14 VRUmE OF TEE 'GUBACJOA: 



a son of the Eev. Mr. Nobbs, the other a member of the 

 Christian family. They had but just handed at Santa Cruz, 

 when, from certain appearances, they began to suspect that 

 some foul play was intended. They therefore thought it 

 prudent to return to their boat, and were not a moment 

 too soon, for, Avhen in the act of pushing off, they saw clearly 

 that it had been the intention of the natives to prevent their 

 doing so, and immediately after leaving the shore their boat 

 was enveloped in a shower of ari'ows, which wounded Nobbs 

 in the wrist and Christian in the jaw, while one of the 

 boatmen was struck on the breast by an arrow which passed 

 through him. The two fii-st died of lock-jaw two days after 

 the attack, while the third, more seriously wounded to all 

 appearance, survived and got well. 



The Bishop's narrative caused a good deal of emotion 

 among his hearers, composed in g reat measure of the rela- 

 tives and friends of the two victims. I took an opportunity 

 of asking Bishop Patteson if he had any clue to the motives 

 of this brutal attack. He told me he was all the more 

 puzzled to account for it, inasnuich as he had been well 

 ]'eceived by the savages on his fii'st visit ; but that, after 

 much reflection on the subject, he had come to the con- 

 clusion, that their altered conduct was an act of retaliation 

 for some outrage upon them by seafaring men. He added, 

 in a general way, that he had grounds for attributing the 

 hostility of the South Sea Islanders to the whites, to acts of 

 violence and injustice to which they were exposed by their 

 contact with lawless traders ; and this view of the case I 



