The Wonder Island Boys: Treasures of the Island | Page 6

makes you believe that?"
"I discovered a bone which was once part of a human body."
"But how would that be any indication that the people here are
cannibals?"
"When you see a bone that has on it the unmistakable markings of
human teeth, it is pretty safe to infer that the animal which scratched
the bone was a cannibal."
From the report of Muro it was evident that there was a large number of
people on the island, and, if Muro's observations were correct, they
now had some captives, or, at least, were preparing to celebrate a feast
in which human beings were to be the victims.
"That satisfies me of one thing," said Harry.
"And what is that?" asked John.

"Why, that there must be other tribes on the island," he answered.
"Why do you infer that?"
"Well, where would they get the victims?"
"From their own people," answered John.
"What! eat their own people?" asked George.
"That is not at all strange. Many people are known to sacrifice their
own, and among the most degraded, they are known to kill and eat their
own."
"That is the first time I have heard of such a thing."
"Don't you remember that the Bible tells about Abraham about to offer
up his own son as a sacrifice?"
"Yes; but not to eat him."
"Of course not; but it is not an uncommon thing for tribes in Africa to
sell their own children for this purpose. One of the greatest sacrificial
rites of the ancient Mexicans, was to offer up the most handsome youth
each year, as a propitiation to the gods."
"So they do not always depend on their enemies to furnish the feast?"
"By no means. Many of the tribes have a superstition that if they eat a
brave enemy it will impart to them his spirit of valor, and the fact that
they are to have sacrifices here does not mean that there are various
tribes on the island; but that is something we shall have to investigate.
It is my opinion that we shall find other tribes, but that, I am inclined to
think, depends upon the size of the island."
* * * * *
The preceding volume, "Adventures Among Strange Islands," states the
conditions under which the two boys, Harry and George, found

themselves on a strange island, in the southern Pacific. Accompanying
them were John L. Varney, and about sixty natives from Wonder Island,
together with the two Chiefs Uraso and Muro.
Nearly three years previously the boys, George Mayfield and Harry
Crandall, who were members of the crew of a school-ship, the
Investigator sailed from New York, and while on board, met a
professor, who, when the ship was blown up at sea, became their
companion in the life boat in which they sought refuge. Together they
finally were stranded upon an unknown island, less than a hundred
miles from the island which was the scene of the adventures with which
we are now concerned.
On this island they discovered five or six savage tribes, from some of
which they rescued seven of their former boy companions. Here also
they met Mr. Varney, who had escaped from the savages. The
Professor succeeded in reconciling all the warring tribes, and the
natives were now engaged in agriculture, and in various other pursuits,
and the boys had the great pleasure and satisfaction of being able to
build their own vessel and return home. The trip to the Wonderful
island, with which this volume deals, was for a double purpose, as will
presently be shown.
John, as Mr. Varney was familiarly known to them, was not only a well
educated man, but a great adventurer, and had traveled all over the
world in pursuit of scientific knowledge. He was particularly interested
in the history of the men who first went to the western world, and
scattered civilization to the benighted countries.
Like many men of his character, he did not consider the question of
money. He tried to acquire knowledge and information for the love of
the quest, and in order to be of service to his fellow man, so it was
purely by accident that he became a member of a crew that sailed for
the southern seas at the same time that the boys left New York on their
trip.
While his companions undertook the mission solely for the sake of the
money which might be acquired, John engaged thinking it might offer

the means of laying bare many of the early legends and vague historical
accounts with which that region of the South Seas abounds, and he
knew that if any records were in existence, they could be preserved
only in such secure places as caverns, which the Spanish buccaneers
invariably selected as the safest