to get them safe into the canoes, by passing them from one to another: this he also attributed to a wrong motive, imagining that they wished to save them merely on account of their goodness, whilst the bad ones they threw away without reluctance. Mr. Brown, with a view of wearing also a pacific appearance, ordered the tomahawks, boarding-pikes, and other arms, to be removed below.

In the evening, after the natives had gone on shore, the carpenter and sail-maker spoke to Mr. Brown on the propriety of having the muskets up, and placing centinels on deck to keep the natives off, as their number prevented them from working; but, unfortunately, too self-willed and obstinate in error, he treated every wholesome admonition with indifference, and accordingly no such measures were taken.

The following fatal day, Monday, the 1st December, 1806, at eight o'clock in the morning, the natives began to assemble on board, and soon increased to 300 in different parts of the ship. About nine o'clock Tooi Tooi, the Sandwich islander, before mentioned as having endeavoured to inspire the ship's company with a good opinion of the friendly disposition of

the natives, came on board, and invited Mr. Brown to go on shore and view the country: he immediately complied, and went unarmed. About half an hour after Mr. Brown had left the ship, Mr. Mariner, who was in the steerage, went to the hatch for the sake of the light, as he was about to mend a pen; looking up, he saw Mr. Dixon standing on a gun, endeavouring, by his signs, to prevent more of the natives coming on board: at this moment he heard a loud shout from the Indians, and saw one of them knock Mr. Dixon down with a club: seeing now too clearly what was the matter, he turned about to run towards the gun-room, when an Indian caught hold of him by the hand; but luckily escaping from his grasp, he ran down the scuttle, and reached the gun-room, where he found the cooper: but considering the magazine to be the safest place, they ran immediately there; and having consulted what was best to be done, they came to the resolution of blowing up the vessel, and, like Samson of old, to sacrifice themselves and their enemies together. Bent upon this bold and heroic enterprise*, Mr. Mariner repaired

* Lest this should be thought a rash and presumptuous conduct, as sacrificing their own lives unnecessarily, it should be considered that it would be almost a certain pre

to the gun-room to procure flint and steel, but was not able to get at the muskets without making too much noise, for the arm-chest lay beneath the boarding-pikes, which had carelessly been thrown down the scuttle the preceding evening: the noise occasioned by clearing them away, as the uproar above began to cease, would undoubtedly have attracted the notice of the Indians; he therefore returned to the magazine, where he found the cooper in great distress from the apprehension of his impending fate. Mr. Mariner next proposed that they should go at once upon deck, and be killed quickly, while their enemies were still hot with slaughter, rather than by greater delay subject themselves to the cruelties of cooler barbarity. After some hesitation, the cooper consented to follow if Mr. Mariner would lead the way. Mr. Mariner thereupon went up into the gunroom, and lifting up the hatch a little, saw Tooi Tooi and Vaca-ta-Bola examining Captain Duck's sword and other arms that were in his bed-place. Their backs being turned, he lifted off the hatch entirely, and jumped up into the cabin: Tooi Tooi instantly turning

ventive of such conspiracies for the future, when those on shore would witness the sudden and awful fate so unexpectedly attending the perpetrators.

round, Mr. Mariner presented his hands open, to signify that he was unarmed and at their mercy he then uttered aroghah! (a word of friendly salutation among the Sandwich islanders) and asked him partly in English, and partly in his own language, if he meant to kill him, as he was quite ready to die: Tooi Tooi replied in broken English, that he should not be hurt, as the chiefs were already in possession of the ship. He then asked him how many persons there were below, to which Mr. Mariner answered, that there was only one: he then called up the cooper, who had not followed him the whole way. Tooi Tooi led them upon deck towards one of the chiefs who had the direction of the conspiracy. The first object that struck Mr. Mariner's sight, on coming upon deck, was enough to thrill the stoutest heart: there sat upon the companion a short squab naked figure, of about fifty years of age, with a seaman's jacket, soaked with blood, thrown over one shoulder, on the other rested his iron-wood club, spattered with blood and brains,—and what increased the frightfulness of his appearance was a constant blinking with one of his eyes, and a horrible convulsive motion with one side of his mouth. On an

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other part of the deck there lay twenty-two bodies perfectly naked, and arranged side by side in even order. They were so dreadfully bruised and battered about the head, that only two or three of them could be recognized. At this time a man had just counted them, and was reporting the number to the chief, who sat in the hammock-nettings; immediately after which they began to throw them overboard. Mr. Mariner and the cooper were now brought into the presence of the chief, who looked at them awhile and smiled, probably on account of their dirty appearance. Mr. Mariner was then given in charge to a petty chief to be taken on shore, but the cooper was detained on board..

In his way to the shore the chief took his shirt from his back. The circumstance of his having just escaped death was by no means a consolation to him: reserved for he knew not what hardships, he felt his mind hardened by a sort of careless indifference as to what might happen; if he had any consoling hope at all, it was that he might be going on shore to be killed by the hand of some chief not sated with that day's slaughter. His companions, for ought he knew, were all killed; at least,