ipulated, and made counter
stipulations, all to no purpose, and finally once more arrived at a
deadlock. Of course I might very easily have settled the matter by
shooting the four natives in the canoe; but that would have been an act
of the very blackest treachery, and I was strongly of opinion that it
was just such treacherous conduct on the part of certain unscrupulous
white men that had made the natives of some of the Polynesian islands
the cruel, treacherous wretches that they had become.

I therefore once more resorted to "bluff", by hailing them and saying
that unless they came alongside at once and surrendered possession of
the boat and those in her, I would get the schooner under way and
proceed to sea, taking Oahika and the rest of our prisoners with me; and
to make my threat the more effective I turned away and gave the order to
man the windlass. This was enough; with the first clank of the windlass
pawls, Oahika, who had thus far taken no part in our second palaver, let
out a yell at the men in the canoe which caused them to surrender
instantly at discretion and rush their craft up alongside the schooner.

And now I determined upon a bold thing. These Roua Poua savages had
caused us a vast amount of trouble and loss; through them we were
short-handed to the extent of no less than six men; and I felt that for
the sake of my own satisfaction and self-respect I must get something,
though it were ever so little, back out of them. Therefore, since we
white men were all armed, and therefore in a position to take good care
of ourselves, as soon as the tackles were hooked into the jollyboat's
ringbolts I ordered the four savages in the canoe to leave her and come
on deck to help to hoist in the boat; and this they did in a state of
the most abject fear and trembling. Then I sent them for'ard to the
windlass to assist in breaking out the anchor; and it was not until the
schooner was actually adrift that I permitted them to begin the transfer
of their wounded from the _Martha's_ deck to the canoe. They displayed
remarkably little consideration for the comfort and wellbeing of their
comrades in the performance of this duty; and indeed I have always been
of opinion that had I been foolish enough to liberate Oahika before the
others had been transhipped, he and his canoemen would have
incontinently made off at top speed for the shore, leaving the others,
sound and wounded alike, upon our hands and at our mercy. But