144 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



make the attack and seize us man to man. The natives stood 

 so close around us that they could not make use of the 

 weapons that they had in their hands; neither could we use 

 our firearms, as we stood so close together. There was now 

 only one chance left for us. We were all sealers on a sealing 

 voyage, and each man kept two large sealing-knives slung by 

 his side. Seeing that there was no alternative, Mr. Kelly 

 called to his men to draw their knives and cut away, wliich 

 had the desired effect. The natives began to fall so fast be- 

 fore the knives that a great number jumped overboard and 

 were drowned, and many were swept out to sea by the strong 

 ebb tide that was then running, and no chance of their get- 

 ting on shore, as the tide was running five to six knots on 

 the ebb. 



" The gallant chief Corockar, seeing that his men were 

 completely defeated, made a desperate attempt to kill one of 

 our men with a tomahawk, but was seized by his arms, thrown 

 down in the cabin, and locked up in the store-room till next 

 morning. We then threw overboard sixteen bodies that were 

 killed by the knives. The number who jumped overboard and 

 were drowned must have been about fifty, and as many were 

 wounded in the fight. We were fortunate, however, to find 

 that only two of our men wei-e slightly wounded in the affray. 

 After cleaning up and washing down the decks, we sat dowii 

 and congr^itulated each other on the very narrow escape we 

 had from being taken and murdered by these savages. 



" We kept a good watch during the night, in case of being 

 attacked by a large number of canoes that were laying on the 

 beach in front of the town. The next morning about 6 o'clock 

 a large number of natives were gathered round the canoes. 

 We expected that they were going to make an attack on the 

 brig, and that they thought their chief Corockar was killed : 

 they cried out often for him to come on shore. 



" We tied his hands and let him come on deck. When 

 they saw him there was great rejoicing. He called to them 

 to bring a large canoe-load of potatoes alongside, to pay us, as 

 we thought, for his liberation. A canoe was launched off the 

 beach, with two men to paddle her off to the brig. On the 

 canoe nearmg the vessel, one of the men that was stationed 

 aft called out ' The canoe is full of men ! ' We all rushed aft, 

 and saw the canoe had a large number of men lying in her 

 bottom covered over with mats. Our firearms being all ready 

 loaded, lying on the deck, we lifted them and fired a volley 

 mto her. The natives, who were all armed with short spears 

 and clubs, jumped over the sides of the canoe, and tried to 

 pull it alongside the brig. Had they succeeded, they must 

 have boarded and taken the vessel in spite of all that we 

 could do. There were nearly forty of them, and only fourteen 



