448 



MASSACRE ISLANDS. 



[1830. 



make for the schooner. When I got beyond the reach of the savages, 

 some imperceptible power seemed to give new strength to my arms 

 and a mighty impulse to my frail bark — the little oar felt like a feather 

 in my grasp, and the canoe 4 walked the water like a thing of life.' 



" The fire from the Antarctic immediately ceased as the canoe came 

 off from the shore, and I made directly for the vessel. My form was 

 emaciated and wasted to such a degree, and so defaced with paint of 

 various colours, and my face so completely changed, from the loss of 

 my huge whiskers, that no one on board the schooner could possibly 

 recognise me without hearing my voice. When I had arrived within 

 speaking distance, the captain hailed, ' Who's there ?' — ' Old Shaw, 

 come back again !' was my reply, as I looked on the goal I pursued 

 with a heart full of joy to the brim. I soon came alongside, where I 

 received a suit of clothes, put them on, and mounted once more the 

 bright deck of the Antarctic. 



"And what a scene was here ! — the captain and his good lady clung 

 round my neck and wept for joy ; and all the crew received me with a 

 welcome so generous, so cordial, and affectionate, that all my woes 

 were for the time forgotten, — and the scene, the occasion, and the 

 bliss are so engraven upon my memory, that they can only be effaced 

 when the last spark of life is extinct. 



" The whole of these islands are under the absolute sway of a single 

 chief. Each of the separate islands has a subordinate chief, with 

 many others dependent on him. I could discover among them no trace 

 of religion — no appearance of any thing like a reverence for a superior 

 power. The chiefs indulge in polygamy, but the generality of the men 

 have but one wife. The women are reserved and chaste, their hus- 

 bands killing them without any scruples on the least suspicion of infi- 

 delity. As I saw but few children during my captivity, it is my im- 

 pression they kill them all except those of the chiefs. Their huts are 

 simple, and constructed of bamboo, and covered with cocoanut leaves." 



CHAPTER IX. 



Massacre Islands — More Treachery — Wallace's Island invaded — The Castle at- 

 tacked — The Assailants defeated — Henneen slain — Massacre Island evacuated 

 by the Natives— The Antarctic's Crew land— Interment of the Martyrs' Sculls— 

 Holmes's narrow Escape — The Enterprise abandoned — Sail for Bouka Island — 

 St. George's Channel— New-Ireland— The Natives— Fertility and natural 

 Riches of the Country — New-Britain — Dampier's Island. 



The suspicious movements alluded to in the last chapter continued 

 to engage our attention until eight A. M., when Henneen, the chief of 

 the Massacre Island, came off to the edge of the reef, to offer us some 

 fruit, which he had been in the habit of doing four or five times every- 

 day, since our purchase of Wallace's Island ; and we had always sent 



