The captain assured him of his friendship, and begged him to accept some presents in return for those he intended to make, and invited him and several of his principal attendants into the cabin to receive them, while his people were asked by the crew to go down forward. No sooner were our guests below than they were seized and lashed hand and foot before they could give the alarm to those who remained on deck. All hands then rushed on deck, and quickly knocked down the greater number of those who were collected there; a few uttering loud cries of terror leapt overboard, while those in the canoes, suspecting that something was wrong, shoved off, and began to paddle away towards the shore. Our shot sent after them caused such alarm that several of the canoes returned, others escaped, two or three were knocked to pieces, and some of the people in them drowned.
We considered this a good haul, but we had some difficulty in keeping order between the new comers and their enemies whom we had before captured; by going among them, however, with our clubs, and showing them that we would stand no nonsense, we brought them into order. Again making sail, we continued our course along the coast, here and there capturing canoes, and occasionally landing and carrying off a few people, though we were not again so successful as in the case I have described.
In one small canoe we found a Portuguese with two Samoaians; the latter we put below hatches, but the captain was afraid of detaining the white man, who declined joining us, and allowed him to make the best of his way to shore.
We found two of our consorts cruising off this coast, but in a short time the suspicions of the people on shore were aroused, and we therefore left it and proceeded on to visit certain groups of islands lying 8 or 10 degrees south of the equator. From one of these islands we got nearly a hundred people, and another vessel which followed us captured several more, though most of the natives as soon as a sail hove in sight ran off from the coast.
By various means, from one island or another, we captured fifty or sixty more, till at length with a full cargo we steered eastward to put them on shore, as before, on Easter Island.
Some disagreeable news met us here. We heard that the French authorities at Tahiti were very indignant at our having carried off the natives of islands under their protection, and that they had sent out several cruisers to intercept us. One of our vessels, the Mercedes, had been seized with a hundred and fifty natives on board. The vessel had been condemned and sold, the captain sentenced to five years penal servitude, and the supercargo to ten. Besides her four or five other vessels had been captured and carried into Tahiti, where they were detained. One, having been taken without any natives, was allowed to return to Callao after she had been compelled to dispose of all her rice and other provisions, so as to make it impossible for her to proceed on her voyage. Besides this, the French Governor of Tahiti had sent to the Peruvian Government demanding that every native who had been taken from islands under French protection should be delivered up, and heavy damages paid for any who might be missing. However, as these formed but a very small number of the natives captured, the matter in itself was not of much consequence. The fear was that not only the French but the English might send out cruisers and interfere in all directions with our proceedings. The profit, however, and the demand for labour was so great, that in spite of the difficulties to be encountered, the merchant I spoke of resolved to persevere
in the undertaking, although it would be necessary to use even greater precautions than before.
This first voyage will give you an idea of two or three others which I made shortly afterwards, when we collected our passengers much in the same way as before, though we took care only to visit islands the least frequented by European vessels, so that our proceedings might be kept as secret as possible.
Ill luck, however, at length set against us. Some of our vessels were wrecked, the natives rose and murdered the crew of one, the French captured several more, and the Peruvian government, compelled to listen to the complaints which were made, interfered, and considerable difficulties were thrown in the way of landing the islanders. The Andorinha, after her long career of success, was driven on a coral reef, when the captain and supercargo and most of the crew perished. I was washed on shore, more dead than alive. Fortunately for me, it was near a village of Christian natives, one of whom found me on the beach, and carried me to his hut, and fed and clothed me, and took care of me till I recovered. He knew the character of the vessel, for we had some time before carried off several natives from that very island, but I told him that I was an Englishman, and compelled by the Spaniards to remain on board. He replied that it mattered not who I was or what I had been about, that I was suffering and in distress, and that his religion taught him to feed and clothe the hungry and naked, and to do good to his enemies that as long as I chose I might remain, and that if I wished to go I might depart in peace. I was sure he did not believe the account I gave of myself, and I own I did not feel as comfortable as I should have liked. He and his family had prayers and sang hymns morning and evening; and on Sunday, as well as on other days in the week, they attended a large chapel, where a native missionary preached. The other people in the village did the same. All this did not suit me, and I determined to get away as soon as I had the chance. No vessel appearing, however, I told my host that I should like to see other parts of his island, and that I would make a trip through it. He replied that I might do as I wished, but that as some of the natives were heathens or devils men, as he called them, they might not treat me well. I answered that I would run the risk of that, and as to their being heathens, that was all the same to me. It only, indeed, made me the more eager to be among them, as I thought I should have greater liberty than with my psalm-singing friends. I accordingly walked away with a stick in my hand, for I had no clothes except those on my back. Wherever I went the natives received me kindly, and gave me such food as I wanted.