“Hand us a coal, Buzzby, to light my pipe, before ye begin,” said Peter Grim.
“Ah, then, howld yer tongue, Blunderbore!” cried O’Riley, handing the glowing coal demanded, with as much nonchalance as if his fingers were made of cast-iron.
“Well, ye see,” resumed Buzzby, “when poor Mrs Ellice wos pitched overboard, as I seed her with my own two eyes—”
“Stop, Buzzby,” said Mivins, “’ow was ’er ’ead at the time?”
“Shut up!” cried several of the men; “go on, Buzzby.”
“Well, I think her ’ead was sou’-west, if it warn’t nor’-east. Anyhow it was pintin’ somewhere or other round the compass. But, as I wos sayin’, when Mrs Ellice struck the water (an’ she told me all about it herself, ye must know) she sank, and then she comed up, and didn’t know how it wos, but she caught hold of an oar that wos floatin’ close beside her, and screamed for help, but no help came, for it was dark, and the ship had disappeared, so she gave herself up for lost, but in a little the oar struck agin a big piece o’ the wreck o’ the pirate’s boat, and she managed to clamber upon it, and lay there, a’most dead with cold, till mornin’. The first thing she saw when day broke forth wos a big ship, bearin’ right down on her, and she wos just about run down when one o’ the men observed her from the bow.
“‘Hard a-port!’ roared the man.
“‘Port it is,’ cried the man at the wheel, an’ round went the ship like a duck, jist missin’ the bit of wreck as she passed. A boat wos lowered, and Mrs Ellice wos took aboard. Well, she found that the ship wos bound for the Sandwich Islands, and as they didn’t mean to touch at any port in passin’, Mrs Ellice had to go on with her. Misfortins don’t come single, howsiver. The ship was wrecked on a coral reef, and the crew had to take to their boats, w’ich they did, an’ got safe to land, but the land they got to wos an out-o’-the-way island among the Feejees, and a spot where ships never come, so they had to make up their minds to stop there.”
“I thought,” said Amos Parr, “that the Feejees were cannibals, and that whoever was wrecked or cast ashore on their coasts was killed and roasted, and eat up at once.”
“So ye’re right,” rejoined Buzzby; “but Providence sent the crew to one o’ the islands that had bin visited by a native Christian missionary from one o’ the other islands, and the people had gin up some o’ their worst practices, and wos thinkin’ o’ turnin’ over a new leaf altogether. So the crew wos spared, and took to livin’ among the natives, quite comfortable like. But they soon got tired and took to their boats agin, and left. Mrs Ellice, however, determined to remain and help the native Christians, till a ship should pass that way. For three years nothin’ but canoes hove in sight o’ that lonesome island; then, at last a brig came, and cast anchor offshore. It wos an Australian trader that had been blown out o’ her course on her way to England, so they took poor Mrs Ellice aboard, and brought her home—and that’s how it wos.”