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 suspects that one or two o' us are tired of his company.