1769. jROirND THE WORLD. 177 



escaped, a scraper was found which had been stolen 

 from the ship some time before ; and soon after our 

 old friend Tubourai Tamaide brought us the staple. 



On the 8th and 9th, we continued to dismantle 

 our fort, and our friends still flocked about us j some, 

 I believe, sorry at the approach of our departure, 

 and others desirous to make as much as they could 

 of us while we staid. 



We were in hopes that we should now leave the 

 island, without giving or receiving any other offence ; 

 but it unfortunately happened otherwise. Two 

 foreign seamen having been out with my permission, 

 one of them was robbed of his knife, and endeavour- 

 ing to recover it, probably with circumstances of 

 great provocation, the Indians attacked him, and 

 dangerously wounded him with a stone ; they wounded 

 his companion also slightly in the head, and then 

 fled into the mountains. As I should have been 

 sorry to take any farther notice of the affair, I was 

 not displeased that the offenders had escaped ; but I 

 was immediately involved in a quarrel which I very 

 much regretted, and which yet it was not possible to 

 avoid. 



In the middle of the night between the 8th and 

 9th, Clement AVebb and Samuel Gibson, two of the 

 marines, both young men, went privately from the 

 fort, and in the morning were not to be found. As 

 public notice had been given, that all hands were to 

 go on board on the next day, and that the ship would 

 sail on the morrow of that day or the day following, 

 I began to fear that the absentees intended -to stay 

 behind. I knew that I could take no effectual steps 

 to recover them, without endangering the harmony 

 and good-will which at present subsisted among us ; 

 and therefore determined to wait a day for the chance 

 of their return. 



On Monday morning the 10th, the marines, to my 

 great concern, not being returned, an enquiry was 

 made after them of the Indians, who frankly told us, 



VOL. I, , N 



