The women especially were most
      obliging in every respect, and, upon the whole, we should have
      been the most suspicious of human beings had we entertained a
      single thought of perfidy on the part of a people who treated us
      so well. A very short while sufficed to prove that this apparent
      kindness of disposition was only the result of a deeply laid plan
      for our destruction, and that the islanders for whom we
      entertained such inordinate feelings of esteem, were among the
      most barbarous, subtle, and bloodthirsty wretches that ever
      contaminated the face of the globe. It was on the first of February that we went on shore for the
      purpose of visiting the village. Although, as said before, we
      entertained not the slightest suspicion, still no proper
      precaution was neglected. Six men were left in the schooner, with
      instructions to permit none of the savages to approach the vessel
      during our absence, under any pretence whatever, and to remain
      constantly on deck. The boarding-nettings were up, the guns
      double-shotted with grape and canister, and the swivels loaded
      with canisters of musket-balls. She lay, with her anchor apeak,
      about a mile from the shore, and no canoe could approach her in
      any direction without being distinctly seen and exposed to the
      full fire of our swivels immediately. The six men being left on board, our shore-party consisted of
      thirty-two persons in all. We were armed to the teeth, having
      with us muskets, pistols, and cutlasses; besides, each had a long
      kind of seaman’s knife, somewhat resembling the bowie knife now
      so much used throughout our western and southern country. A
      hundred of the black skin warriors met us at the landing for the
      purpose of accompanying us on our way. We noticed, however, with
      some surprise, that they were now entirely without arms; and,
      upon questioning Too-wit in relation to this circumstance, he
      merely answered that _Mattee non we pa pa si_—meaning that there
      was no need of arms where all were brothers. We took this in good
      part, and proceeded. We had passed the spring and rivulet of which I before spoke, and
      were now entering upon a narrow gorge leading through the chain
      of soapstone hills among which the village was situated. This
      gorge was very rocky and uneven, so much so that it was with no
      little difficulty we scrambled through it on our first visit to
      Klock-klock. The whole length of the ravine might have been a
      mile and a half, or probably two miles. It wound in every
      possible direction through the hills (having apparently formed,
      at some remote period, the bed of a torrent), in no instance
      proceeding more than twenty yards without an abrupt turn. The
      sides of this dell would have averaged, I am sure, seventy or
      eighty feet in perpendicular altitude throughout the whole of
      their extent, and in some portions they arose to an astonishing
      height, overshadowing the pass so completely that but little of
      the light of day could penetrate. The general width was about
      forty feet, and occasionally it diminished so as not to allow the
      passage of more than five or six persons abreast. In short, there
      could be no place in the world better adapted for the
      consummation of an ambuscade, and it was no more than natural
      that we should look carefully to our arms as we entered upon it. When I now think of our egregious folly, the chief subject of
      astonishment seems to be, that we should have ever ventured,
      under any circumstances, so completely into the power of unknown
      savages as to permit them to march both before and behind us in
      our progress through this ravine. Yet such was the order we
      blindly took up, trusting foolishly to the force of our party,
      the unarmed condition of Too-wit and his men, the certain
      efficacy of our firearms (whose effect was yet a secret to the
      natives), and, more than all, to the long-sustained pretension of
      friendship kept up by these infamous wretches. Five or six of
      them went on before, as if to lead the way, ostentatiously
      busying themselves in removing the larger stones and rubbish from
      the path. Next came our own party. We walked closely together,
      taking care only to prevent separation. Behind followed the main
      body of the savages, observing unusual order and decorum. Dirk Peters, a man named Wilson Allen, and myself were on the
      right of our companions, examining, as we went along, the
      singular stratification of the precipice which overhung us. A
      fissure in the soft rock attracted our attention. It was about
      wide enough for one person to enter without squeezing, and
      extended back into the hill some eighteen or twenty feet in a
      straight course, sloping afterward to the left. The height of the
      opening, is far as we could see into it from the main gorge, was
      perhaps sixty or seventy feet. There were one or two stunted
      shrubs growing from the crevices, bearing a species of filbert
      which I felt some curiosity to examine, and pushed in briskly for
      that purpose, gathering five or six of the nuts at a grasp, and
      then hastily retreating. As I turned, I found that Peters and
      Allen had followed me. I desired them to go back, as there was
      not room for two persons to pass, saying they should have some of
      my nuts. They accordingly turned, and were scrambling back, Allen
      being close to the mouth of the fissure, when I was suddenly
      aware of a concussion resembling nothing I had ever before
      experienced, and which impressed me with a vague conception, if
      indeed I then thought of anything, that the whole foundations of
      the solid globe were suddenly rent asunder, and that the day of
      universal dissolution was at hand. CHAPTER 21


      As soon as I could collect my scattered senses, I found myself
      nearly suffocated, and grovelling in utter darkness among a
      quantity of loose earth, which was also falling upon me heavily
      in every direction, threatening to bury me entirely. Horribly
      alarmed at this idea, I struggled to gain my feet, and at last
      succeeded. I then remained motionless for some moments,
      endeavouring to conceive what had happened to me, and where I
      was. Presently I heard a deep groan just at my ear, and afterward
      the smothered voice of Peters calling to me for aid in the name
      of God. I scrambled one or two paces forward, when I fell
      directly over the head and shoulders of my companion, who, I soon
      discovered, was buried in a loose mass of earth as far as his
      middle, and struggling desperately to free himself from the
      pressure.