THREE COMPANIES IN CONFLICT 15 



panion-way with a mortal stab in his back. MacKay 

 was knocked from his seat on the taffrail by a war-club 

 and pitched overboard to the canoes, where the squaws 

 received him on their knives. Thorn had been roused 

 so suddenly that he had no weapon but his pocket-knife. 

 With this he was trying to fight his way to the fire 

 arms of the cabin, when he was driven, faint from loss 

 of blood, to the wheel-house. A tomahawk clubbed 

 down, and he, too, was pitched overboard to the knives 

 of the squaws. 



While the officers were falling on the quarter-deck, 

 sailors and Sandwich Islanders were fighting to the 

 death elsewhere. The seven men who had been sent 

 up the ratlins to rig sails came shinning down ropes 

 and masts to gain the cabin. Two were instantly killed. 

 A third fell down the main hatch fatally wounded ; and 

 the other four got into the cabin, where they broke 

 holes and let fly with musket and rifle. This sent the 

 savages scattering overboard to the waiting canoes. 

 The survivors then fired charge after charge from the 

 deck cannon, which drove the Indians to land with tre 

 mendous loss of life. 



All day the Indians watched the Tonquin s sails flap 

 ping to the wind ; but none of the ship s crew appeared 

 on the deck. The next morning the Tonquin still lay 

 rocking to the tide; but no white men emerged from 

 below. Eager to plunder the apparently deserted 

 ship, the Indians launched their canoes and cautiously 

 paddled near. A white man one of those who had 

 fallen down the hatch wounded staggered up to the 

 deck, waved for the natives to come on board, and 

 dropped below. Gluttonous of booty, the savages beset 

 the sides of the Tonquin like flocks of carrion-birds. 



