ults, was their theft of a brace of
revolvers and a number of cartridges. We had no occasion to make use of
our firearms until the two savages had been with us about five months;
then on a certain day we made the disagreeable discovery that South-west
Bay had been invaded by a school of some seven or eight orcas, or killer
whales, the most voracious and ferocious creatures that swim the seas,
being even more terrible than the white shark, although not quite so big
as he is. When we first became aware of the presence of these tigers of
the sea in our bay we were not greatly concerned, being under the
impression that theirs was only a flying visit, and that they would
disappear in the course of an hour or so, and be no more seen. But when
on the following day they were seen to be still present, and when,
further, they chose to amuse themselves by snatching the fish off the
hooks, we came to the conclusion that it was time to declare war upon
those orcas, for so long as they remained in the bay we might not dare
to bathe.

Accordingly we armed ourselves with revolvers, put a boarding pike and
cutlass into the hand of each of the savages, and went out in the
catamaran to attack and drive away the orcas. And a very fierce and
desperate battle we had with them too, for they proved to be full of
fight, charging the catamaran with the evident intention of destroying
it; and during the two hours that the fight raged we experienced several
exceedingly narrow escapes from destruction by the wounded cetaceans,
though we drove them off at last, after killing all but two, while the
survivors were so desperately wounded that they no doubt died very
shortly after reaching the open ocean.

The most important point, however, in connection with this incident was
that the two savages then saw revolvers used for the first time; and the
flash, the report, and, above all, the undoubted fact that in some
mysterious fashion they were able to wound and even to kill at the
distance of a spear-cast, absolutely fascinated them. Nothing would
satisfy them but that they must possess a revolver apiece, and the very
next day they stole a brace, together with some fifty cartridges; and
having watched us intently, and thus acquired a smattering of knowledge
of how to use the weapons, took to the woods, where, later on, we heard
them popping away in the most reckless fashion. That, of course, was an
offence which it would never do to overlook; ther