102 THE WHALEMAN ; OR, 



had serious suspicions in their minds that we 

 designed some evil towards them. They were 

 doubtless governed by some notions, in refusing 

 us the aid of their canoes, in keeping with their 

 half-civilized or barbarous natures. 



The captain and others offered to hire the 

 canoes, at the same time presenting to them 

 some little articles they had with them, as a 

 pocket or jack knife, but all to no purpose. They 

 resisted every proposition. 



The officers and some of the crew were so 

 anxious to get to the ship that they proposed 

 twice to the captain to take forcible possession 

 of the canoes, and follow the ship ; and they 

 would have done it, and risked all the conse- 

 quences, had the captain approved of it. He, 

 however, opposed this plan, on the ground that 

 though a few might succeed in reaching the 

 ship, yet those who were left behind, being en- 

 tirely unarmed, would probably be instantly 

 killed, and, therefore, it was bad policy to expose 

 the lives of a majority of the company for the 

 safety of only a few. Or, it may be, in their 

 first efforts to seize the canoes, and before they 

 could even get them into the water, the natives 

 would fall upon us, and massacre the whole 

 company on the spot. And still further, we 

 were wholly in their power, both for the present 



