THIRD VOYAGE 381 



sleep ; and after a short conversation about the loss of the 

 cutter, from which Captain Cook was convinced that he 

 was in nowise privy to it, he invited him to return in the 

 boat, and spend the day on board the Resolution. To this 

 proposal the king readily consented, and immediately got 

 up to accompany him. 



" Things were in this prosperous train ; the two boys 

 being already in the pinnace, and the rest of the party 

 having advanced near the waterside, when an elderly 

 woman, called Kanee-kaba-reea, the mother of the boys, 

 and one of the king's favourite wives, came after him, and 

 with many tears and entreaties, besought him not to go on 

 board. At the same time two chiefs, who came along with 

 her, laid hold of him, and insisting that he should go no 

 farther, forced him to sit down. The natives, who were 

 collecting in prodigious numbers along the shore, and had 

 probably been alarmed by the firing of the great guns, and 

 the appearances of hostility in the bay, began to throng 

 round Captain Cook and their king. In this situation, the 

 lieutenant of marines observing that his men were huddled 

 close together in the crowd, and thus incapable of using 

 their arms, if any occasion should require it, proposed to 

 the Captain to draw them up along the rocks close to the 

 water's edge ; and the crowd readily making way for them 

 to pass, they were drawn up in a line at the distance of 

 about thirty yards from the place where the king was 

 sitting. 



" All this time the old king remained on the ground 

 with the strongest marks of terror and dejection in his 

 countenance ; Captain Cook, not willing to abandon the 

 object for which he had come on shore, continuing to urge 

 him in the most pressing manner to proceed ; whilst on 

 the other hand, whenever the king appeared inclined to 

 follow him, the chiefs, who stood round him, interposed, 

 at first with prayers and entreaties, but afterwards having 

 recourse to force and violence, insisted on his staying 

 where he was. Captain Cook therefore finding that the 

 alarm had spread too generally, and that it was in vain 

 to think any longer of getting him off without bloodshed, 

 at last gave up the point, observing to Mr. Phillips, that 

 it would be impossible to compel him to go on board 

 without running the risk of killing a great number of the 

 inhabitants. 



" Though the enterprise, which had carried Captain Cook 

 on shore, had now failed and was abandoned, yet his person 

 did not appear to have been in the least danger, till an 

 accident happened which gave a fatal turn to the affair. 

 The boats, which had been stationed across the bay, having 



