near it I
refused to go. Miaki declared that everything remained as I had left it,
but we knew that he lied. Old Abraham and a party had slipped on shore
in a canoe, and had found the windows smashed and everything gone except
my books, which were scattered about and torn in pieces. They learned
that Miaki had sold everything that he could sell to the Traders. The
mate and men of the _Blue Bell_ had on my very clothes. They boasted
that they had bought them for a few figs of tobacco and for powder,
caps, and balls. But they would not return a single shirt to me, though
I was without a change. We had all been without food since the morning
before, so Nowar brought us off a cocoanut each, and two very small
roasted yams for the ladies. Those, however, only seemed to make our
thirst the more severe, and we spent a trying day in that boat under a
burning sun.

Nowar informed me that only a few nights before this, Miaki and his
followers went inland to a village where last year they had killed ten
men. Having secretly placed a savage at the door of every house, at a
given signal they yelled, and when the terrified inmates tried to
escape, they killed almost every man, woman, and child. Some fled into
the bush, others rushed to the shore. A number of men got into a canoe
to escape, but hearing women and children crying after them they
returned, and taking those they could with them, they killed the rest,
lest they should fall alive into Miaki's hands. These are surely "they
who through fear of death are all their lifetime subject to bondage."
The Chief and nearly his whole village were cut off in one night! The
dark places of the Earth are "full of the habitations of horrid
cruelty." To have actually lived amongst the Heathen and seen their life
gives a man a new appreciation of the power and blessings of the Gospel,
even where its influence is only very imperfectly allowed to guide and
restrain the passions of men. Oh, what it will be when all men in all
nations love and serve the glorious Redeemer!

CHAPTER XLIII.
FAREWELL TO TANNA.

ABOUT five o'clock in the evening the vessel hove in sight. Before dark
we were all on board, and were sailing for Aneityum. Though both Mr. and
Mrs. Mathieson had become very weak, they stood the voyage wonderfully.
Next day we were safely landed. We had offered Captain Hastings L20 to
take us to Aneityum, but he declined any fare. However, we divided it
amongst the mate and crew, for