that he wished to be informed how many persons there were below. To this Mr Mariner answered, that there was only one; and called up the cooper, who had slowly followed him. Tooi Tooi then led them upon deck towards one of the chiefs, who had the direction of the conspiracy.

::

The first object that struck Mr Mariner's sight, on coming upon deck, was enough to thrill the stoutest heart. Upon the companion a short squab naked figure, about fifty years of age, was seated, with a searian's jacket soaked in blood, thrown over one shoulder; on the other rested his iron-wood club, spattered with blood and brains while the frightfulness of his appearance was increased by a constant blinking with one of his eyes, and a horrible convulsive motion on one side of his mouth. On another part of the deck there lay twenty-two bodies perfectly naked, and arranged side by side in regular order, but so dreadfully bruised and battered about the head, that only two or three of them could be recognised. At this time a man had just counted them, and was reporting the number to the chief; immediately after which they began to throw them overboard. On Mr Mariner and the cooper being brought into his presence, he looked at them awhile and smiled, probably on account of their dirty appearance. Mr Mariner was then given in charge to a petty chief to be taken on shore, but the cooper was detained on board.

In his way to the shore the chief stripped him of his shirt. The circumstance of his having just escaped death was by no means a consolation to him. Reserved he knew not for what hardships, he felt his mind hardened by a sort of careless in

difference as to what might happen; and if he had any consoling hope at all, it was that he might be going on shore to fall by the club of some sanguinary chief not sated with that day's slaughter.

In a little while he was landed, and led to the most northern part of the island, to a place called Co-oolo, where he saw, without being much affected at the sight, the cause of all that day's disasters, Mr Brown, the whaling-master, lying dead upon the beach his body naked, and much bruised about the head and chest. They asked Mr Mariner, by words and signs, if they had done right in killing him; and as he returned them no answer, one of them lifted up his club to knock out his brains, but was prevented by a superior chief, who ordered them to take their prisoner on board a large sailing canoe. Whilst here, he observed upon the beach an old man, whose countenance did not speak much in his favour, parading up and down with a club in his hand. At the same time a boy, who had just come into the canoe, pointed to a fire at a little distance, and, addressing himself to Mr Mariner, pronounced the word máte (meaning to kill), and made such signs as gave him to understand nothing less than that he was to be killed and roasted. This idea roused him from his state of mental torpor, and gave him much alarm, which was not lessened by the sight of the old man just mentioned, who appeared in no other light than that of an executioner waiting for his victim. About half an hour

* The word mate (pronounced something like martay) is the common word throughout the South Sea Islands for "to kill." Mr M. had learnt it at the Sandwich Islands.

afterwards, a number of people came to the canoe, landed him, and led him towards the fire, near which he saw, lying dead, James Kelly, William Baker, and James Hoay, three of those who had first mutinied. Some hogs were now brought to be cooked; and Mr Mariner was undeceived respecting what he had understood from the gestures of the boy in the canoe, who, it was now evident, merely meant to imply that some of Mr Mariner's countrymen lay dead where he pointed, and that there they were going to roast or bake some hogs.

From this place he was led towards the island of Foa. On the way they stopped at a hut, where they stripped him of his trowsers, notwithstanding his earnest solicitations to retain them; for he already felt the effect of the sun upon his back, and dreaded a total exposure to its heat. He was then led about bare-footed, and without any thing to cover him, the heat blistering his skin in a most painful manner. Every now and then some of the natives came up to him from motives of curiosity, felt his skin to compare it with their own, or likened it rather (as he afterwards understood) to the skin of a scraped hog, from its whiteness, while from malice, or rather wantonness, others spat upon him, pushed him about, and threw sticks and cocoa-nut shells at him, so that his head was cut in several places. After having thus tantalized and led him about for a considerable length of time, as fast as the soreness of his feet would permit him to walk, a woman happening to pass, from motives of compassion, gave him an apron made of the leaves of the chee-tree, with which he was permitted to cover himself. At length they entered a hut,

and sat down to drink cava, * putting him in a corner, and desiring him by signs to sit down, it being considered very disrespectful to stand up before a superior, the principle of which point of etiquette will be explained in another place.

Whilst his persecutors were thus regaling themselves, a man entered the hut in great haste; and having said something to the company, took Mr Mariner away with him. As they were going along, they met one of the Sandwich islanders, whom the Port au Prince had brought from Anahooroo Bay, who gave Mr Mariner to understand that Finow, the king of the islands, had sent for him. On his arrival, the king beckoned to him, and made signs that he should sit near him, and as he entered the place, the women, who sat at the other end of the room, beholding his deplorable condition, with one voice uttered a cry of pity, beating their breasts, and exclaiming, O yaoo! chiodofa! Alas! poor young man! Fortunately for Mr Mariner, Finow had taken an extraordinary liking to him from the first moment he had seen him on board. He thought he was the captain's son, or at least a young chief of some consequence in his own country; and had given orders, that if they found it necessary to kill the white men, they should, at any rate, preserve Mr Mariner's life. The king now put his nose to his forehead (a mark of friendly salutation); and soon after observing that he was very dirty, and much wounded, he desired one of his women attendants to take him to a pond within the fencing of the

* An infusion of the root of a species of the pepper plant, the mode of preparing which, and seremony of drinking it, will be described hereafter.

house, where he might wash himself. On his return to the presence of the king, he was sent to the other end of the house, where he was oiled all over with sandal-wood oil, which felt very agreeable, alleviating the smart of his wounds, and greatly refreshing him. He now received a mat to lie down on, where, overcome by fatigue, both of mind and body, he soon fell fast asleep. During the night he was awakened by one of the women, who brought him some baked pork and some yam; but being somehow prejudiced against the pork, lest it should be human flesh, he did not taste it, but ate heartily of the yam, not having tasted any thing since breakfast the preceding day.

On getting up the next morning, he was much surprised at perceiving every body with their heads shaved-a practice which is always adopted at the burial of Tooitonga, a great personage hereafter to be described, whose funeral was performed that day. In the course of the morning, Finow took him on board the ship, where he was much gratified in meeting several of the crew, who had been ordered on board to bring it close in shore. The king's orders being understood, they cut the cables, and worked her through a very narrow passage, so full of rocks and shoals as to appear almost unnavigable. Through the medium of Tooi Tooi, the king was now informed, that unless his men (nearly 400 in number) were to sit down, and remain perfectly quiet, it would be impossible to work the ship; which orders being momently given, and implicitly obeyed, she was brought within half a cable's length of the shore, and run aground by Finow's directions.