as done in a state of
nudity, without anything like sandals or mocassins to protect his feet
from the flint stones and sharp shells, and under the burning rays of
an intolerable sun. Blood marked his footsteps. The king met him
and compelled him to debase himself by the most abject ceremonies of
slavery. He was now overcome, and with a dogged indifference was ready
to die. He could not, he would not walk back; his feet were lacerated,
swollen, and almost in a state of putrefaction. The savages saw this,
and took him back by water, but only to experience new torments. The
young ones imitated their elders, and these graceless little rascals
pulled out his beard and whiskers, and eyebrows and eyelashes. In order
to save himself some part of the pain of this wretched process of their
amusement, he was permitted to perform a part of this work with his
own hands. He was indeed a pitiable object, but one cannot die when one
wishes, and be guiltless. This was not all he suffered; he was almost
starved to death, for they gave him only the offal of the fish they
caught, and this but sparingly; he sustained himself by catching rats,
and these offensive creatures were his principal food for a longtime.
He understood that the natives did not suffer the rats to be killed, and
therefore he had to do it secretly in the night time.

"Thus passed the days of the poor prisoner; the wound on his head was
not yet healed, and notwithstanding all his efforts he failed to get the
sand out of his first wound until a short time before his deliverance,
when it was made known to him that he was to be immolated for a feast to
the king of the group! All things had now become matters of indifference
to him, and he heard the horrid story with great composure. All the
preparations for the sacrifice were got up in his presence, near the
very spot where the accursed feast of skulls had been held. All was in
readiness, and the people waited a long time for the king; but he did
not come, and the ceremony was put off.

"Shaw has often expressed himself on this subject, and said that he
could not but feel some regret that his woes were not to be finished,
as there was no hope for him, and to linger always in this state of
agitation was worse than death; but mortals are short-sighted, for he
was destined to be saved through the instrumentality of his friends.

"His soul was again agitated by hope and fear in the extremes when the
_Antarctic_ made her appear