But meanwhile another savage king on another island had heard of Ota's luck, and sent to beg for half the white men, that he too might be tickled and amused. Ota replied, saying he would see the other king skinned first.
Well, there was some skinning after this; for that other king invaded Ota's island, and the battle on the beach raged fierce and bloody for many a long hour. The Yankee skipper and his merry men had been obliged to join the fight on Ota's side, and victory was at last obtained. The other king's men fled seaward in their boats, leaving more than a hundred dead and wounded on the beach. But the dreadful cruelties to the prisoners, and the awful orgies that were carried on for many days afterwards, I have no language to describe.
When all the killed were eaten, the bones were taken to "ornament" the kraal of the king, round which the savage soldiers danced and howled for days and nights to the unearthly music of tom-toms and conch-shells, accompanied by rattles made of the dead men's skulls with pebbles in them, and much yelling and brandishing of spears.
This feast, from first to last, was so terrible that the hair of several of the sailors turned white before it ended.
But peace ever since then had reigned in King Ota's island, and he had even become friendly again with the king who lived on the other side of the water. However, Ota would never permit his white men to go on the sea in a boat or canoe. They were too useful to risk. They built him a whole cottage, and taught his people to do many wonderful things. They laid out gardens even, in which yams and sweet potatoes, with cassava root and many other vegetables, flourished most luxuriantly.
But for all the king's kindness to them—and in a savage kind of way he really did treat them well—the poor white men pined, and longed to see a ship appear on the horizon.
Every morning of their lives when they left the huts in which they slept, guarded as prisoners, they betook themselves towards the hill-top.
They told Ota they went thither to pray. Well, to their credit be it said, they did pray; but many was the wistful glance they cast seawards in hopes of catching sight of the coming ship.
* * * * * *
One morning the ship did heave in sight.