There could be no mistaking the ardor of the ferocious natives.  They paddled with might and main, and fully a dozen, in their eagerness, leaped into the sea and swam ahead of their canoes.  They were magnificent swimmers, speeding through the water like so many dolphins.  The Americans, even in their frightful peril, could not repress their admiration.

“Did you ever see anything like it?” asked first mate Watchman; “they are like so many sharks.”

“They are indeed,” was the significant response of Captain Gooding, “and I would like it better if they were real sharks.”

“Here they are!”

Sure enough; they surrounded the boat in a twinkling, and shouting and screeching like so many demons, clambered over the gunwales until there was danger of swamping the craft.

Had our friends possessed firearms, they would have made a desperate resistance, and possibly might have beaten off their assailants; but, as it was, they acted the part of wisdom in offering no opposition to the presence or actions of their unwelcome visitors.

The latter proved that they meant business from the first, for hardly were they in the boat when they began stripping the officers and sailors of their property.  When they ceased the men had nothing left but their undershirts, their despoilers flinging the garments into the canoes that now crowded around.

No more plunder being obtainable, the fleet headed for land, with their captives in anything but a cheerful frame of mind.  The shore was lined with women and children, who answered the shouts of their friends in the boats by running back and forth, screeching and yelling and dancing, as if unable to restrain themselves until the arrival of their victims.

The sailors believed they would be speedily killed and eaten, the latter horror might have been escaped had they known, what they afterward learned, that the savages of those islands are not cannibals.

The poor fellows stepped from their boat upon the shore, where they were immediately environed by the fierce men, women and children, half naked, wild, boisterous, and seemingly impatient to rend them to pieces.  The prisoners could do nothing but meekly await the next step in the tragedy.

It was during these trying moments that the sailors were astounded to hear, amid the babel of voices, several words spoken in English.  Staring about them to learn the meaning of such a strange thing, they saw a man attired as were the others, that is with only a piece of cloth about his hips, whose complexion and features showed that he belonged to the same race with themselves.

He advanced in a cheery, hearty way, and shaking hands with the new arrivals, said: 

“I think you did not expect to find me here.”

“Indeed we did not,” was the reply; “you appear to be an Englishman.”

“So I am, and I am anxious to give you all the help I can, for your situation is anything but a desirable one.”