Page:The crater; or, Vulcan's peak.djvu/281

OR, VULCAN S PEAK. 41 to that moment. When both tales had been told, a consul tation on the subject of future proceedings took place, quite as a matter of course. Brown, and his companion, though delighted to meet their old ship-mates, were greatly disap pointed in not finding a sea-going vessel ready to receive them. They did not scruple to say that had they known the actual state of things on the Reef, they would not have left the savages, but trusted to being of more service even to their natural friends, by continuing with Waally, in their former relation, than by taking the step they had. Re pentance, or regrets, however, came too late; and now they were fairly in for it, neither expressed any other de termination than to stand by the service into which they had just entered, honestly, if not quite as gladly as they had anticipated. The governor and Betts both saw that Brown and Wat tles entertained a high respect for the military prowess of the Indian chief. They pronounced him to be not only a bold, but an adroit warrior; one, full of resources and in genuity, when his means were taken into the account. The number of men with him, however, Brown assured Mark, was less than nine hundred, instead of exceeding a thousand, as had been supposed from the count made on the cliffs. As it now was explained, a great many women were in the canoes. Waally, moreover, was not altogether without fire-arms. He was master of a dozen old, imper fect muskets, and what was more, he had a four-pound gun. Ammunition, however, was very scarce, and of shot for his gun he had but three. Each of these shot had been fired several times, in his wars with Ooroony, and days had been spent in hunting them up, after they had done their work, and of replacing them in the chief s magazine. Brown could not say that they had done much mischief, having, in every instance, being fired at long distances, and with a very uncertain aim. The business of sighting guns was not very well understood by the great mass of Christians, half a century since; and it is not at all sur prising that savages should know little or nothing about it. Waally s gunners, according to Brown s account of the matter, could never be made to understand that the bore of a gun was not exactly parallel to its exterior surface, 4*