And presently he went boldly up the mountain-side and in due course came back with Ra'a's followers in a straggling tail behind him.
He explained afterwards to Blair that Ra'a's men had wanted for a long time past to come in and enjoy all the benefits they saw the others receiving, but Ra'a had held them back, telling them that the whites were only tricking Ha'o and his people and would presently carry them away. They had seen the arrival of the Blackbird ships, had watched the fight at sea, and also that in the pass, and these had convinced them of the good intentions of the white men. Finally they had taken matters into their own hands and settled things their own way.
And so the divisions in the island were healed by blood, and that which had seemed like to wreck their hopes turned marvellously to their highest good.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE SCOURGE OF GOD
But there was trouble of a quite unexpected kind brewing.
The yellow men in their lives had slain a certain number of the brown. In their deaths they slew still more.
The whites had hoped that, with the introduction of new food supplies, the unnatural but deep-rooted native craving for human flesh would have disappeared. The final rites of the battlefield shocked them exceedingly, and words had so far failed to convince Ha'o and his people of the error of their ways.
"You eat pig," was Ha'o's blunt argument in reply, "and man is cleaner than pig."