d
sores had been opened.

I had, therefore, to go with the wood-cutters that day. Before starting,
however, the captain called me into the cabin, and said,--

"Here, Ralph, I've got a mission for you, lad. That blackguard Romata is
in the dumps, and nothing will mollify him but a gift; so do you go up to
his house and give him these whales' teeth, with my compliments. Take
with you one of the men who can speak the language."

I looked at the gift in some surprise, for it consisted of six white
whales' teeth, and two of the same dyed bright red, which seemed to me
very paltry things. However, I did not dare to hesitate or ask any
questions; so, gathering them up, I left the cabin and was soon on my way
to the chief's house, accompanied by Bill. On expressing my surprise at
the gift, he said,--

"They're paltry enough to you or me, Ralph, but they're considered of
great value by them chaps. They're a sort o' cash among them. The red
ones are the most prized, one of them bein' equal to twenty o' the white
ones. I suppose the only reason for their bein' valuable is that there
ain't many of them, and they're hard to be got."

On arriving at the house we found Romata sitting on a mat, in the midst
of a number of large bales of native cloth and other articles, which had
been brought to him as presents from time to time by inferior chiefs. He
received us rather haughtily, but on Bill explaining the nature of our
errand he became very condescending, and his eyes glistened with
satisfaction when he received the whales' teeth, although he laid them
aside with an assumption of kingly indifference.

"Go," said he, with a wave of the hand,--"go, tell your captain that he
may cut wood to-day, but not to-morrow. He must come ashore,--I want to
have a palaver with him."

As we left the house to return to the woods, Bill shook his head:

"There's mischief brewin' in that black rascal's head. I know him of
old. But what comes here?"

As he spoke, we heard the sound of laughter and shouting in the wood, and
presently there issued from it a band of savages, in the midst of whom
were a number of men bearing burdens on their shoulders. At first I
thought that these burdens were poles with something rolled round them,
the end of each pole resting on a man's shoulder. But on a nearer
approach I saw that they were human beings, tied hand and foot, and so
lashed to the poles that they could not move. I counted twenty of t