This being happily accomplished without bloodshed, Ole Thorwald, like a
wise general, took the necessary steps to insure and complete his
conquest. He seized all the women and children, and shut them up in a
huge temple built of palm trees and roofed with broad leaves. This
edifice was devoted to the horrible practise of cutting up human bodies
that were intended to be eaten.

Ole had often heard of the cannibalism that is practised by most of the
South Sea Islanders, though some tribes are worse than others; but he
had never before this day come directly in contact with it. Here,
however, there could be no doubt whatever of the fact. Portions of human
bodies were strewn about this hideous temple,--some parts in a raw and
bloody condition, as if they had just been cut from a lately slain
victim; others in a baked state, as if ready to form part of some
terrible banquet.

Sick at heart, Ole Thorwald turned from this sight with loathing.
Concluding that the natives who practised such things could not be very
much distressed by being shut up for a time in a temple dedicated to the
gratification of their own disgusting tastes, he barricaded the entrance
securely, placed a guard over it, and hurried away to see that two other
buildings, in which the remainder of the women and children had been
imprisoned, were similarly secured and guarded. Meanwhile the stalwart
knight of the forehammer, to whom the duty had been assigned, placed
sentries at the various entrances to the village, and disposed his men
in such a way as to prevent the possibility of being taken by surprise.

These various arrangements were not made a moment too soon. The savages,
as we have said in a former chapter, rushed towards their village from
all quarters, on hearing the thunder of the great guns. They were now
arriving in scores, and came rushing over the brow of the neighboring
hill, and down the slopes that rose immediately in rear of their rude
homes.

On finding that the place was occupied by their enemies, they set up a
yell of despair, and retired to a neighboring height, where Ole could
see, by their wild gesticulations, that they were hotly debating what
should be done. It soon became evident that an attack would be made;
for, as their comrades came pouring in, the party from the settlement
was soon greatly outnumbered.

Seeing this, and knowing that the party under command of Henry Stuart
would naturally hasten to his aid as soon as poss