midday
Three or four days later some more were taken , and the cook did not trouble to ask native opinion . The result was that eight or nine men were taken seriously ill , and for some time the lives of several were despaired of . Two of them had not recovered the use of their hands and feet at the end of ten weeks , and their faces , especially the eyes and mouth , seemed to be permanently , though slightly distorted . All the men agreed in one particular , that at midday they suffered most -- agonising cramps , accompanied by shooting pains in the head and continuous vomiting to the point of exhaustion , these symptoms being very pronounced during the first week or eight days after the fish had been eaten . That kind-hearted and unfortunate officer , Commodore J. G. Goodenough , took an interest in the poisonous and stinging fish of the Pacific Islands , and one day showed me , preserved in spirits of wine , a specimen of the dreaded _ no'u _ fish of the Hervey Group -- one of the most repulsive-looking creatures it is possible to imagine out of a child 's fairy book . The deadly poison which this fish ejects is contained in a series of sacs at the base of the spines , and the commodore intended to submit it to an analyist . By a strange coincidence this gallant seaman a few months afterwards died from the effects of a poisoned arrow shot into his side by the natives of Nukapu , one of the Santa Cruz group of islands .