ny further visits from the giant chief they dreaded so much,
and with this reassurance I walked swiftly away, followed by Yamba.

The laws of native hospitality absolutely forbade any one to interfere
with the girls during my stay, so, easy in my mind, I made straight for
the extensive swamps which I knew lay a few miles from the camp. In this
wild and picturesque place I brought down, with Yamba's assistance, a
great number of cockatoos, turkeys, and other wild fowl, which birds were
promptly skinned, my wife and I having in view a little amateur tailoring
which should render my future interviews with the girls a little less
embarrassing. As a matter of fact, I handed over the bird-skins to
Yamba, and she, with her bone needles and threads of kangaroo sinews,
soon made a couple of extraordinary but most serviceable garments, which
we immediately took back to the poor girls, who were shivering with cold
and neglect. I at once saw the reason of most of their suffering.

Their own clothing had apparently been lost or destroyed, and the native
women, jealous of the attention which the chief was bestowing upon the
newcomers, gave them little or no food. Nor did the jealous wives
instruct the interlopers in the anointing of their bodies with that
peculiar kind of clay which forms so effective a protection alike against
the burning heat of the sun, the treacherous cold of the night-winds, and
the painful attacks of insects. All the information I could elicit from
the girls that evening was the fact that they had been shipwrecked, and
had already been captive among the blacks for three and a half months.
The elder girl further said that they were not allowed their liberty,
because they had on several occasions tried to put an end to their
indescribable sufferings by committing suicide. Anything more
extraordinary than the costumes we made for the girls you never saw. They
were not of elaborate design, being of the shape of a long sack, with
holes for the arms and neck; and they afterwards shrank in the most
absurd way.

CHAPTER X

Miss Rogers begins her story--An interview on the high seas--Drifting to
destruction--The ship disappears--Tortured by thirst--A fearful
sight--Cannibals on the watch--The blacks quarrel over the girls--Courting
starvation--Yamba goes for help--A startling announcement--Preparations
for the fight--Anxious moments--A weird situation--"Victory, victory"--A
melodramatic attitude--The g