1790.] CAPTURE OP THE EAIR AMERICAN AT OWYHEE. 225 



While the Eleonora was lying in this bay, the natives of Owyhee 

 signally avenged the slaughter of their brethren at Mowee. 



On the 5th of February, the schooner Fair American, which had 

 been separated from the brig, anchored in the Bay of Toyahyah, 

 (now called Kawaihae,) on the north-west side of Owyhee, about 

 thirty miles north of Karakakooa Bay, where trade was begun with 

 the natives. As these people conducted themselves peaceably, they 

 were allowed to come on board the vessel without restriction ; at 

 length, a chief named Tamaahmoto, or Kamamoko, appeared, with 

 a number of attendants, to present the captain with a feather cap, 

 and while in the act of placing this ornament on young Metcalf 's 

 head, he seized him and threw him overboard, where he was im- 

 mediately killed ; the other seamen, with the exception of one, were 

 in like manner despatched, and the schooner was then drawn on 

 shore and rifled. There is no reason to believe that this was done 

 in consequence of the proceedings of the captain of the Eleonora at 

 Mowee, or, indeed, that those proceedings were known at Owyhee 

 when the schooner was taken ; on the contrary, Tamaahmoto, in 

 1794, assured Vancouver that he was induced to act as he did, by 

 the ill-treatment of Metcalf, who had whipped him severely when 

 at Toyahyah, in 1789. 



A plan was, at the same time, formed by Tianna and Tamaha- 

 maha, the principal chiefs of the island, to take the Eleonora. The 

 boatswain of that brig, named John Young, happened, however, 

 to be on shore, and there met with two English seamen, from whom 

 he received information of the plan ; and they succeeded in pre- 

 vailing on Tamahamaha to allow them to write a letter to Captain 

 Metcalf, urging his immediate departure, on condition that they 

 should enter the service of the native chief. Metcalf took their 

 advice, and sailed away without learning the news of his son's fate. 

 Young also succeeded in saving the life of Isaac Davis, the mate 

 of the Fair American, who had been severely wounded at the time 

 of the capture of that schooner ; and these two men remained in 

 the service of Tamahamaha until their deaths.* 



The ship Columbia returned to Boston from Canton, under the 

 command of Gray, on the 10th of August, 1790, as already men- 

 tioned : but the cargo of Chinese articles brought by her was insuf- 

 ficient to cover the expenses of her voyage ; and her owners were 



* Davis died in 1808. Young was, for many years, governor of Woahoo, and died 

 in 1836, nearly ninety years old : for an anecdote illustrative of his character, see 

 Commodore Porter's Journal of his Cruise in the Pacific, vol. ii. p. 215. 



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