quarrel was not with the party who went on shore in the boats. A
native who was out at the ship was roughly dealt with, for some real
or supposed case of pilfering. He was fired at and mortally wounded,
and when taken on shore bleeding and dying, his enraged friends roused
all on the spot to seek instant revenge. Hence the deadly attack on
the party in the boats at the beach, in which the stones flew like
bullets and ended in the death of M. de Langle, his brother officer,
and ten of the crew. The natives wound up the bodies of the Frenchmen
in native cloth and decently buried them, as they were in the habit of
burying their own dead. The only inference which ought to have been
drawn from this tragic occurrence was that heathen natives have a
keen sense of justice, and that if men will go on the disproportionate
principle of a life for a tooth, and shoot a man for a perfect trifle,
they must abide by the consequences. It is almost certain to be
avenged, and, alas! it is often the case that vengeance falls not on
the guilty, but on some unsuspecting visitor who may subsequently
follow.




CHAPTER XVIII.

THE HEAVENS, AND THE HEAVENLY BODIES.


1. The Samoans say that of old the _heavens fell down_, and that
people had to crawl about like the lower animals. After a time the
arrow-root and another similar plant pushed up the heavens, and the
place where these plants grew is still pointed out and called the