“Their mates seemed to be pretty well frightened, and didn’t wait many minutes nor look for their chums, but bolted to their canoes, and paddled away to the big island for dear life.
“After a bit two big canoes came and paddled round with drums, and a man in one of them shouted out something, and among what he said I could make out ‘tabu, tabu,’ being repeated several times, and then they went away again.
“When night came, I set to work to get the boat ready if possible; and presently Bos’n, who had been hiding, came to me and helped. Calla came after a while, and told us he would fetch you; and that’s the end of it, till you came along of him, and we started.”
Our adventures were now almost over, for the next day we fell in with the missionary schooner Dayspring, and the missionaries took care of us, and took us to their headquarters.
When we came to overhaul the things we had brought away with us in Bristol Bob’s boat, we found that the money and pearls were worth over four thousand pounds, which we divided into four lots, one for each of us, and one for Calla.
Calla said he would now become a “missionary man;” and he, after careful instruction, became a Christian, and lived for many years happy and respected.
Tom Arbor also became a “missionary man,” shipping in the Dayspring, as did the faithful Bos’n, and had risen to be her mate when he met with his death at the hands of savages, to whom he was trying to take the message of peace, and added his name to the list of those martyrs who have sacrificed their lives in the cause of Christianity in the Pacific.
Bill and I, by the advice of the missionaries, went home, and were bound apprentices on board a fine Indiaman, and we both made rapid progress. We always sailed together till Bill’s death. He lost his life in attempting to save a shipwrecked crew.
Of the Golden Fleece and her crew we never heard, and her fate is one of the mysteries of the sea.
For myself, I have been fortunate and prosperous; and now, after having for some years commanded my own ship, I have settled down to pass the evening of my days in peace and quietness, full of thankfulness for the mercies which have been vouchsafed to me.