Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/165

 The scene was novel and picturesque in the extreme. There they squatted in a body on the quarter-deck, all eager for the fight, and all eagerly listening to the great  pow-wow. The Christians were represented by the missionary, Mr. Tucker; the "Devils," by a runaway  English convict from Sydney. At the close of the great pow-wow we understood that peace was declared between  them. Then the commodore made them presents of a lot of beads, several yards of bright-colored calico, some  harmonicas and jews’-harps, and a number of large, bright- red, cotton umbrellas, with which all were highly delighted,  and soon left the ship. Before they reached the shore, however, hostilities recommenced. The fight lasted all night. Next morning we learned that both parties were victorious; so they called it a drawn battle. When we went on shore the missionaries told us they had gained a  great victory over the "Devils," and were now in possession of their yam grounds which the latter had taken  from them several months before.

How the missionaries and their wives could live among those savages, in danger of their lives night and day, was  more than we could comprehend.

On May 4th we bade our Christian friends adieu, and after taking a final leave of the "Devils," we got under  way at daylight and left the harbor of Nukualofa. I doubt if any of our crew ever forgot this place, if for no  other reason than because of the mosquitoes. They were so thick that when we went below on the gun or berth  decks, it sounded as if there were several hundred music boxes playing together. Like Job’s "comforters" they smote us from the crowns of our heads to the soles of our