Otoo took a flying
leap ashore, dug both hands into the trade-goods, and scattered tobacco,
beads, tomahawks, knives, and calicoes in all directions.
This was too much for the woolly-heads. While they scrambled for the
treasures, the boat was shoved clear, and we were aboard and forty feet
away. And I got thirty recruits off that very beach in the next four
hours.
The particular instance I have in mind was on Malaita, the most savage
island in the easterly Solomons. The natives had been remarkably
friendly; and how were we to know that the whole village had been taking
up a collection for over two years with which to buy a white man's head?
The beggars are all head-hunters, and they especially esteem a white
man's head. The fellow who captured the head would receive the whole
collection. As I say, they appeared very friendly; and on this day I
was fully a hundred yards down the beach from the boat. Otoo had
cautioned me; and, as usual when I did not heed him, I came to grief.
The first I knew, a cloud of spears sailed out of the mangrove swamp at
me. At least a dozen were sticking into me. I started to run, but
tripped over one that was fast in my calf, and went down.
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