s of valour. They pass close to
our vessel, but do not seem to heed us much. We have our guns run out
and the crew at quarters ready for them.

As I look through my glass I see in the bows of each some twenty dead
bodies arranged in rows--men, women, and children. "Alas! were these
taken in war?" I ask. The canoes reach the beach, and crowds come down
with loud shouting and wild leaps, and the canoes are hauled on shore,
and then the dead bodies are dragged up the hill towards the temple, all
the men shouting and shrieking louder than ever. They appear truly like
a horde of evil spirits let loose on earth. I accompany the captain and
supercargo with Bent, Taro, and a boat's crew, all well armed, on shore.
Taro explains that we come as friends, and as the people see that we
are well prepared for war, no opposition is offered. We enter the house
of a chief who has just died; his body lies at one end of a long hall
full of people. Among them are some twenty women, most of them young
and fine-looking persons. Their hair is adorned with flowers, and their
bodies are oiled. Some look dull and indifferent to what is taking
place, others are weeping, and others look well pleased. Taro tells us
that they are the wives of the king. Several men stand near them; ropes
are cast round their necks, and suddenly, before we have time to rescue
them, as we feel inclined to do, five of them are strangled, and fall
dead corpses on the ground. Their bodies are quickly carried off, with
that of the chief, and all are buried in one common grave. The new king
now appears, and the crowd come to do him honour. He is a tall, stout
young man--every inch a savage. We look with horror at what we
witness--the bodies are dragged up the hill, and thrust into huge ovens.
Some of the captives not yet dead are blackened and bound in a sitting
posture, and thus, horrible to relate, are placed _in the ovens to be
baked alive_.

It is too sickening to write what afterwards follows. None of us can
longer doubt that these people are the most terrible of cannibals. I
feel inclined to charge forward to rescue them, but the captain orders
us all to stand fast, or we may chance to be treated in the same way
ourselves.

We now, through Taro, tell the chief that we require water and fruit and
vegetables and hogs and fowls, and that we will pay for all. He
receives the message somewhat haughtily, and informs us with the air of
an emperor, that