managed, by placing them upon the embers, but the crabs, which it was necessary to boil, and which were of the size of small lobsters, presented a more difficult case. Max's culinary genius, however, stimulated by a keen appetite, eventually triumphed over every obstacle. He procured a number of stones, which he heated in the fire; then filling one of the deep and rounded chama shells with water, he proceeded to drop the heated stones into it, using a couple of sticks as a pair of tongs. This process he continued until the water boiled, when he remorselessly plunged the unhappy crabs therein, and from time to time dropped in more of the heated stones, until the cookery was complete.

CHAPTER XX.

ARTHUR'S STORY.

CROWNE ON "THE KNIGHTLY CHARACTER"-ROKOA-THE CANNIBAL ISLAND OF ANGATAN.

"This is no Grecian fable of fountains running wine,

Of hags with snaky tresses, and sailors turned to swine:

On yonder teeming island, under the noonday sun,

In sight of many people, these strange dark deeds were done."

HAVING made a hearty and satisfactory supper, and concluded the meal with a draught of cocoanut milk, we sat down, like the patriarchs of old, "in the door of our tent," facing the sea, to enjoy the freshness of the evening breeze.

Charlie, after having settled it to his own entire satisfaction, that the shell in which his pearls had been found was properly a mussel, and not an oyster, and having also, by Arthur's help, resolved his doubts and difficulties touching divers other knotty points in conchology, successively raised and canvassed the grave and edifying questions:—whether there actually were such creatures as mermaids-whether sea-serpents were indigenous to the neighbourhood of Cape Cod and Massachusetts Baywhether the narratives of ancient and modern voyagers, in regard to krakens, and gigantic polypes, with feelers or arms as long as a ship's mainmast, had any foundation in fact, or were to be looked upon as sheer fabricationsand, finally, whether the hideous and revolting practice of cannibalism really prevailed among the inhabitants of certain groups of islands in the Pacific.*

"This puts me in mind, Arthur," said Charlie, suddenly, while the last-mentioned subject was under discussion, "of a promise you made during the voyage, to tell me a story about a cannibal island upon which you were once cast, and the adventures you met with there. This is a good time to tell it: it is quite early, and the night so beautiful, that it would be a shame to think of going to bed for two or three hours yet; for my part, I feel as though I could sit here all night without getting sleepy."

"A happy thought, Charlie," said Browne; "it will be the pleasantest possible way of passing the evening; therefore, Arthur, let us have the story."

66

"O yes, the story! let us have the cannibal story by all means!" cried Max; "this is just the hour and the place

For the most conclusive evidence of the existence of this unnatural and abominable practice, even as late as the year 1840, see Wilkes' Exploring Expedition, vol. iii. p. 153 (duodecimo edition), where a circumstantial account of a cannibal feast is given, as witnessed by Messrs. Lythe and Hunt, missionaries at Somu Somu, on the island of Vuna, one of the Feejees.-ED.

to tell it with effect. The dash of the surf upon the reef, the whispering of the night-wind in the tree-tops, the tall black groves on the shore yonder, and the water lying blacker still in their shadow, will all harmonize admirably with the subject."

"I believe I did promise Charlie an account of an unintentional visit I once made to a place known as 'the can nibal island of Angatan,' and I have no objection to redeem my pledge now, if desired. I wish you to take notice, however, at the outset, in order to avoid raising false expectations, that I do not promise you a 'cannibal story' -how much my narrative deserves such a title, will appear when you have heard it."

The call for the story being quite eager and unanimous, Arthur settled himself into a comfortable position, and after giving one or two of those preliminary ahems common to the whole fraternity of story-tellers from time immemorial, he proceeded as follows:

ARTHUR'S STORY

OF THE CANNIBAL ISLAND OF ANGATAN.

"About a year and a half ago, and just before the time when I was to sail for the United States to complete my preparation for the seminary, I was induced to embark upon a voyage to the Palliser islands, planned by a young chief of Eimeo, named Rokoa, and a Mr. Barton, an American trader residing at the island. The object of the young chief in this expedition was to ascertain the fate of an elder brother who had sailed for Anaa, or Chain Island, several months before, with the intention of returning immediately, but who had never since been heard from: that of Mr. Barton was to engage a number of Hao-divers for a pearl-fishing voyage contemplated by him in con

nection with another foreign trader. He did not himself embark with us; but his son, a young man two or three years my senior, accompanied us instead, to make the necessary arrangements for engaging the divers, and also to purchase any mother-of-pearl, pearls, and tortoiseshell, which the natives might have to dispose of at such places as we should visit. With a view to the latter purpose, he was provided with a supply of trinkets and cheap goods of various kinds, such as are used in this species of traffic. At the Society Islands, the natives had learned the fair value of their commodities, and would no longer exchange even their yams, bread-fruit, and cocoanuts, for beads, spangles, and fragments of looking-glasses; but among the smaller groups, lying farther to the eastward, where the intercourse with Europeans was comparatively infrequent, these and similar articles were still in great demand, the simple islanders readily giving rich shells, and valuable pearls, in barter for them. I accompanied the expedition at the request of Rokoa, and with scarcely any other object than to gratify him; though I was made the bearer of letters, and some trifling presents, to a Tahitian native missionary, who had recently gone to Hao to labour there. I had long known both Rokoa and his brother, now supposed to be lost. The former was a remarkable and interesting character. He had accompanied my uncle and myself on a voyage to Hawaii, and visited with us the great volcano of Kilauea, on that island, said to be by far the grandest and most wonderful in the world, not excepting Vesuvius itself. In making the descent into the crater, and while endeavouring to reach what is called the Black Ledge, he saved my life at the imminent hazard of his own. It was upon that voyage that I first became acquainted with him. We afterwards travelled together through the most wild and inaccessible parts of the interior of Tahiti and Eimeo; and in the course of this intimacy I discovered much in him to esteem and admire.

There was in his character such a union of gentleness and courage, such childlike openness of disposition, and such romantic fidelity to what he considered the obligations of friendship, as reminds me of young Edmund in Charlie's favourite story of Aslauga's Knight. With a chivalrous daring, that could face the most appalling danger without a tremor, was united an almost feminine delicacy of character, truly remarkable in a savage."

"That," said Browne, "is the true ideal of the knightly character-courage which nothing can daunt, but without roughness or ferocity even in the hour of mortal combat. The valour of the knight is a high sentiment of honour, devotion, loyalty; it is calm, gentle, beautiful, and is thus distinguished from the mere animal courage of the ruffian, which is brutal, fierce, and cruel."

"I think I shall like Rokoa," said Charlie, rubbing his hands together in token of satisfaction; “and I guess this is going to be an interesting story. There will be some fighting in it, I expect."

"Of course there will be plenty of fighting," said Max; 66 or else what is the meaning of this preliminary flourish of trumpets about Rokoa's chivalrous courage and all that?"

"I once more give fair and timely notice, in order to prevent disappointment, that I am merely relating a sober narrative of facts, and not improvising one of Max's florid romances about Sooloo pirates, Spanish bandits, Italian bravos, or the robbers of the Hartz Mountains."

"Or enchanted castles, captive princesses, valiant knights, fire-breathing dragons, and diabolical old magicians," added Browne, "which formed the staple of a highly edifying tale with which I overheard him entertaining Charlie the other afternoon at Castle Hill, as we were taking our siesta in the shade."

"And a capital story it was too," said Charlie; "but go on, Arthur, please."