h better than working for three years for one gun and
one keg of powder and bag of bullets, a knife or two, and a few other
things, and then bringing them back to our own country to be despoiled
of them by our relations.' Do you understand, Captain Frewen?"

"Quite."

"Well, they lie low and wait, and when the opportunity comes the beggars
set to work with a vengeance-Only three years ago one of the Hawaiian
Islands labour vessels recruited ninety Gilbert Islands natives to work
on the new sugar plantations near Honolulu. They behaved themselves
splendidly--for they were well treated--for about a fortnight, and the
skipper of the vessel (an old hand in the island trade) allowed them to
lie on deck at night, feeling sure that they would give no trouble. More
than this, he even told his officers and crew to discontinue carrying
their Colts' pistols. The result was that one night, when the watch were
taking in sail during a squall, the natives took possession of the brig,
killed the mate and all the men of the watch who were on deck, and would
certainly have slaughtered every one of the ship's company had it not
been for the captain himself; who, hearing the noise, rushed up from
below armed with a whale-ship bomb gun, loaded with slugs. He fired
right into the mob of natives on the main deck, killed three or four,
and wounded twice as many. Then the second mate and the rest of the
watch below came tumbling up, headed by a big Nova Scotian A.B. He was a
tremendously powerful fellow, and had armed himself with the carpenter's
broad axe, and in a few minutes he cut down five of the natives, one of
whom was the ringleader. Then the steward and supercargo turned up with
nine-bore double-barrelled shot-guns, loaded with No. 1 shot, and they
and the bluenose{*} practically saved the ship, or with their four shots
they laid out nearly a dozen more natives, and the others bolted down
to the hold and asked for quarter. Ah, Captain Frewen, there is nothing
like buckshot or slogs to squash a mutiny. You most get some nine-bore
guns made here to take away with you."

* A "bluenose" is a sailor's term for a Canadian or Nova
Scotian.

"Thank you for the suggestion, Mr. Beilby. But whalers' bomb guns--which
can be easily procured in Sydney--are better still. You can load them
with a small charge of powder and crushed rock salt, which won't kill a
man, but which will prevent him from doing any mischief for a long time.
When