186 GRADUAL IMPROVEMENT. 



on account of some petty theft he once allowed 

 his cannon to be fired upon the fugitive offen- 

 ders ; fortunately, however, no one was injured 

 by this rash act. But having in his last voy- 

 age no other witnesses of his actions, than such 

 as were entirely under his command, he forgot 

 what he owed to his own great name, and was 

 guilty in many instances of extreme cruelty. 

 I am therefore convinced, that if Messrs. Banks 

 and Solander, Dr. Spaarmann, or I and my son, 

 had been with him on the last voyage, his life 

 would not have been lost in the manner it was." 

 The first ships which visited the Sandwich 

 Islands after Cook''s death were those of Meeres, 

 Dickson, and Coke, in the years 1786-9- They 

 traded in skins between China and the North- 

 west Coast of America, and found these islands 

 very convenient to touch at. They were well 

 received ; and some of the islanders made the 

 voyage to America with them. Tianna, one of 

 the first Yeris of O Wahi, went with Meeres to 

 China. These voyages, and the continual in- 

 tercourse with Europeans, which their increasing 

 trade in fur produced, necessarily enlarged the 

 ideas of these children of Nature ; and as they 



