But I was now resolved that I would run away the very first island we should land at, and commit myself to the hospitality of the natives rather than remain an hour longer than I could help in the pirate schooner. I pondered this subject a good deal, and at last made up my mind to communicate my intention to Bloody Bill; for, 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 tenderhearted friends in England that put that notion into your head. There’s a set o’ softhearted 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 Fiji 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 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 atop 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 landed they were seized by the natives and carried up into the woods. We knew pretty well what their fate would be, but we could not help them, for our crew was small, and if we had gone ashore they would likely have killed us all. We never saw the three men again; but we heard frightful yelling, and dancing, and merrymaking that night; and one of the natives, who came aboard to trade with us next day, told us that the ‘long pigs,’ as he called the men, had been roasted and eaten, and their bones were to be converted into sail needles. He also said that white men were bad to eat, and that most o’ the people on shore were sick.”
I was very much shocked and cast down in my mind at this terrible account of the natives, and asked Bill what he would advise me to do. Looking round the deck to make sure that we were not overheard, he lowered his voice and said, “There are two or three ways that we might escape, Ralph, but none o’ them’s easy. If the captain would only sail for some o’ the islands near Tahiti, we might run away there well enough, because the natives are all Christians; an’ we find that wherever the savages take up with Christianity they always give over their bloody ways, and are safe to be trusted. I never cared for Christianity myself,” he continued, in a soliloquising voice, “and I don’t well know what it means; but a man with half an eye can see what it does for these black critters. However, the captain always keeps a sharp look out after us when we get to these islands, for he half
