Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/196

 article of trade in these islands, and its export was the principal business of the whites who lived on this group,  and endeavored to monopolize the trade.

The traders in tortoise-shell came here in small vessels, and at great risk, as the natives resorted to every expedient to capture them. The crews were compelled to be on the lookout night and day. Sometimes, when the winds blew fresh towards the shore, the natives would  swim off by the hundreds, dive down and endeavor to  lift her anchor, part or cut her cable, or tie a rope to it,  by which means the vessel would be dragged to the  shore, when she was considered and treated as a prize  sent by their gods. Another way was to board her by climbing up over her side. Unless the crew were surprised, an attack was often repelled by the use of the vessel’s boarding-pikes and cutlasses.