdered, or
gained the open sea and perished there, I never could learn. Nothing
more was seen stirring on board the Tonquin; the natives pulled
cautiously around her, and some of the more daring went on board; at
last, the savages, finding themselves absolute masters of the ship,
rushed on board in a crowd to pillage her. But very soon, when there
were about four or five hundred either huddled together on deck, or
clinging to the sides, all eager for plunder, the ship blew up with a
horrible noise. "I was on the shore," said the Indian, "when the
explosion took place, saw the great volume of smoke burst forth in the
spot where the ship had been, and high in the air above, arms, legs,
heads and bodies, flying in every direction. The tribe acknowledged a
loss of over two hundred of their people on that occasion. As for me I
remained their prisoner, and have been their slave for two years. It is
but now that I have been ransomed by my friends. I have told you the
truth, and hope you will acquit me of having in any way participated in
that bloody affair."

[Footnote P: It being understood, of course, that I render into
civilized expressions the language of this barbarian, and represent by
words and phrases what he could only convey by gestures or by signs.
[The _naive