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, &quot; Your Majesty.&quot;&quot; 



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 whole 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 



