“Though the heathen natives wore very few clothes generally, they at times dressed up in robes formed of the cloth I have described, which has a very handsome appearance.
“I might tell you a good deal more about these people. I had made up my mind to remain among them; but people, as you know, don’t do always what they intend. Such was my case in the present instance, as you shall hear. But pass the grog-bottle. I must wet my whistle before I move along.”
I was almost sick with listening to the account of the atrocities witnessed if not perpetrated by the old ruffian, our host, and was inclined to stop him, but his tongue once set going that was more than I could do, and so on he went again.
Chapter Three.
“One day a brig brought up in the harbour near which I happened to be staying, and the crew came on shore. She belonged to Sydney, New South Wales, and as they talked to me about that place I was seized with a fancy to go there. Fearing that the chief would not let me get away, I told him that I was just going on board to pay my countrymen a visit. I kept below during the remainder of the day, and next morning the brig got under weigh, and stood out of the harbour. She was the ‘Tickler,’ engaged in the sandal-wood trade, and had still several places to visit to complete her cargo, which she was obliged to pick up here and there, and often had a hard job to get it. The captain was in no way particular how he managed. I was on board for some months and saw some curious things done.
“The wood mostly grows on the Western Islands, north and south of the line. On one occasion we came off a place where the captain understood it was to be procured from the mountains, some way in the interior. We managed to entice the chief of the district on board by promising him some presents, if he would come and fetch them. As soon as we had got him, the captain told his people that unless they would bring twelve boats’ loads of sandal-wood off he would carry him away as a prisoner. The savages exclaimed that the white men were very cruel and unjust, but the captain did not mind that, as they were only savages, do you see; and as they did not wish to lose their chief, they were obliged to comply. The captain told him that it he didn’t behave himself and hold his tongue, he would double the quantity. The chief, seeing that the captain was in earnest, ordered his people to go and fetch the wood, when the whole neighbourhood had to turn out and cut it. In the course of two or three days it was brought on board.
“Having got the wood we sailed away to another place. These savages are content with curious articles in exchange for their wood. Instead of money the brig had on board a quantity of small white shells, the teeth of sharks and other animals, as also pigs, cats, and goats. So eager are they to possess these animals that they would sometimes give a ton of sandal-wood for a goat or cat. One day a native came on board with a small quantity of sandal-wood when our shells had run short. The mate offered him some tobacco, which he did not want. He got angry and said he must have a shell, when the mate without more ado pulled out his revolver: it went off, and the native was shot dead. The body was thrown overboard, and the sandal-wood remained with us, though the man’s friends wanted payment for it. The captain told the mate he should not have been so careless as to shoot the man, and then thought no more about the matter.
“Our object, however, being to get sandal-wood, the captain cared little as to the means. The lazy islanders in some places, where it grew abundantly, would not take the trouble of cutting it, so the captain devised a plan for obtaining what he wanted. We visited for this purpose an island where the natives were friendly with the white men, and enticed a number on board. When we had got them the captain told them that he would give them their liberty if they would go on shore at a place to which he would take them, and cut as much sandal-wood as he wanted. Back we sailed to the island where the sandal-wood grew. We then took them on shore, and landing with a strong party of armed men, guarded them while they cut the wood, which the inhabitants seemed to object to their doing. They worked well, for they were anxious to go back to their own island. We had to shoot a few of the inhabitants who came too close to us with their spears and clubs, but they were savage black fellows, and terrible cannibals, and so to my mind there was no great harm in shooting them.