ration for him in this respect from the
very first day I stepped on board the _Leonora_, in Milli Lagoon, in
the Marshall Islands, for it was my privilege to see him knock out
three men, one after another, in twice as many minutes. These men were
'toughs' from a New Bedford whaler, and had been put ashore at Milli
Lagoon by their captain as dangerous and useless characters. They came
on board the _Leonora_ and asked 'Bully' to ship them. He refused in
such unnecessary language that the leader of the three, in fatuous
ignorance of the man to whom he was speaking, threatened to 'put a head
on him'; whereupon Hayes at once had the deck cleared, and, taking them
in turn, knocked each man out in the first round. Then he gave them a
glass of grog all round, a bottle of arnica to cure the malformations he
had caused on their countenances, and sent them ashore.

But this is not the story of the wreck of the _Leonora_.

We had made Strong's Island from Ponape, in the Western Carolines, to
wood and water and land some cattle, and for two weeks we lay at
anchor in the beautiful harbour of Lele. We found the island in a very
disturbed and excited state, for a few weeks previously two American
sperm whalers had touched at Lele and landed five white men, with a
retinue of nearly one hundred savage natives from Pleasant Island, an
isolated spot situated in 0.25 S., and these people--white and brown--so
terrified the Strong's Islanders that the old King Togusa was in abject
fear of them. We (Hayes and myself) soon learnt their story, which was
that they had been compelled to fly for their lives from Pleasant Island
on account of an engagement between the various clans of that place. The
two chiefs under whose protection these men lived had been badly beaten,
and the victors gave the five white traders a short notice to clear out
or be shot. They at once put to sea in their several whale-boats, but
when some three hundred miles away from the island, on their way to
Ponape--the North Pacific Cave of Adullam--they were sighted and picked
up by the two whalers, the _St George_ and the _Europa_, the captains of
which, not caring for their company all the way to Ponape, landed them
at Strong's Island. They were now awaiting a chance to continue their
voyage to Ponape in a passing whaler, and in the meantime their savage
followers were harrying the unfortunate Strong's Islanders to death,
robbing their plantations, abducting their women and k