"Unfortunately our leniency might be regarded as a proof of our weakness, and so add to the native insolence; and an incident which shortly occurred indicates this was so. "Some natives were bold enough to throw stones at an officer who was only about two hundred paces away from us. We were still unwilling to act harshly, as we had heard so much in their favour from Forster's narrative, and had such confidence in their good will that still more evidence was required to convince us of their real character. "One of them, who was enjoying a broiled bone, and busily devouring the meat which still clung to it, offered a share of his meal to a sailor named Piron. He, thinking it to be the bone of some animal, accepted it, but before eating it showed it to me. I at once recognized that it had belonged to the body of a child, of probably fourteen or fifteen years of age. The natives crowding round us, showed us upon a living child the position of the bone, owning without hesitation that the man had been making his meal off it, and giving us to understand that it was a great delicacy. "Those of our company who had remained on board, could hardly credit our account of this disgusting fact. They refused to believe that a people who had been so differently described by Captain Cook and Captain Forster could be capable of so degrading a practice, but the most incredulous were soon convinced. I had retained possession of the gnawed bone, and our surgeon at once recognized it as that of a child. To make still more sure of the cannibalism of the natives, I offered it to one of them. He seized it eagerly, and tore the remaining flesh from it with his teeth; after he had done with it, I passed it to another, who still found something upon it to relish." [Illustration: Natives of New Caledonia.] The natives who visited the vessel, committed so many thefts, and became so impudent, that we were forced to drive them away. Upon landing next day, the French found the natives feasting. They immediately offered a share of their meal to the strangers. It proved to be human flesh recently cooked. Many of them even came close up to the French and felt the muscles of their arms and legs, uttering the word Karapek, with an expression of admiration and longing which was anything but reassuring. Many of the officers were assaulted and robbed with the greatest effrontery. There remained no doubt of the intentions of the natives. They even attempted to possess themselves of the hatchets the sailors had brought on shore to cut wood, and were only made to desist by being fired upon. These constantly recurring hostilities always ended in the repulse of the natives, many of whom were killed or wounded. But in spite of the repulses they met with, they let no favourable opportunity pass of recommencing their attacks.