We were captured and taken to the island December 6, 1832; and on the third day of February, 1833, two months wanting three days, captain Barnard and Bartlet Rollins effected their escape. Compared with the remainder of our captivity, our privations and sufferings up to that time were less severe. But at no time did we have sufficient food to satisfy the cravings of hunger! The very crumbs that fall from an ordinary table would have been to us a luxury; the swine of America are better fed than we were, on the most fortunate day of our residence upon that island.

It was on the day above mentioned that a ship was discovered a short distance from the island, and the natives immediately collected, and prepared to go to it, in order to obtain iron, or some other articles of value. Hope once more visited us. To escape was, of course, our strong desire and intention. Accordingly, when the canoes put off we attempted to go. Our savage masters interposed their authority, and by menaces and blows prevented us. Many of us were severely beaten, and all but two were detained by the brutal force of the savages. At length captain Barnard and Rollins, after being severely beaten, were allowed to accompany the natives to the ship, and succeeded in effecting their escape. Trusting to the humanity of the captain and crew, we for some time confidently expected, that they would contrive some way of enabling us to join them. They were in sight about three hours; at one time they were so near that we could distinctly see the hands on board; but judge of our feelings when we saw the vessel pursuing her course! Our expectations were all blasted in a moment, and our minds, which had been gladdened by the hope of once more enjoying the society of civilized beings, of once more reaching the shores of our beloved country, sunk back into a state of despair; we wept like children.

The natives, when they returned from the vessel, brought with them a small quantity of iron hoops, and a few articles of some little value, but they were highly dissatisfied with the amount received, and greatly enraged. The division of the property caused much difficulty, and they quarrelled about it for several days. Those of us who remained, though innocent, were the greatest sufferers. They held us accountable for the conduct of those who had left, and vented the malignity of their unfeeling hearts upon us. We were given to understand, that now our doom was fixed; that we should remain with them, and die the victims of our tormentors! Alas! it was but too true, that such was to be the fate of all but two of our number! We were destined to see one after another of our fellow-sufferers sink under the constantly increasing severity of the burdens imposed upon them, and perish either from actual starvation, or by the blows of the savages.

After the departure of the captain and Rollins, we were treated with much greater severity than we had been before. Generally we were aroused from our broken slumbers about sunrise, and compelled to go to work; we were usually employed in cultivating a species of vegetable somewhat resembling the yam, and called by them "koreÏ." This root is raised in beds of mud, which are prepared by digging out the sand, and filling the place with mould. The whole of this labor was performed with the hands. We were compelled day after day to stand in the mud from morning till night, and to turn up the mud with our hands. Frequently we were required to do this without receiving a morsel of food till about noon, and sometimes we were left without any thing to eat till night. At best we could get no more than a small piece of cocoa-nut, hardly a common sized mouthful, at a time, and if, either from exhaustion or any other cause, we neglected to perform the required amount of labor, our pittance of food was withheld altogether.

From this plain and unexaggerated account it will be seen, that our condition at best was bad enough; but a misfortune befell us which rendered it still worse. About four months from the time of our landing on that dreary spot, there was a violent storm, which came very near sweeping away the whole of the means of support which remained for the miserable inhabitants. The wind blew down many of the best cocoa trees, and materially injured the fruit on such as were left standing. Besides this, the low places in which they raised the root, by them called "korei," were mostly filled with sand, and famine stared us all in the face.

They attributed this misfortune to the anger of their god, and did not fail to use such means as they thought best calculated to appease him; and the calamity greatly added to our sufferings. Besides subjecting us to still more severe deprivations, we were compelled (though hardly able to drag our limbs from place to place) to labor in repairing the damage done by the storm. We were employed for months in carrying in our arms and on our shoulders pieces of the coral rock, in order to form a sort of seawall to prevent the waves from washing away the trees; and this drudgery, considering that we were naked, under a burning sun, and reduced to nothing but skin and bones, was too severe to admit of any thing like an adequate description. Our flesh, or, to speak more properly, our skin—for flesh we had none—was frequently so torn by the sharp corners of the rock, and scorched by the sun, as to resemble more that of the rhinoceros than of human beings.