of Lord North’s Island. 231 
In the course of the first five months, vessels passed in sight 
of the island; and one remained near it for three days; so that 
the men on board could be distinctly seen from the land. But the 
Americans were kept on shore and closely guarded ; while the ca- 
noes visited the ship, from which the natives brought back pieces 
of iron, fish-hooks, glass bottles, &c. On these occasions, all at- 
tempts to escape were vain. 
The captives gradually sunk under their excessive labors and 
scanty food; and at the end of the first year, one of them, Wil- 
liam Sedon, became so emaciated, that he could only crawl from 
place to place; and then his inhuman masters placed him in an 
old canoe and sent him adrift on the ocean; as was afterwards 
the case with another of the seamen.* 
It should be observed, that it is not their custom to bury in 
the earth any of their dead except very young children; all grown 
people, after death, are placed in a canoe and committed to the 
ocean. 
Another of the captives was accused by the natives of some tri- 
fling offence and put to death; the savages knocked him down 
with their clubs, and then despatched him in a barbarous manner ; 
and the author of the “Narrative” and his surviving companions 
also narrowly escaped being massacred ; in this instance, contrary 
to what had been experienced on their first arrival at the island, 
the natural sensibility of woman manifested itself in protecting them 
from the fury of the men. The next that perished was one of 
the three Pelew Islanders, who actually starved to death, and, 
according to custom, was committed to the ocean in an old ca- 
noe. Shortly afterwards, one of the two surviving Pelew Islanders 
was detected in taking a few cocoa-nuts without leave; and for 
* Holden’s Narrative, pp. 105, 108. 
