We were not, however, molested by any of our captors.

But horror was to be piled on horror's head, for the next day a party of the blacks returned to the island and brought back the dead bodies of all the murdered sailors.

At first we wondered why they went to this trouble; and when, at length, it dawned upon us that a great cannibal feast was in preparation, I think we fainted away.
"We did not actually see the cooking operations, but the odour of burning flesh was positively intolerable; and we saw women pass our little grass shelters carrying some human arms and legs, which were doubtless their own families' portions.

I thought we should both have gone mad, but notwithstanding this, we did keep our reason.

Our position, however, was so revolting and so ghastly, that we tried to put an end to our lives by strangling ourselves with a rope made of plaited grass.