from the governor's mind. He sent for Jones, and
questioned him closely touching the particulars of his information; the
answers he received certainly going far towards corroborating Betts's
idea of the character of the unknown men. Jones was never able even to
get on the island where these men were said to be; but he had received
frequent descriptions of their ages, appearances, numbers, &c. It was
also reported by those who had seen them, that several of the party had
died of hunger before the boat reached the group; and that only about
half of those who had originally taken to the boat, which belonged to a
ship that had been wrecked, lived to get ashore. The man with a mark on
his face was represented as being very expert with tools, and was
employed by Waally to build him a canoe that would live out in the gales
of the ocean. This agreed perfectly with the trade and appearance of
Brown, who had been the Rancocus's carpenter, and had the sort of mark
so particularly described.

The time, the boat, the incidents of the wreck, meagre as the last were,
as derived through the information of Jones, and all the other facts
Mark could glean in a close examination of the man's statements, went to
confirm the impression that a portion of those who had been carried to
leeward in the Rancocus's launch, had escaped with their lives, and were
at that moment prisoners in the power of the very savage chief who now
threatened his colony with destruction.

But the emergency did not admit of any protracted inquiry into, or any
consultation on the means necessary to relieve their old shipmates from
a fate so miserable. Circumstances required that the governor should now
give his attention to the important concerns immediately before him.

Chapter XVIII.

"To whom belongs this valley fair,
That sleeps beneath the filmy air,
Even like a living thing?
Silent as infant at the breast,
Save a still sound that speaks of rest,
That streamlet's murmuring?"

Wilson.

When the governor had communicated to his people that the savages were
actually among the islands of their own group, something very like a
panic came over them. A few minutes, however, sufficed to restore a
proper degree of confidence, when the arrangements necessary to their
immediate security were entered into. As some attention had previously
been bestowed on the fortifications of the crater, that place was justly
dee