446 



MASSACRE ISLANDS. 



[1830. 



had been filled. Some time after it began to heal, a piece of the scull 

 bone came out about two inches in length, and a quarter of an inch in 

 breadth. I took out the sand gradually with my hands, and held my 

 head in a position to catch water in the wound as it rained, to aid me 

 in cleansing it. In this way 1 got rid of it all in about three weeks, 

 with the exception of a stone about the size of a buckshot, which had 

 forced its way down into the hollow of my neck. This caused me 

 much pain and irritation, and took me, off and on, all of two days to 

 get out. In these operations I had no instruments to assist me ; my 

 fingers alone did the work, and to these the sense of feeling was of 

 course the only guide. 



" In this way I ' lived, and moved, and had my being' until about a 

 week before the Antarctic returned ; a day on which it had been pro- 

 mulgated that I should be killed and roasted for a feast, at sunrise. 

 At daylight I was called forth for the sacrifice, and taken to that fatal 

 part of the island, on the south side, which had already been moist- 

 ened by the blood of my friends, over whose roasted carcasses the in- 

 human monsters had rent the air with their shouts of fiendish mirth. 

 All the dread labours of preparation were upon my shoulders— the wood 

 for the fire, the water, fruits, &c, necessary to complete the feast, 

 were brought by my hands ; and all the minute and degrading arrange- 

 ments for the immolation were made by the victim himself. These 

 being completed, the axe — that very instrument at which their coward 

 hearts quailed in the woods — was pointed out to me, and I ordered to 

 sit down by the side of it, and assured that that was to wind up my 

 career as soon as the chief king arrived. As I was prepared for my 

 fate, I received this annunciation with calmness and fortitude, and 

 awaited the happy moment of death with impatience. 



" In this condition of things, before the appointed hour of sacrifice, 

 I gave myself up to reflection. Memory for a short time was busy 

 with the past, the present, and the future. The vast ocean was passed ; 

 and, like a ray of light, I was wafted to the joyous little group upon 

 the school-house steps of my far off home. Recollection ran through 

 the scenes of earlier life, and brought up afresh the innocent gambols 

 of childhood and youth, when arrayed in smiles of contentment and 

 peace. I looked on this picture of beauty with delight ; but as I gazed, 

 it faded away, and memory came back to my desolate state, as a shout 

 from the chieftains restored my senses to the business before us. It 

 was noon, and a messenger brought information that the king was not 

 pleased to attend on that day, and that I, for the present, must be dis- 

 charged and sent home. 



"I cannot say but I was disappointed once in regard to their cruel- 

 ties, but I do say I thought the disappointment more cruel than the 

 reality could possibly have been, as the latter would have ended all 

 my woes ; whereas, if I lived, I knew I must be subject to their con- 

 tinuance. And it was so. I lived in continual torment from that time 

 up to the very hour the vessel arrived. 



" After an absence of one hundred and eight days, the Antarctic hove 

 in sight on the 13th of September. The natives first discovered her 

 as she peered in beauty beyond the coral reef, and flew to my hut with 



