ur canoes one after the other, to get hold of
some of the people in them, not minding what became of the rest. At one
place the people must have been Christians, for when we went on shore we
found a number of them in a large chapel, and a brown man preaching to
them. We got hold of nearly a score, and when their friends attempted
to rescue them, we shot or cut down all who interfered, and carried away
a dozen or more. When we got them on board, instead of complaining,
they sat together and sang psalms, and one of them, who I found knew a
little English, talked to me, and told me that two of their number were
elders of their church, and that he and all the rest were Christians.
When I told the skipper, he only laughed, and said that they were only
Protestants, and that when they got on shore the priests would make them
into real Christians. The native, when I told him this, sighed, and
said he hoped he and his friends would remain faithful. On another
occasion we enticed a whole fleet of canoes some distance off the shore;
when they, taking the alarm, were pulling back, he fired among them, and
when they took fright and were paddling away, we sunk the whole of them,
giving some the stem, throwing shot into others, and firing at the rest.
We picked up as many people as we could, but not a few were drowned,
and the remainder managed to swim on shore. At last, with a full cargo,
though some died on board, we came in here. I found that this was not
the first trip on this business the schooner had made, and that half a
dozen more craft were employed in the same way, so that many hundreds of
the poor natives must have been carried off from their homes to die up
among the snowy mountains of cold, starvation, and hard work, or else of
broken hearts."

"This is important information, my man; you should at once have informed
the consul, who might have taken steps to get the natives liberated,"
observed Jack.

"If I had gone on shore, sir, I should have had a sharp knife stuck
under my ribs before I was many hours older," answered Hake. "By that
time, and long before the consul could have interfered, the whole cargo
would have been miles away up the country; even now there is not one
left in the schooner."

Jack reflected on what the man had told him, and, believing the account,
gave him leave to remain on board during the night, resolving to look
into the matter the next morning. A hand was sent to secure his punt;
but