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knocked the tipper part of his skull to pieces . " The victims were cut up secundum artem , and put into ovens ready prepared for the purpose . The three defenders of the hill were then attacked on all sides , but one of them being a rifleman they kept off the assailants long
enough to behold their companions withdrawn from the ovens , " shared out to the different tribes , and greedily devoured . " The natives frequently invited Captain Dillon to come down and be killed before darhy that they might have no trouble in dissecting and baking him
in the night 1 As he had not the most distant hope of escaping , he would probably have complied , but for the fear of being tortured . " Having no more than sixteen or seventeen cartridges left , " says he , * we determined , as soon as it was dark , to place the muzzles of our muskets to our hearts with the butts on
the ground , and discharge them into our breasts to avoid the danger of falling alive into the hands of these cannibal monsters . " At this critical moment the boat appeared at the landing-place , with the eight prisoners who had been offered in exchange . Captain Dillon's request that four only might be sent , and the rest promised with a considerable
rausoni when the five who were in jeopardy on the hill were returned , had been neglected , and the eight prisoners were landed . They were conveyed up the rock , preceded by the priest , who informed Captain Dillon that Captain Robson had sent the prisoners and a chest of cutlery for the chiefs , with orders that
he and his companions were to deliver up their muskets , and that they would see them safe to the boat . Captain Dillon replied , that as long as he lived he would not part with his musket , and at this moment the thought entered his head of making the priest a prisoner . The reverence of these islanders for their
priests is extreme , aud by presenting a musket to the priest , and by compelling him to march before them to the boat , the three men were saved . On getting to the boats , the priest made a stop , declaring that he would go no further , and that they might shoot him if they liked ' * I threatened to do so , " says Captain
Dillon , " and asked him , why he would not go the water ' s edge ? He replied * ' You want to take me on board alive , aud put me to the torture . ' There being no time to spure , I told him to stand still , and turned my fare to him with my musket presented , threatening to shoot him if he attempted to move until I got
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into the boat . We then walked backwards to the water-side and up to our breasts in water , where we joined the boat , and had no sooner got into her than the islanders came down , and saluted us with a shower of arrows , and stones from slings . " So ended this romantic adventure ! Next morning inquiry was made for the bones of those who had fallen
overnight ; to which the natives replied , that they had neither flesh nor bones to spare , as they had all been devoured ! One of the savages , however , held up two thigh bones , and asked what Captain Dillon would give for them ; he offered an axe ; but the savage flourished the bones about , and refused to sell them , saying that they would make excellent sail-needles to repair his canoe sails . In the course of this adventurous expedition , Captain Dillon became convinced that the two
French in gates , La Bou . ssole and L \ Astrolabe , commanded by M . de la Perouse , had been wrecked at the island of Mannicolo , and he determined , on his arrival at Bengal , to negotiate with government for a commission to inquire into their fate , and to rescue the surviving
sufferers , if any such could be found . La Pe rouse's expedition had not been heard of since February 1788 , three years after which two frigates ( La Recherche and L'Espe " rauce ) were fitted out and despatched to the southern parts of the Pacific ocean , purposely to- search for the lost ships aud their crews ; but in vain . On the Ilth of November , 1826 * , the
Vice-President in council at Bengal , was pleased so far to accede to Captain Dillon ' s entreaties , as to resolve that the Hon . Company ' s ship , The Research , should be placed under his command for the purpose of enabling him to proceed to the Manuicolo Islands , to obtain information in regard to the shipwreck in question , &c , &c . It was further granted by his lordship in council , that Doctor R . Tvtler , ( a surgeon of the East India
Company ' s Establishment , ) whom Captain Dillon had especially recommended for the appointment , should be annexed to the expedition in a scientific and medical capacity . It is clear , " said Captain Dillon , who found abundant reason to repent of his recommendation , ' it is clear that government were glad of so good an opportunity of getting rid of Dr . Tytler , at least for a while . He had some vears before been sent to
Benfoolen , a remote convict station , with a similar view . " How he happened to return from Bencoolen . or by what means
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Critical Notices . —Miscellaneous . 189
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1830, page 189, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2582/page/45/
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