s ready."

"Faith, I suppose they would be after making me into an Irish stew, or a
dish of bubble and squeak!" exclaimed Pat, whose spirits were not to be
quelled even with the anticipation of being turned into a feast for
cannibals. I had an idea, however, that the people into whose hands we
had fallen were not addicted to such practices, and was, therefore, not
much influenced by the remarks which Pember occasionally made as to our
probable fate. We were allowed to pass the night in quietness, and next
morning another bowl of food was brought to us, with a basket of fruit
of various sorts, very acceptable in that hot climate. We waited
anxiously, expecting the arrival of a party from the frigate, either to
rescue us by force, or to offer a ransom for our liberty; but no one
appeared, nor did any of the natives, except the man who brought the
food, come to the hut. Once, during an interval of silence, Esse
declared he heard firing, but though we listened with all our might, the
sounds reached no other ears. After a time, indeed, we all fancied we
heard the boom of great guns, but even of that we could not be quite
certain. Night again came round, and no one had come to look for us.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

Several days passed by; we were still prisoners, and all hope of being
rescued by our friends vanished. We came to the conclusion that they
supposed we were killed, especially as Kiddle told us he had known of
several boats' crews having been cut off by the natives in those seas.
What was to be our fate we could not tell; it was not likely to be a
pleasant one, at all events. One day the whole village appeared to be
in commotion; loud shouts were heard, and presently the door of our hull
was thrown open, and several men entered, who dragged us out into the
midst of a large crowd collected in the open space in front of it.
Among them was the old chief whom we had seen on the day of our capture;
a number of the men had hoes and other implements of agriculture. After
a good deal of palaver, a hoe was put into Pember's hands, and signs
were made to him that he was to go to work with it. Toby and Pat had
hoes given to them also. Esse fancied that we should be allowed to
escape.

"They think us too little to work, I hope," he observed; but scarcely
were the words out of his mouth than we both of us had implements put
into our hands, and a pretty heavy whip being exhibited, signs were made
to us that we shou