Page:The crater; or, Vulcan's peak.djvu/411

 OR, VULCAN S PEAK. 171 The alarm had been given all over the group, and when the Anne reached her place of destination, it was ascer tained that the men had been assembled under arms, and every precaution taken. But Whaling Bight was the great place of resort of the Kannakas, and there were no less than forty of those men there at that moment, engaged in trying out oil, or in fitting craft for the fisheries. No one could say which side these fellows would take, should it appear that their proper chiefs were engaged with the strangers ; though, otherwise, the colonists counted on their assistance with a good deal of confidence. On all ordinary occasions, a reasonably fair understanding existed between the colonists and the Kannakas. It is true, that the former were a little too fond of getting as much work as possible, for rather small compensations, out of these semi-savages; but, as articles of small intrinsic value still went a great way in these bargains, no serious difficulty had yet arisen out of the different transactions. Some persons thought that the Kannakas had risen in their de mands, and put less value on a scrap of old iron, than had been their original way of thinking, now that so many of their countrymen had been back and forth a few times, between the group and other parts of the world ; a cir cumstance that was very naturally to be expected. But the governor knew mankind too well not to understand that all unequal associations lead to discontent. Men may get to be so far accustomed to inferior stations, and to their duties and feelings, as to consider their condition the result of natural laws; but the least taste of liberty begets a jealousy and distrust that commonly raises a barrier be tween the master and servant, that has a never-dying ten dency to keep them more or less alienated in feeling. When the colonists began to cast about them, and to reflect on the chances of their being sustained by these hirelings in the coming strife, very few of them could be sufficiently assured that the very men who had now eaten of their bread and salt, in some instances, for years, were to be relied on in a crisis. Indeed, the number of these Kanna kas was a cause of serious embarrassment with the gover nor, when he came to reflect on his strength, and on the means of employing it.