believe that!'
An' they say truth. They can't believe it, 'cause they won't believe
it. Now, I believe there's thousands o' the people in England who are
sich born drivellin' _won't believers_ that they think the black fellows
hereaways, at the worst, eat an enemy only now an' then out o' spite;
whereas I know for certain, and many captains of the British and
American navies know as well as me, that the Feejee Islanders eat not
only their enemies but one another--and they do it not for spite, but
for pleasure. It's a _fact_ that they prefer human flesh to any other.
But they don't like white men's flesh so well as black; they say it
makes them sick."

"Why, Bill," said I, "you told me just now that they would eat _me_ if
they caught me!"

"So I did, and so I think they would. I've only heard some o' them say
they don't like white men _so well_ as black; but if they was hungry
they wouldn't be particular. Anyhow, I'm sure they would kill you. You
see, Ralph, I've been a good while in them parts, and I've visited the
different groups of islands oftentimes as a trader. And thorough-goin'
blackguards some o' them traders are--no better than pirates, I can tell
you. One captain that I sailed with was not a chip better than the one
we're with now. He was trading with a friendly chief one day aboard his
vessel. The chief had swam off to us with the things for trade tied
atop of his head, for them chaps are like otters in the water. Well,
the chief was hard on the captain, and would not part with some o' his
things. When their bargainin' was over they shook hands, and the chief
jumped overboard to swim ashore; but before he got forty yards from the
ship, the captain seized a musket and shot him dead. He then hove up
anchor and put to sea, and as we sailed along the shore he dropped six
black fellows with his rifle, remarkin' that `that would spoil the trade
for the next-comers.' But, as I was sayin', I'm up to the ways o' these
fellows. One o' the laws o' the country is that every shipwrecked
person who happens to be cast ashore, be he dead or alive, is doomed to
be roasted and eaten. There was a small tradin' schooner wrecked off
one of these islands when we were lyin' there in harbour during a storm.
The crew was lost--all but three men, who swam ashore. The moment they
landed, they were seized by the natives and carried up into the woods.
We knew pretty well what their fate would be; but we could not help