ENEMIES 177 



though there were natives of Tahiti in the crew; in their dark- 

 ness of skin and in the general cast of their features they 

 resembled Malays rather than South Sea Islanders. 



They stayed on deck when the captain, mate, and second mate 

 had gone below to dinner. Except the helmsman, and the third 

 officer, who waited to take an observation when the sun passed 

 the meridian, the decks, both forward and aft, were deserted. 



It was that third officer, Silas Jones of Freemantle, then a 

 youth of one-and-twenty years, on his second voyage, who 

 afterward wrote the story of the Awashonks. Even then, 

 while he remained on deck taking the observations and keeping a 

 lookout, he noticed the way the islanders regarded metal. Of 

 the quadrant, which was new and shone in the sun, they seemed 

 to be afraid; but iron, wherever it appeared, they examined 

 closely and covetously. 



As young Mr. Jones paced the quarter-deck he saw other 

 canoes putting out from the island and paddling briskly toward 

 the ship. Going below when the first and second mates had 

 come up to relieve him, he told the captain, who immediately 

 got up from the table and went on deck; and thither Mr. Jones 

 returned after making a hasty meal of what his superiors had 

 left. 



He found that there were already thirty or more natives roam- 

 ing about the ship, apparently in growing excitement, and 

 chattering in their own language. Drawing a little apart, he 

 watched closely all that was happening. But he appears, up to 

 that time, to have been the only one to feel any uneasiness. 



On spars seven feet above the quarter-deck, as was the custom 

 of whaling vessels, they kept ready a supply of craft, among 

 them fourteen cutting spades mounted on long poles. The 

 polished heads and razor-keen edges had caught the attention 

 of the savages, and Captain Coffin, observing their interest, took 

 down a spade and showed them in pantomime how the whalers 

 used it in cutting the blubber by swift thrusts from the stag- 

 ing. 



As the captain returned the spade to its place on the spars, 

 young Mr. Jones observed that the excitement of the savages 



