But new difficulties now stared us in the face. Most of our provisions had been lost by the upsetting of the canoe, and we had but a very small quantity of water. It was therefore deemed expedient to divide among us the means of subsistence remaining. We had four cocoa-nuts for each person, and a few pieces over, which were distributed equally. At this time no objects were seen, except a few sea birds. We continued in this condition for nine days and nights, with actual starvation before us, as the most probable end of our anxieties and sufferings. We were about settling down into a state of confirmed despair, when, to our inexpressible joy, we discovered land apparently about ten miles off. We exerted all our remaining strength to reach it. When within six miles we saw, approaching us, a fleet of eighteen canoes, filled with the natives of the small island we were approaching.
At first the small canoes came near us, for the purpose of ascertaining who and what we were. The appearance of these natives was such as to excite at once our astonishment and disgust. Like the inhabitants of the island we had left, they were entirely naked; and, as our subsequent experience proved, they were infinitely more barbarous and cruel. Very soon the large canoes came up, when the wretches commenced their outrages. They attacked us with brutal ferocity, knocking us overboard with their clubs, in the mean time making the most frightful grimaces, and yelling like so many incarnate devils. They fell upon our boat and immediately destroyed it, breaking it into splinters, and taking the fragments into their canoes. While this was going on we were swimming from one canoe to another, entreating them by signs to spare our lives and permit us to get into their canoes. This they for a long time refused, beating us most unmercifully, whenever we caught hold of any thing to save ourselves from sinking.
After they had demolished our boat, and kept us in that condition for some time, they allowed us to get on board. They then compelled us to row towards the land. They stripped us of all our clothing immediately after we were taken in; and the reader may form some idea of our distress in this condition, under a burning sun, from the fact, that before night our shoulders were blistered, by being thus exposed to the heat.
On approaching land we discovered no habitation; but after going round a point of the island, we saw near the beach a row of small and badly constructed huts. We were compelled to jump from the canoes into the water and wade to the shore. By this time the beach was lined with women and children, who caused the air to resound with the most horrid yells and screams. Their gestures and violent contortions of countenance resembled the frantic ravings of Bedlamites.
The reception we met with on land was no more agreeable than that upon the water. Judging from the treatment we had received from the females of the island which we had left, it was hoped that the gentler sex would extend to us some proof of their commiseration; but in this we were sadly disappointed. If possible, they were more cruel than their inhuman lords and masters. We were soon separated from each other, and dragged about from place to place; our brutal captors, in the mean time, contending with each other to see who should have us as his property. Frequent contests of this kind occurred; in one of which, during the first day, I was knocked down. The question of ownership was at length settled, and we were retained by those into whose hands we had at first fallen. Some of us were taken to their house of worship, called by them Verre-Yarris—literally, God's house, where they went through with some of their religious ceremonies, and we received a few mouthfuls of food, which was the first we had tasted through the day.
It was my good fortune to be retained by one who, compared with the other natives, was humane. His name was Pahrahbooah; the female head of the family was called Nahkit; and they had four children. I went by the name of Tee´mit; and Benjamin Nute by the name of Rollo. The captain was also fortunate in falling into the hands of a friend of my master, who treated him with comparative kindness. He was valued the more highly also on account of being a large, fleshy man—they judging of these things by the size and appearance.
CHAPTER VII.
The island, to which they were carried, proves to be Lord North's island, called by the natives To´bee.—Account of the island and its inhabitants.—Their manners and customs.
It may now be proper in this place to give some account of the place where our unhappy lot was cast, and of its rude and miserable inhabitants. It will be impossible to convey a correct idea of their ignorance, poverty, and degradation; but some conception may be formed, by imagining what the condition of beings must necessarily be, when wholly separated from the rest of their species, stripped of all the refinements of life, and deprived of all means and opportunities for improvement.