t where it
was, was most distressing.

But this was not all: there was no way of lying but straight on your
back; unless, to be sure, one's limb went round and round in the
ankle, like a swivel. Upon getting into a sort of doze, it was no
wonder this uneasy posture gave me the nightmare. Under the delusion
that I was about some gymnastics or other, I gave my unfortunate
member such a twitch that I started up with the idea that someone was
dragging the stocks away.

Captain Bob and his friends lived in a little hamlet hard by; and when
morning showed in the East, the old gentleman came forth from that
direction likewise, emerging from a grove, and saluting us loudly as
he approached.

Finding everybody awake, he set us at liberty; and, leading us down to
the stream, ordered every man to strip and bathe.

"All han's, my boy, hanna-hanna, wash!" he cried. Bob was a linguist,
and had been to sea in his day, as he many a time afterwards told us.

At this moment, we were all alone with him; and it would have been the
easiest thing in the world to have given him the slip; but he seemed
to have no idea of such a thing; treating us so frankly and
cordially, indeed, that even had we thought of running, we should
have been ashamed of attempting it. He very well knew, nevertheless
(as we ourselves were not slow in finding out), that, for various
reasons, any attempt of the kind, without some previously arranged
plan for leaving the island, would be certain to fail.

As Bob was a rare one every way, I must give some account of him.
There was a good deal of "personal appearance" about him; in short,
he was a corpulent giant, over six feet in height, and literally as
big round as a hogshead. The enormous bulk of some of the Tahitians
has been frequently spoken of by voyagers.

Beside being the English consul's jailer, as it were, he carried on a
little Tahitian farming; that is to say, he owned several groves of
the bread-fruit and palm, and never hindered their growing. Close by
was a "taro" patch of his which he occasionally visited.

Bob seldom disposed of the produce of his lands; it was all needed for
domestic consumption. Indeed, for gormandizing, I would have matched
him against any three common-council men at a civic feast.

A friend of Bob's told me that, owing to his voraciousness, his visits
to other parts of the island were much dreaded; for, according to
Tahitian customs, hospitality without charge is enjoined