like white men's flesh so well as black. They say it makes them
sick."

"Why, Bill," said I, "you told me just now that they would eat ME
if they caught me."

"So I did; and so I think they would. I've only heard some o' them
say they don't like white men SO WELL as black; but if they was
hungry they wouldn't be particular. Anyhow, I'm sure they would
kill you. You see, Ralph, I've been a good while in them parts,
and I've visited the different groups of islands oftentimes as a
trader. And thorough goin' blackguards some o' them traders are.
No better than pirates, I can tell you. One captain that I sailed
with was not a chip better than the one we're with now. He was
tradin' with a friendly chief one day, aboard his vessel. The
chief had swam off to us with the things for trade tied a-top of
his head, for them chaps are like otters in the water. Well, the
chief was hard on the captain, and would not part with some o' his
things. When their bargainin' was over they shook hands, and the
chief jumped over board to swim ashore; but before he got forty
yards from the ship the captain seized a musket and shot him dead.
He then hove up anchor and put to sea, and as we sailed along
shore, he dropped six black-fellows with his rifle, remarkin' that
'that would spoil the trade for the next comers.' But, as I was
sayin', I'm up to the ways o' these fellows. One o' the laws o'
the country is, that every shipwrecked person who happens to be
cast ashore, be he dead or alive, is doomed to be roasted and
eaten. There was a small tradin' schooner wrecked off one of these
islands when we were lyin' there in harbour during a storm. The
crew was lost, all but three men, who swam ashore. The moment they