the northern coast-line of the
island, but from certain observations which I had made from "our own"
island I came to the conclusion that the southern side of the island
would reveal very dissimilar characteristics. And so it proved, for
when, after a sail of some six miles in a southerly direction, we
rounded its south-eastern extremity, we discovered that its southern
shore rose only a few feet above the level of the water, being bounded,
as seemed usual in the group, by a narrow beach of coral sand, liberally
fringed with cocoa-nut trees, the ground sloping gently up from the
beach for a distance ranging from two to four miles, when it abruptly
ended against the southern face of the cliffs to which I have so
frequently referred. But this was by no means its most surprising
characteristic to us explorers. For, having thus far failed to discover
any sign of inhabitants, I had, perhaps rather hastily, jumped to the
conclusion that the group was uninhabited, whereas we now saw that the
whole surface of this particular island, from its southern shore right
up to the base of its range of northern cliffs, was under cultivation.
Wide areas of Indian corn were interspersed with spacious fields of
sugar-cane, varied here and there by great orchards of what I assumed to
be fruit-trees of various kinds, and what appeared to be garden plots
devoted to the cultivation of vegetables. Occasionally we caught
glimpses of the natives working, either singly or in small groups, in
the fields, orchards, and gardens, and from their gestures of amazement,
and from the manner in which they stood transfixed and staring when our
boat swept within their range of vision, I conjectured that it was the
first time in their lives that they had ever beheld such a sight. They
were almost coal-black in colour, and inspection of them through the
telescope showed them to be absolutely naked, wherefore I decided not to
pay them a visit until some future occasion when Billy should not be
with me, although, apart from their state of nudity, they impressed me
as being perfectly harmless.

My resolve to abstain from landing there on that occasion was, however,
broken down within the next half-hour, and that, too, in a sufficiently
remarkable and tragic manner. We were skimming briskly along before the
pleasant easterly breeze, Billy being at the helm, while I sat in the
bottom of the boat, taking peeps through the telescope at interesting
objects in th