during several talks I had had with him of late, I felt assured
that he too would willingly escape if possible. When I told him of
my design he shook his head. "No, no, Ralph," said he, "you must
not think of running away here. Among some of the groups of
islands you might do so with safety, but if you tried it here you
would find that you had jumped out of the fryin' pan into the
fire."

"How so, Bill?" said I, "would the natives not receive me?"

"That they would, lad; but they would eat you too."

"Eat me!" said I in surprise, "I thought the South Sea islanders
never ate anybody except their enemies."

"Humph!" ejaculated Bill. "I s'pose 'twas yer tender-hearted
friends in England that put that notion into your head. There's a
set o' soft-hearted folk at home that I knows on, who don't like to
have their feelin's ruffled, and when you tell them anything they
don't like - that shocks them, as they call it - no matter how true
it be, they stop their ears and cry out, 'Oh, that is TOO horrible!
We can't believe that!' An' they say truth. They can't believe it
'cause they won't believe it. Now, I believe there's thousands o'
the people in England who are sich born drivellin' WON'T-BELIEVERS
that they think the black fellows hereaway, at the worst, eat an
enemy only now an' then, out o' spite; whereas, I know for certain,
and many captains of the British and American navies know as well
as me, that the Feejee islanders eat not only their enemies but one
another; and they do it not for spite, but for pleasure. It's a
FACT that they prefer human flesh to any other. But they don't