AT FUTUNA, BECRUITING. 307 



anxiously waited, fearing the rash fool was seriously 

 injured; but in a minute or two be was on his feet 

 again. 



Lashing the goat to his body, and ignoring her 

 struggles, he crawled out as far among the rocks as he 

 could ; then, at the approach of a big breaker, he dived to 

 meet it, coming up outside its threatening top like a life- 

 buoy. I pulled in, as near as I could venture, to pick 

 him up, and in a few minutes had him safely on board 

 again, but suffering fearfully. In his roll down the cliff 

 he had been without his trousers, which would have been 

 some protection to him. Consequently, his thighs were 

 deeply cut and torn in many places, while the brine 

 entering so many wounds, though a grand styptic, must 

 have tortured him unspeakably. At any rate, though he 

 was a regular stoic to bear pain, he fainted while I was 

 " dressing him down " in the most vigorous language I 

 could command for his foolhardy trick. Then we all 

 realized what he must be going through, and felt that he 

 was getting all the punishment he deserved, and more. 

 The goat, poor thing ! seemed none the worse for her 

 rough handling. 



The mate gave the signal to get back on board just 

 as Polly revived, so there were no inconvenient questions 

 asked, and we returned alongside in triumph, with such 

 a cargo of fish as would have given us a good month's 

 pay all round could we have landed them at Billingsgate. 

 Although the mate had not succeeded as well as we, the 

 catch of the two boats aggregated half a ton, not a fish 

 among the lot less than five pounds weight, and one of a 

 hundred and twenty — the yellow-tail aforesaid. As soon 

 as we reached the ship, the boats were run up, sails filled, 

 and away we lumbered again towards New Zealand. 



As the great mass of that solitary mountain faded 



