Rapa : the Forgotten. 
327 
and the captain hove to outside the reef. The 
natives, who then numbered about 800, soon put 
off to the ship, and some lively scenes followed. 
“ A gigantic, fierce-looking fellow sprang on 
deck, and seizing a white sailor boy endeavoured 
to spring overboard with .him, but the lad, 
struggling violently, escaped from his grasp.” 
The “ fierce-looking fellow,” however, was 
determined not to go away without something 
in the shape of a specimen of the strange white¬ 
skinned race, for he immediately seized a little 
cabin-boy, who was only rescued by the united 
efforts of some sailors who came to his assistance, 
“ and the native, finding he could not disengage 
him from their hold, pulled the boy’s woollen 
shirt over his head, and was preparing to leap 
out of the ship when he was arrested by the 
sailors.” All this must have been comical 
enough, but, Mr. Ellis goes on to relate, “ we 
had a large ship-dog chained to his kennel on 
the deck, and although this animal was not only 
exceedingly fearless, but savage, yet the appear¬ 
ance of the natives seemed to terrify him.” For 
without further ado one of them “collared” the 
dog, and lifting him up in his arms was making 
for the bulwarks, when he was brought up with 
