e for Williams that the plot was afterwards
revealed.

One evening, while sitting in Christian's house, Talaloo's wife began to
sing a sort of extempore song, the chorus to which was:--

"Why does black man sharpen axe?
To kill white man."

Hearing this, Christian, who was close at hand, entered the hut and
demanded an explanation. On being informed of the plot of the Otaheitan
men to murder all the whites, a dark frown overspread his face. Hastily
seizing his musket, he loaded it, but it was observed that he put no
bullet in.

The Otaheitans were assembled at the time in a neighbouring house.
Christian went straight to the house, charged the men with their guilty
intentions, pointed his gun at them, and pulled the trigger. The piece
missed fire. Before he could re-cock, Talaloo leaped through the
doorway, followed by his friend Timoa, and took shelter in the woods.

The other four men begged for mercy, said that the two who had just left
were the instigators as well as ringleaders in the plot, and promised to
hunt them down and murder them if their own lives should be spared. As
Christian had probably no fixed intention to kill any of the men, and
his sudden anger soon abated, he accepted their excuses and left them.
It was impossible, however, for the mutineers to feel confidence in the
natives after that. The two men who had fled for refuge to the bush did
not return to the settlement, but remained in hiding.

One day Talaloo's wife went, with some of the other women, to the
southern side of the island to fish from the rocks. They were soon
busily at work. The lines used had been made by themselves from the
fibrous husk of the cocoa-nut. The hooks had been brought on shore from
the _Bounty_. Chattering and laughing with the free-and-easy gaiety of
savages, they plied their work--it seemed more like play--with varying
success.

Suddenly the wife of Talaloo heard a faint hiss behind her. Turning her
head, she saw her former husband in the bushes. He beckoned to her, and
disappeared. None of the other women appeared to have heard or observed
the man. Presently, Talaloo's wife rose, and going into the woods,
joined her husband. She found him in company with Timoa.

"Is Talaloo become a dog that he should be driven to live in the bush?"
demanded the man, with a stern air.

"The white men are strong," answered his wife, with a subdued look; "the
women can do nothing."

"You can stay with me