Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/194

184 agreed upon, and after another feast—whose object no doubt was to get the people together,—workmen attacked the tree, and it was felled without accident. It was shaped and in part hollowed out on the ground, and then moved to the seashore. This latter was a great task, and required no little engineering skill. The trunk of the tree was eight feet or more thick, and the uncompleted boat correspondingly large. Long poles were brought and bound to the hulk, and upon these an immense force of natives were placed, lifting together, and the burden was carried by mere muscular strength.

All now worked eagerly, the sailors themselves making sails out of the mats that had been woven by the women for the first attempted craft. A considerable supply of poi was also in readiness, prepared by the women from taro, for the voyage. Three of the Pelews were selected to accompany the sailors, and to bring back the guns.

Just a year had been passed upon this strange island when all was ready to start off, and to commit their course once more to the sea, trusting to bring up somewhere nearer rescue. Three men, however, had to be left as hostage, in order, as the king and his advisers reasoned, to insure the fulfillment of their contract on the part of the whites. This, and indeed all the acts of these islanders, indicated quite a large intelligence and shrewdness, or cunning; and showed that the savage is not so much the inferior of the civilized man in native intelligence as in humanity. Individually, all savages show themselves very fair equals of the civilized—in some respects their superiors. It is socially that they indicate deficiency.

The day that the Americans believed that they were