NARRATIVE,

&c. &c.

CHAPTER I.

VOYAGE IN THE SOUTH SEAS, DREADFUL MASSACRE AT THE FEJEE ISLANDS, AND OCCURRENCES WHICH LED TO THE DISCOVERY OF THE FATE OF LA PÉROUSE.

IN 1812 and 1813 I sailed as an officer in the Calcutta ship Hunter, Captain Robson, on a voyage from Bengal to New South Wales, the Beetee Islands (commonly called the Fejee Islands), and Canton. I had before visited these islands in 1809, and remained among them for four months, during which time, being in the habit of associating very much with the natives, I made a considerable progress in learning their language. On joining the Hunter I found Captain Robson had been at these islands twice before, and had obtained considerable influence over the natives of a part of the Sandal-wood coast, by joining them in their wars, and assisting them to destroy their enemies, who were cut up, baked, and eaten in his presence. The

chief with whom he was most intimate was Bonasar, of the town of Vilear and its dependencies in the interior.

On the afternoon of the 19th February 1813 · the ship Hunter anchored in Vilear Bay, at a distance of a quarter of a mile from the entrance of a small river that led to the town. The town of Vilear is about a mile, or perhaps one and a half, from the anchorage, situated on the verdant banks of a beautiful stream. The sides of the river are covered with thick forests of mangrove bushes to within a short distance of the town, where the land is somewhat elevated and clear of wood.

Before the anchor was let go, the chief's brother came on board to congratulate the captain on his return; and shortly after, the chief, with several other chiefs and priests, with a Lascar or East-Indian sailor, who had deserted from the Hunter at this place about twenty months before. The chief informed the captain, that shortly after his departure for Canton last voyage, the towns which he had conquered on the coast and interior by the captain's assistance, revolted, and being joined by the powerful tribes who reside on the banks of a large river, called Nanpacab, they had waged a furious war against him.

The chief then hinted at the impossibility

there was of obtaining sandal-wood until this powerful alliance was put down by force of musketry, and requested the commander to join him in a new campaign. To this request he did not then accede. The chief urged the danger to which his subjects would be exposed while they were in straggling parties cutting the sandal-wood for us, as the enemy would lay wait for them, and cut them off when they least expected it. I went on shore with the captain and chief to the town, where we were exceedingly well received, and got presents of a hog, yams, and cocoa-nuts. We were visited next day by Terrence Dun and John Riley, British subjects: the former was discharged from the Hunter last voyage, and the latter from an American brig at the same time.

They informed me that they had resided during their time on shore at various parts of the islands, and were exceedingly well treated by the inhabitants; but that their countrymen who resided on the neighbouring island of Bow had become very troublesome to the islanders. Such was their bad and overbearing conduct, that the natives rose on them one day and killed three of them, before the king of Bow had time to suppress the wrath of his people, who wished to destroy all the Europeans on the island. Dun was therefore of opinion, that

the surviving Europeans would be prevented from visiting the ship.

It is here necessary to explain how so many sailors of different countries got on shore to reside at these islands. In 1828 an American brig from the river Plate was lost on one of the islands with 40,000 Spanish dollars on board. The crew were saved in the vessel's boats, and part of them joined an American ship then lying at Myanboor Bay, on the Sandal-wood coast; others escaped to the neighbouring island of Bow, with as many of the dollars as they could conveniently carry off. Shortly after the above shipwreck several vessels, English, Indian, American, and New South Wales men, came to the coast for the purpose of procuring sandal-wood. The seamen on board these vessels became allured by the report of so many dollars being on shore at the neighbouring islands. With a view of enriching themselves, some deserted, and others were regularly discharged by their commanders and proceeded to the field of wealth. Some of those men, with the few dollars then procured, bought fire-arms and gunpowder, with which they rendered important assistance to the king of the neighbouring island of Bow, and were on that account thought highly of by the islanders, from among whom they procured wives and lived very com

fortably, until their insolence and cruelty induced the natives to destroy a part of them; and it will shortly be seen what a dreadful fate awaited the others in consequence of Captain Robson's proceedings.

From the time of our arrival up to the end of March following, the sandal-wood came in but very slowly. The natives in our neighbourhood begged several times of the captain to assist them in their wars, and promised, as a reward for such service, to load the ship with the desired article in two months after their enemy was conquered. Captain Robson consented; and we accordingly set out for the island of Nanpacab, situated about six miles up the river of the same name, and distant from the ship forty or fifty miles. The armament consisted of three armed boats carrying twenty musketeers, and in one of the boats there was a two-pound cannon mounted. We were accompanied by forty-six large canoes, carrying I suppose near a thousand armed savages, besides three thousand more that marched by land to the scene of action. The weather being wet and stormy, we were obliged to rendezvous at an island near the entrance of the Nanpacab until the morning of the 4th, at which time we entered the river, and were saluted by showers of arrows and stones from slings by the enemy