Shocking Inlmniambj of a Brlikk Captain. 609 



sailor already mentioned. This man was named John Davis, 

 about forty years of age, a native of Greenwich, and was, 

 according to his own story, left behind against his will by 

 Captain Ross, a '' sandal-wooder," who had visited this group 

 in 1858. He stated he had just before been with Captain 

 Ross at the Tonga Islands, wliere the captain sent two sailors 

 on shore to fell sandal-wood. These men, however, got into 

 a quarrel with the natives, who would not permit them to 

 rob them of their property, in the course of which they lost 

 their lives. The captain immediately proceeded to the 

 islands himself with some of his crew well armed, attacked 

 the unfortunate natives, shot five, and then sailed off. Davis 

 had become obnoxious to the captain, because in consequence 

 of over-work he had fallen ill with intermittent fever, and 

 could not work, upon which his remorseless superior cast 

 about how to get rid of the now useless seaman, and resolved 

 to put him ashore by force on the next island which came in 

 sight. What a fearful doom! To be abandoned, sick and 

 helpless, on a lone island far from the highways of the world, 

 where ships but seldom touched, and amid savages with 

 whose tongue he was unacquainted ! If even one were dis- 

 posed to doubt the possibility of such inhuman cruelty, it 

 would find mournful confirmation in many similar instances. 

 To this charge the '' sandal- wooders" are especially amen- 

 able, who visit the islands of the South Sea to collect the costly 

 sandal-wood, and in the prosecution of their enterprise seem 

 to go upon the exclusive principle that the coloured man has. 



VOL. II. 2 R 



