280 MALOLO. 
also knew that they never acknowledged themselves conquered unless 
this was done, and would construe my failing to require it of them 
into an admission that I had not succeeded in overcoming them. 
Many messages were, indeed, delivered to me by this girl from the 
chiefs, expressive of their sorrow for having attacked and killed our 
little chiefs ; but, in Feejee language, this amounted to nothing; and, 
I was determined to receive from them a formal acknowledgment of 
defeat, according to their own mode, before I made peace with them, 
however anxious I was to avoid any more bloodshed. I therefore sent 
the chiefs and people a message that they must come and beg pardon 
and sue for mercy, before all our warriors, on a hill that I pointed out, 
on the south end of the island, saying that I should land there in a little 
while to receive them, and that if they did not come they must be 
responsible for the consequences. 
At about eight o’clock I went on board the Porpoise, where I had 
in confinement a chief of Arro and some of his followers, in order 
that the fears of the people of the island might not induce them to 
neglect the opportunity of asking for peace, and knowing that this 
chief would have great influence in bringing about the result I desired. 
I had an interview with him in the cabin. The first question I put to 
him startled him not a little: it was, whether he could trust his life in 
the hands of any of his people that were on board with him ; for it 
was my intention to send a messenger from among those natives on 
board to the chiefs and people of the island, and if he did not execute 
it and return at the appointed time, I should shoot him. His eyes grew 
very large, he hesitated, and then spoke very quickly. At last he said, 
“ Yes;” but that he would like the two younger boys to be sent, as 
they were the best and most trustworthy. My object was now fully 
explained to him; and after he thoroughly understood the penalty both 
to himself and the people of the island, he entered warmly into my 
views, as he perceived that by so doing he would at once regain his 
own liberty, and save his island from farther devastation. 
The boys, who were respectively about fifteen and seventeen years 
of age, were then called into the cabin. I took two reeds, and repeated, 
through the interpreter, the messages, which the chief took great pains 
to make them understand. They were to this effect: that the whole 
of the natives of the island should come to me by the time the sun was 
overhead, to beg pardon and sue for mercy; and that if they did not 
do so, they must expect to be exterminated. This being fully under- 
stood by the boys, they were landed, the chief having previously assured 
them that his life depended on their good conduct and haste in executing 
their charge. 
