"But, joking aside," said the cooper, "I don't, of course, know whether that particular tribe are cannibals or not, but it is pretty well established that there are tribes on this Marquesan group, who deserve that name. The tribe of Taipi, in the island of Nukahiva, are somewhat notorious in that line." "That is the island where the French are planting a colony now, or trying to, isn't it?" said I. "Yes," answered the cooper. "Jim, the white man, told me they had quite a force of troops there, and a frigate or two on this station. But I think they will have their hands full, for these islanders are a naturally savage race, particularly so, and warlike, too. It will not be an easy thing to civilize them, or to subdue them either, in their native mountains." "Did you ever, in your own experience, have any proofs that they really eat men at any of this group?" I asked. "No," he replied, "I can't say that I ever did, I only give the reports at second-hand." "Well, Cooper," said I, "I am disappointed in you this time. I had made up my mind to listen to marvellous tales of 'Anthropophagi, and men whose heads Do grow beneath their shoulders,'" "No," said the cooper conscientiously, "I cannot swear to the cannibals, and I have never seen men with their heads under their shoulders; but I've seen a tribe in New Holland with their faces looking behind them, or the spinal column in front of them, which ever you choose to have it." "Which way did they walk?" I asked. "Both ways, equally well. Like these canoes down at the groups, they just shift their sail, and the stern becomes the bow. You should see those Yohos out in the bush, hunting with the face turned over one shoulder, prepared to run either way, at the shortest notice. But I think the most diverting thing was a grand war-dance that I saw there, a sort of forward-and-back movement that displayed their double-ender qualities to the best advantage." "There, that'll do, Cooper," said Fisher. "Dry up now, and turn in." "Fact!" replied the cooper, with the utmost gravity. "You may laugh and you may doubt, but what I've seen, I know." The next landfall after leaving the Marquesas, was Starbuck's Island, low and dangerous, where the captain lowered his boat and went ashore, but found nothing of interest but an old trypot, some staves and hoops of decayed casks, and a few other mementoes of the wreck of the Independence, of Nantucket, which ran ashore here in the night under full headway a few years before. The crew lived some time on this island, being obliged to construct a substitute for a still and make water for use from sea-water. A part of them finally made their way to Otaheite in boats, and the rest were taken off the island by a passing ship.