After this, the other people decked themselves with the green branches of trees, and some painted or rather rubbed their bodies over with a kind of ochre, of a red color and white, and came to the pole with great parade, holding their clubs and spears. Then they made a sort of corrobory, or dance; but I could not trace any signs of religion in these ceremonies, nor detect any thing like reverence paid to the pole.
I asked George Doyley what had become of his father and mother? He told me that they were both killed by the blacks, as well as all those who went away from the ship in the first raft, excepting himself and his little brother.
The little fellow gave a very distinct account of the dreadful transaction. He said he was so frightened when he saw his father killed by a blow on the head from a club, that he hardly knew what he did; but when his mother was killed in the same way, he thought they would kill him and his little brother too, and then he hoped they should all go to heaven together. I then told him that all the crew, except myself and Sexton, were murdered.
After we had been on the island a few days, a vessel came in sight, and I did all I could to induce the natives to take us to it; but they would not part with us. Seven days afterwards, two more ships, in company, came close to the shore. The natives seemed very much frightened at this, and were in the utmost confusion; they took us, and all the skulls, with the dog, and hid us among the bushes until the ships were gone.
We were very scantily supplied with provisions during our stay on the island. When the natives had been unsuccessful in fishing, they would eat it all themselves; and at other times, when they caught a good supply, they gave us the entrails and heads. This, with a sort of wild plum, and now and then a piece of cocoa-nut, which we got without their knowledge, was our only food.
We were sometimes so hungry as to be glad to eat the grass. Through doing this, I have often been attacked with such violent pains in the stomach, as made me unable to walk upright.
Little William Doyley was very ill-used during our stay here; he cried very much after his mother; and at times the natives, both men and women, would tie him up to a tree, and beat him with bamboos; on my asking them to leave off, as well as I could by signs, they would shoot at me with their bows and arrows. On one occasion, when the women were beating him, I went and released him, and very nearly lost my life, for an arrow was shot within an inch of my head. They sometimes tied him up and left him several hours.
Sexton and myself were chiefly employed in climbing trees, and breaking up fire-wood to cook the fish with; when they thought we had not enough, they would beat us with their hands, and sometimes with the wood.
They would at times take us with them in their canoes, to catch fish, which they did by spearing, and with lines and hooks. Their lines were made of the fibres of the outside shell or husk of the cocoa-nuts; and the hooks were neatly made of tortoise shell.
The number of Indians on this island amounted to about sixty. They were merely residing on the island during the fishing season; for their home, as I afterward found out, was a great distance off.