216 ALARM OF THE ISLANDERS. 



tion ; although the English always profess to 

 acknowledge the sovereignty of the native mo- 

 narch, and the King of England, in writing to 

 Tameamea, calls him, " Your Majesty." 



I am, however, far from desiring to main- 

 tain this opinion as founded on any sufficient 

 grounds. The alarm of the islanders, on the 

 present occasion, had been in great measure 

 excited by a paragraph in a Mexican news- 

 paper, recently imported, which contained a 

 new version of the English fiction. The mis- 

 trust, however, did not long subsist. My as- 

 surances of friendship, and the particularly 

 good behaviour of the Avhole crew, by which 

 they were advantageously distinguished from 

 those of the other ships lying here, soon at- 

 tracted towards us the confidence and esteem 

 of the natives and their governors. During 

 the whole of my stay on the island, I had not 

 the slightest cause to be dissatified with the 

 conduct of my men, notwithstanding the temp- 

 tations to which they were exposed, from the 

 example of other sailors. All that could be 

 spared from the ship were, every Sunday, al- 

 lowed to go ashore ; this being generally known 



