rudence, brought upon myself the fate
which I was sure awaited me.

At other times I thought that perhaps, after all, these treacherous
savages had made away with him, and thence the confusion into which they
were thrown by my questions, and their contradictory answers; or he might
be a captive in some other part of the valley; or, more dreadful still,
might have met with that fate at which my very soul shuddered. But all
these speculations were vain; no tidings of Toby ever reached me--he had
gone never to return.

The conduct of the islanders appeared inexplicable. All reference to my
lost comrade was carefully evaded, and if at any time they were forced to
make some reply to my frequent inquiries on the subject, they would
uniformly denounce him as an ungrateful runaway, who had deserted his
friend, and taken himself off to that vile and detestable place Nukuheva.

But whatever might have been his fate, now that he was gone the natives
multiplied their acts of kindness and attention towards myself, treating
me with a degree of deference which could hardly have been surpassed had I
been some celestial visitant. Kory-Kory never for one moment left my side,
unless it were to execute my wishes. The faithful fellow, twice every day,
in the cool of the morning and in the evening, insisted upon carrying me
to the stream, and bathing me in its refreshing water.

Frequently, in the afternoon, he would carry me to a particular part of
the stream, where the beauty of the scene produced a soothing influence
upon my mind. At this place the waters flowed between grassy banks,
planted with enormous bread-fruit trees, whose vast branches, interlacing
overhead, formed a leafy canopy; near the stream were several smooth black
rocks. One of these, projecting several feet above the surface of the
water, had upon its summit a shallow cavity, which, filled with
freshly-gathered leaves, formed a delightful couch.

Here I often laid for hours, covered with a gauze-like veil of tappa,
while Fayaway, seated beside me, and holding in her hand a fan woven from
the leaflets of a young cocoa-nut bough, brushed aside the insects that
occasionally lighted on my face, and Kory-Kory, with a view of chasing
away my melancholy, performed a thousand antics in the water before us.

As my eye wandered along this romantic stream, it would fall upon the
half-immersed figure of a beautiful girl, standing in the transparent
water, and catching in a littl