Читать книгу Lolóma, or two years in cannibal-land. A story of old Fiji онлайн

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Aided by our friends, it was easy for us to remain in concealment until a good opportunity for getting away from the officers of the law presented itself. I had succeeded in securing my companion’s liberty, but I had not only broken the law and made myself liable to the same cruel punishment from which I had saved him—I had compromised my father, whose name I had used in the transaction with the turnkey. I determined that, if possible, I would leave the colony. Whitely preferred making his way to a relation in the country.

As luck would have it, while I was in concealment a sandalwood trafficker from the South Seas put into Port Jackson to refit and provision. I met her captain one night at a well-known locality of dubious reputation called The Rocks, and had no difficulty in shipping under the name of Thomas Whimpey as a common seaman before the mast. Great was my grief that I could not take with me the sharer of my youthful frolics. He was in hiding 20 miles inland from Sydney, and was in a fair way to become a bushranger.