should be delivered up.

The widow objected. The settlers insisted. The widow protested. The
settlers threatened force. Upon this the widow reasoned with them;
besought them to remember that the missionary would be back in a day or
two, and that it would be well to have his advice before they did
anything, and finally agreed to give up her charge on receiving a
promise that he should have a fair trial.

Bumpus was accordingly bound with ropes, led in triumph through the
village, and placed in a strong wooden building which was used as the
jail of the place.

The trial that followed was a mere mockery. The leading spirits of it
were those who had been styled by Mr Mason, "enemies within the camp."
They elected themselves to the offices of prosecutor and judge as well
as taking the trouble to act the part of jurymen and witnesses.

Poor John Bumpus's doom was sealed before the trial began. They had
prejudged the case, and only went through the form to ease their own
consciences and to fulfil their promise to the widow.

It was in vain that Bumpus asserted, with a bold, honest countenance,
that he was not a pirate; that he never had been, and never would be a
pirate; that he did not believe the _Foam_ was a pirate--though he was
free to confess its crew "_wos_ bad enough for anything a'most;" that he
had been hired in South America (where he had been shipwrecked) by
Captain Gascoyne, the sandal-wood trader; that he had made the voyage
straight from that coast to this island without meeting a single sail;
and that he had never seen a shot fired or a cutlass drawn aboard the
schooner.

To all this there was but one coarsely-expressed answer--"It is a lie!"
Jo had no proof to give of the truth of what he said, so he was
condemned to be hanged by the neck till he should be dead; and as his
judges were afraid that the return of the _Wasp_ might interfere with
their proceedings, it was arranged that he should be executed on the
following day at noon!

It must not be imagined that, in a Christian village such as we have
described, there was no one who felt that this trial was too hastily
gone into, and too violently conducted. But those who were inclined to
take a merciful view of the case, and who pled for delay, were chiefly
natives, while the violent party was composed of most of the
ill-disposed European settlers.

The natives had been so much accustomed to put confidence in the wisdom
of the white men since