island, and would return again with sufficient force to exact redress. I gave them the time I should be engaged at breakfast to think upon my words, resolved to carry my threat into effect, if, at its expiration, they obstinately persisted in their conduct. I had scarcely got on board when, happening to look seaward, I discovered a large vessel not far off, running along the land to the southward. We immediately hoisted the British flag, and shortly after some natives came alongside to tell us that a boat was approaching the shore. We went to meet her, and I induced the natives to swim with her through the surf and land her safely on the reef. The vessel proved the Jules de Blosville, a French brig of 300 tons. I invited the second mate, who had charge of the boat, and his crew on board to breakfast. One of his crew was an Englishman, the only one belonging to the brig. Through him we understood that the captain had a general cargo for sale; and after we had finished our repast, I had a boat launched over the reef, and went to see if I could make a few purchases. Our boat gained somewhat upon the Frenchman's, and, as we neared the vessel, I was surprised that no symptoms appeared of heaving her to; and we narrowly escaped being run down. Not a soul could we see; but as she glided past us, striking our gunwale, a port was raised, and a gun run out and depressed towards us. I laughingly pointed it out to the captain of our vessel (the only white man with me) as a friendly way of receiving visitors. Not having seen the manœuvre, he wanted to persuade me that the port was raised for the purpose of hand

ing us a rope; but not a rope did they hand us, and we were half a mile astern before they condescended to back their headyards, and allow us to pull alongside. On gaining the quarterdeck, no one came to receive us; and not a man was visible but the helmsman. Whilst joking at this extraordinary behaviour, the captain showed himself. He offered no apology; but addressing us in English, with much coarse freedom he invited us into his cabin. He produced some brandy, and called for a bottle of champagne, which he said he would broach to friendship. On trying to do business with him, he urged me to buy such things as I had no earthly use for; but the goods I stood in need of he would not sell me, saving one or two trifling articles, which he requested the mate to put on one side for me. But he did not do this, even, until I had produced a handful of gold, to satisfy a question put to me through the mate, as to what means I had of payment. The captain understood English pretty well, and the mate spoke it fluently. They were bound to the Main; and having expressed a wish to write to Valparaiso, the captain hastened to oblige me with pen, ink, and paper. Whilst engaged writing, the captain of our schooner looked in to say that we were nearly out of sight of the island. I begged he would request them to "go about," and continued writing, when, all of a sudden, the cry of "Armez vous! armez vous! tout de suite, tout de suite!" caused me to run out to see what was the matter. The deck was covered with men, some armed with muskets and fowling-pieces, whilst others were run

CONDUCT OF THE FRENCH CAPTAIN. 335

ning to procure arms. The French captain was raving and gesticulating like a lunatic; our captain was remonstrating in broken French; and the poor naked natives whom we had with us had taken to the boats, with the exception of two, whose concern in my behalf had kept them clinging to the rail to watch the result. Unable to comprehend the meaning of all this gasconade, I put my hand on the Frenchman's shoulder, and inquired, "What the devil's up?" My captain, who was as strong as Hercules, with much agitation begged me to do nothing that might make matters worse. The other comprehended him, and it emboldened him to seize me pretty roughly by the waist. I shook him free, and he rushed aft. I followed; and he, seizing a cutlass lying by the wheel, drew it and made a pass at me. By an agile movement of the body, I escaped being run through, the sword going between my arm and side. Sneering at the ruffian, I entered his cabin, tore up the letter on which I had been engaged, and threw the fragments in his face. The treacherous rascal did not repeat his thrust, as I could have combed his head with one of the cabin stools; but he hastened forward and filled upon his ship, putting her head before the wind, and in a few minutes our boat would have been dragged under, as it was only secured by a short painter to one of the chain-plates. In vain I inquired the meaning of such treatment; the mate did nothing but implore me to leave the vessel; and at last, there being no other remedy, I went over the side to enjoy the luxury of nearly a twenty miles pull beneath a burning tropical sun.

The

cause of the fellow's playing us such a trick I am utterly at a loss to conceive; but this I know, I shall consider twice ere I trust myself on board a Frenchman again. As soon as the natives on shore learnt how I had been served, they came flocking on board to sympathise with me, and the next morning all went diving with hearty good will.

May 18th.-I have witnessed the blighting effects of grief in many; but never in the course of my experience did I behold so mournful a proof of its devastating nature as was exhibited in the person of the mother of the diver who was carried off so suddenly, as above related. When she was attending on her dying son she was a fleshy robust woman. I mentioned how ill her grief qualified her to take part in the pagan ceremonies of interment; and for some days after the melancholy event the bereaved parents absented themselves from their tribe, and lived in a hut temporarily erected only a few paces distant from the grave of their child. They freed the spot from weeds and rubbish, and raised monumental slabs of coral at the head and feet of the prematurely dead, and on these slabs they suspended offerings of food and water to the departed spirit. The mother gathered the vine of a creeper growing near her son's last resting-place, and twist_ ing it into a wreath, wore it round her neck; and today, when I met her, the wreath had not shrunk and withered more than she had done. Her eyes had sunken, her raven hair had changed to grey, and her flesh hung in folds upon her body; tears were continually streaming down her cheeks, she would not

REMARKS ON PEARLS.

337

be comforted, and refused to partake of more food than was barely necessary to support life; and I have little doubt that a few weeks will suffice to unite her spirit with her son's. Never did I behold such hopeless misery depicted in the face of a human being. Her image haunts me to this hour; and talk of the sombre garb with which Europeans are in the habit of clothing their woe, nothing can be compared with the intensity of feeling outwardly displayed by that withered and still withering wreath, resting on that shrivelled and still shrivelling bosom.

May 27th.-Ceased diving; the weather had become cold and windy, and the divers making daily complaint of the scarcity of shell, and the great depth of water in which they had to dive for it, I took compassion on them, and told them they might leave off, although the vessel would not be above two thirds full. I promised to pay them well for what they had done; and the joyous shout with which the announcement was received convinces me that the poor fellows speak truly, when they say the shell is scarce and difficult to procure. I have got a few fine pearls amongst the lot collected, but the great bulk are seed pearl.

It is the generally received opinion, that pearls are the result of disease in the oyster; and I have read that the Chinese, conscious of this fact, are in the habit of stringing on impalpable hairs minute seed pearl, which they introduce into the opening shells when the fish are feeding, and in the course of time they provoke the disorder, and become entirely coated with the pearly encrustation. Others again

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