hem
as they passed.

"More murder!" said Bill, in a voice that sounded between a hoarse laugh
and a groan.

"Surely they are not going to murder them?" said I, looking anxiously
into Bill's face.

"I don't know, Ralph," replied Bill, "what they're goin' to do with them;
but I fear they mean no good when they tie fellows up in that way."

As we continued our way towards the wood-cutters, I observed that Bill
looked anxiously over his shoulder, in the direction where the procession
had disappeared. At last he stopped, and turning abruptly on his heel,
said,--

"I tell ye what it is, Ralph, I must be at the bottom o' that affair. Let
us follow these black scoundrels and see what they're goin' to do."

I must say I had no wish to pry further into their bloody practices; but
Bill seemed bent on it, so I turned and went. We passed rapidly through
the bush, being guided in the right direction by the shouts of the
savages. Suddenly there was a dead silence, which continued for some
time, while Bill and I involuntarily quickened our pace until we were
running at the top of our speed across the narrow neck of land previously
mentioned. As we reached the verge of the wood, we discovered the
savages surrounding the large war-canoe, which they were apparently on
the point of launching. Suddenly the multitude put their united strength
to the canoe; but scarcely had the huge machine begun to move, when a
yell, the most appalling that ever fell upon my ear, rose high above the
shouting of the savages. It had not died away when another and another
smote upon my throbbing ear; and then I saw that these inhuman monsters
were actually launching their canoe over the living bodies of their
victims. But there was no pity in the breasts of these men. Forward
they went in ruthless indifference, shouting as they went, while high
above their voices rang the dying shrieks of those wretched creatures,
as, one after another, the ponderous canoe passed over them, burst the
eyeballs from their sockets, and sent the life's blood gushing from their
mouths. Oh, reader, this is no fiction. I would not, for the sake of
thrilling you with horror, invent so terrible a scene. It was witnessed.
It is true; true as that accursed sin which has rendered the human heart
capable of such diabolical enormities!

When it was over I turned round and fell upon the grass with a deep
groan; but Bill seized me by the arm, and lifting me up as if I had b