Harbor people would only act on
the defensive, and that no one would molest us at our work. One day two
hostile tribes met near our Station; high words arose, and old feuds
were revived. The Inland people withdrew; but the Harbor people, false
to their promises, flew to arms and rushed past us in pursuit of their
enemies. The discharge of muskets in the adjoining bush, and the horrid
yells of the savages, soon informed us that they were engaged in deadly
fights. Excitement and terror were on every countenance; armed men
rushed about in every direction, with feathers in their twisted
hair,--with faces painted red, black, and white, and some, one cheek
black, the other red, others, the brow white, the chin blue--in fact,
any color and on any part,--the more grotesque and savage-looking, the
higher the art! Some of the women ran with their children to places of
safety; but even then we saw other girls and women, on the shore close
by, chewing sugar-cane and chaffering and laughing, as if their fathers
and brothers had been engaged in a country dance, instead of a bloody
conflict.

In the afternoon, as the sounds of the muskets and the yelling of the
warriors came unpleasantly near to us, Dr. Inglis, leaning against a
post for a little while in silent prayer, looked on us and said, "The
walls of Jerusalem were built in troublous times, and why not the
Mission House on Tanna? But let us rest for this day, and pray for these
poor Heathen."

We retired to a Native house that had been temporarily granted to us for
rest, and there pled before God for them all. The noise and the
discharge of muskets gradually receded, as if the Inland people were
retiring; and towards evening the people around us returned to their
villages. We were afterwards informed that five or six men had been shot
dead; that their bodies had been carried by the conquerors from the
field of battle, and cooked and eaten that very night at a boiling
spring near the head of the bay, less than a mile from the spot where my
house was being built. We had also a more graphic illustration of the
surroundings into which we had come, through Dr. Inglis's Aneityum boy,
who accompanied us as cook. When our tea was wanted next morning, the
boy could not be found. After a while of great anxiety on our part, he
returned, saying, "Missi, this is a dark land. The people of this land
do dark works. At the boiling spring they have cooked and feasted upon
the slain. They have