I carried a satchel, which had
beads and hoop-iron in it; they tried to get it. I gave presents of
beads; some were indignantly returned. I was in front, between two men
with clubs, who kept telling me I was a bad man. I held their hands, and
kept them so that they could not use their clubs. The Loyalty islander
had a fowling-piece--thinking we might be away some days, and we might
have to shoot our dinners. They tried hard to get him to fire it off,
and twice tried to wrest it from him. They know what guns are, and with
reason. They tried to trip us; they jostled us. On we went.
Two men, when near the village, came close up behind me with large wooden
clubs, which were taken from them by two women, who ran off to the
village. Things looked black, and each of us prayed in silence to Him
who rules over the heathen. Soon a man came rushing along, seized the
club, and took it from the man on my left, and threw it in the sea. He
tried to do the same with the one on my right; but he was too light a
man, and did not succeed.
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