On the beach they were met by a Christian chief, who led them through the crowd to Tanoa’s house, which it was death for any woman to enter. But unheeding their own safety, they forced their way in, with a whale’s tooth in each hand, as the customary offering when making a petition. The old man was so amazed at their courage, that he commanded that such as still lived should be spared; and a messenger was despatched to see that the order was obeyed. Nine had already perished; but five survived, and were set at liberty, blessing their brave deliverers, who, not satisfied with having gained their object so far, went straight to the house of Ngavindi, the chief butcher, who was sitting in full dress, rejoicing in his work. They spoke to him earnestly on the subject, and had the satisfaction of seeing that his chief wife and that of Thakombau cordially seconded their words. A few days later, H.M.S. Havannah touched the isles, and Captain Erskine went to Viwa to call at the mission. They had just sat down to tea, and he had just been delicately hinting his belief that many of the missionary stories about these nice well-conducted people were grossly exaggerated, when Ngavindi came in to ask Mrs Lyth about the great English ship. He was most kindly received, and took his place at table with perfect ease. Captain Erskine described him as a very handsome, prepossessing young fellow, of modest and gentle manners. He could scarcely believe that he had just been chief actor in this horrid business. Not long after this, Ngavindi was slain in battle, when attempting to carry off a dead body. One of his wives was sister to Thakombau, whose duty it now was to strangle her; but the tribe petitioned that her life might be spared, that her unborn child might become their chief. So the old mother offered herself as a substitute, and the king strangled her with his own hand—a hand which had already cut off the nose of one sister, as a punishment for being unfaithful to her husband.[26] So Ngavindi lay in state on a raised platform, with one dead wife at his side, and the corpse of his mother at his feet, and an attendant close by; and all were laid together in one grave. The day after Captain Erskine had made acquaintance with the gentle, courteous Ngavindi, he came to Bau, where he saw the bloody stone on which the heads of multitudes of victims had been dashed, when presented to the god at the chief temple. The Mbutoni guests were still in the stranger’s house, and to prove how well they had been received, they pointed out four or five large ovens in which the nine women had been cooked; and also the spot where a few months previously, after the capture of Lokia, a town belonging to Rewa, eighty corpses of those slain in battle had been heaped up, previous to being apportioned to the greedy warriors.