BEACH COMBERS. 57 



landed at their village. The beach-comber tried 

 to have the islanders seize and detain our boats 

 for not having allowed them to come aboard. 

 Nevertheless, we made bold to go ashore, and it 

 was only by sheer luck that we ever got off 

 alive ; for we happened to have among us a 

 fellow who understood the native language, and 

 who overheard the islanders hatching up a 

 murderous scheme to "do for" the whole lot of 

 us. This chance interpreter ran and told the old 

 man, who ordered the boats to put off to the ship. 

 Every Jack tar of us knew that that meant 

 stepping lively, and we wasted no time. We 

 launched those boats as quick as coastguards, but 

 we were not a moment too soon. For no sooner 

 had we bent to our oars than the whole mob 

 of savages made a rush for us, yelling like a 

 pack of lunatics, and running into the water 

 after our boats, but not succeeding in their 

 attempts to get hold of them. The whole brutal 

 job was the work of that villainous beach-comber, 

 and shows how low a white man will get when he 

 sells his birthright and goes to live with savages. 

 The worst insult you can offer an able seaman 

 is to call him a beach-comber. 



When we came home after that long, long 

 voyage, we had with us a boat-steerer from this 



