6. CHAPTER VI.
Fearful of spending another night in Hytyhoo, Captain
Guy caused the ship to be got under way shortly after dark.
The next morning, when all supposed that we were fairly
embarked for a long cruise, our course was suddenly altered for
La Dominica, or Hivarhoo, an island just north of the one we
had quitted. The object of this, as we learned, was to procure,
if possible, several English sailors, who, according to the commander
of the corvette, had recently gone ashore there from an
American whaler and were desirous of shipping aboard of one
of their own country vessels.
We made the land in the afternoon, coming abreast of a
shady glen opening from a deep bay, and winding by green
defiles far out of sight. “Hands by the weather-main-brace!”
roared the mate, jumping up on the bulwarks; and in a moment
the prancing Julia, suddenly arrested in her course,
bridled her head like a steed reined in, while the foam flaked
under her bows.
This was the place where we expected to obtain the men; so
a boat was at once got in readiness to go ashore. Now it was
necessary to provide a picked crew—men the least likely to
abscond. After considerable deliberation on the part of the
captain and mate, four of the seamen were pitched upon as the
most trustworthy; or rather they were selected from a choice
assortment of suspicious characters as being of an inferior order
of rascality.
Armed with cutlasses all round—the natives were said to be
an ugly set—they were followed over the side by the invalid
captain, who, on this occasion, it seems, was determined to signalize
himself. Accordingly, in addition to his cutlass, he wore
an old boarding belt, in which was thrust a brace of pistols.
They at once shoved off.
My friend Long Ghost had, among other things which looked
somewhat strange in a ship's forecastle, a capital spy-glass, and
on the present occasion we had it in use.
When the boat neared the head of the inlet, though invisible
to the naked eye, it was plainly revealed by the glass; looking
no bigger than an egg-shell, and the men diminished to pigmies.
At last, borne on what seemed a long flake of foam the tiny
craft shot up the beach amid a shower of sparkles. Not a soul
was there. Leaving one of their number by the water, the
rest of the pigmies stepped ashore, looking about them very
circumspectly, pausing now and then hand to ear, and peering
under a dense grove which swept down within a few paces of
the sea. No one came, and to all appearances every thing was
as still as the grave. Presently, he with the pistols, followed
by the rest flourishing their bodkins, entered the wood and
were soon lost to view. They did not stay long; probably
anticipating some inhospitable ambush were they to stray any
distance up the glen.
In a few moments they embarked again, and were soon riding
pertly over the waves of the bay. All of a sudden the captain
started to his feet—the boat spun round, and again made for
the shore. Some twenty or thirty natives armed with spears
which through the glass looked like reeds, had just come out
of the grove, and were apparently shouting to the strangers not
to be in such a hurry, but return and be sociable. But they
were somewhat distrusted, for the boat paused about its length
from the beach, when the captain standing up in its head delivered
an address in pantomime, the object of which seemed
to be, that the islanders should draw near. One of them
stepped forward and made answer, seemingly again urging the
strangers not to be diffident, but beach their boat. The captain
declined, tossing his arms about in another pantomime. In the
end he said something which made them shake their spears;
whereupon he fired a pistol among them, which set the whole
party running; while one poor little fellow, dropping his spear
and clapping his hand behind him, limped away in a manner
which almost made me itch to get a shot at his assailant.
Wanton acts of cruelty like this are not unusual on the part
of sea captains landing at islands comparatively unknown.
Even at the Pomotu group, but a day's sail from Tahiti, the
islanders coming down to the shore have several times been
fired at by trading schooners passing through their narrow
channels; and this too as a mere amusement on the part of the
ruffians.
Indeed, it is almost incredible, the light in which many sailors
regard these naked heathens. They hardly consider them human.
But it is a curious fact, that the more ignorant and
degraded men are, the more contemptuously they look upon
those whom they deem their inferiors.
All powers of persuasion being thus lost upon these foolish
savages, and no hope left of holding further intercourse, the
boat returned to the ship.
