Lives of Alcyone

not know exactly where they were, he had but little doubt, from the
general direction of the storm, that they had fallen among a set of
the most bloodthirsty and ferocious cannibals known.
The savages presently decided to tow the vessel to their
island—a proceeding which they accomplished only very slowly, and
with a prodigious amount of noise. They succeeded in getting it just
within the entrance of a small cove before it actually sank, so that it
remained resting on the sand, with its decks just awash. The
savages, being expert divers, were able by degrees to break it up,
and to take from it all that they considered of value. As soon as they
had recovered from the labour of the towing, preparations were
made for a great feast. The glad news of the capture of this great
store of food was somehow communicated to other parts of the
island, apparently by means of columns of smoke, so that large
bodies of savages gathered. The bodies of the Indians who had
been killed on board the ship were almost all recovered, and the
savages proceeded to build an enormous fire and to cook them. The
amount that these cannibals were able to eat was most surprising,
and by the end of the second day of the feast they were all in a
comatose condition.
They had however, taken the precaution to secure Alcyone
and his sailor companion before they went to sleep. They were kept
strongly under guard, but were not otherwise ill-treated, and they
were plentifully supplied with food in the shape of a coarse kind of
yam. It was painfully evident to the captives that they were being
reserved for another day’ s feasting, and they felt that their only
hope of preserving their lives was to escape as soon as possible,
and they agreed that they would never be likely to find a better