r
_sold_ a native girl, though he was always willing to barter for a
new charmer any member of his harem who had palled upon his fastidious
tastes. And if the other man in these little matters evinced the
slightest want of trade-reciprocity, he generally regretted it, for
he would lose the household chattel, and getting nothing for her, save
perhaps lumps and excoriations, or perhaps a sarcastic note informing
him that the writer could not afford to waste time haggling over so
trifling a matter as the price of a native Venus.

While two of the fleet of Peruvian slavers appeared among the Ellice
Group, the other two remained to "work" Easter Island, the which they
did successfully, carrying away all the able-bodied men and comely women
they could seize (three hundred), to die miserably in guano-pits of
the Chincha Islands. The vessels which "worked" the Ellice Group were a
barque and a brig. The brig was commanded by a big Irishman, and simply
because he was a big man and spoke in English to the natives, it was
reported in the Hawaiian missionary press that the slaver captain was
Bully. The natives of Nukulaelae, an island which suffered severely from
the slavers' visit, always maintained for long afterward that it was
Hayes (whom they had never actually seen), because the _ihi vaka_
(captain) was a tall, bearded man, who kept knocking his sailors down
every minute if they were not quick in their movements; and this was the
commonly accepted description of Bully and one of his habits.

But at the time the two Peruvians were cruising through the Ellices,
Bully was exploiting the Paumotu Archipelago, and arousing the anger of
the French authorities, by his irregular business methods. For instance,
he would "buy" pearl-shell from the traders and kick them over the side
if they had the audacity to ask for payment. In accordance with his
custom, Bully, on this cruise, devoted a good deal of time to studying
the soft-eyed Paumotuan _vahine_; and after filling his schooner with
a fair amount of plunder, he did, it is stated, take away some ten or
fourteen young Paumotu women--not to Chili or Peru, but merely on an
extended and indefinite pleasure trip. Most of these young ladies were
desirous of getting to Tahiti, where they believed their charms would be
better appreciated than in their own island homes. In his characteristic
way _Il capitano galantuomo_ offered them free passages. Passing through
the Society Group and not en