Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/242

 foolish virgins," and said, "I don’t believe you could find half a dozen landlubbers so silly as to perch themselves there," and ordered us to go and turn in. The  camp was about two hundred yards off, and when we  made it it was two bells, one o’clock.

At daylight the mortar was fired, when all hands turned out, raising a great hubbub. All were grumbling and complaining about their burdens. Shaking their heads, they pointed to their loads, and growled out,  "Oury miti," and, to cap the climax, they even struck  for higher wages. The commodore acceded to their demand, and seeing that they were all tired out, and the  shoulders of many were sore, sent down for fifty more  natives without their "fraus," and concluded to lay to  until the next day in order to give the natives a rest.

There were a large number of hangers-on, in the shape of wives and relatives. Some had two wives, and some had their sisters-in-law. These young ladies greeted the rising of the sun with their native dance. When they had become somewhat excited in it, the bullock,  which was half wild, got loose, and such a rush in all  directions to get beyond the reach of his horns. It was really a very amusing scene. The bullock was soon secured by the hunter, and driven on in advance of the  party. During the day the burdens were more equally divided among the natives.

While here, a party of us descended to the bottom of the crater, and poked sticks into a small pool of lava. The sticks immediately took fire. There are many caves on this mountain. We ventured into several of them. Some of them are of unknown extent. In one