May.] 



ATTEMPT TO BOARD THE ANTARCTIC. 



393 



come on board. The crew in return distributed among them old knives, 

 beads, iron hoops, and many other little articles. This liberality ex- 

 cited such sensations in the natives as induced them to strip their 

 canoes of their fishing-lines, hooks, nets, cocoanuts, &c, which they 

 offered as objects of barter ; they also gave their large hats, made of 

 palm-leaves, as well as the tappers from their loins. Both sexes 

 stripped off the only article which covered their nakedness, and freely 

 gave it for a few glass beads. 



Even yet they appeared not to be contented with the sacrifices they 

 had made, but gave me to understand that they would return to the 

 island, and collect pearl-shell, tortoise-shell, and biche-de-mer, if we 

 would run the schooner close in with the lee-side of the island. To 

 this proposition I readily signified my assent, and they with child-like 

 alacrity paddled swiftly to the shore. 



By the time that they had landed, the Antarctic was within about a 

 mile of the beach, on which were lying fifty canoes of the largest size, 

 being about thirty-five feet in length, and very buoyant. We con- 

 tinued to watch their movements with our glasses, and soon had cause 

 for some startling suspicions. Instead of loading their canoes with 

 the valuable articles they promised, we saw about five hundred men 

 bearing to them back-loads of spears and war-clubs. In addition to 

 this, they had all daubed their faces with red paint, a certain indication 

 of hostile intentions among the islanders of these seas. 



In a few moments these warlike preparations were completed, and 

 the canoes afloat and manned with fifteen to twenty men each, coming 

 rapidly towards the vessel, propelled by paddles at the rate of eight 

 miles an hour. This formidable flotilla advanced in two divisions, ap- 

 parently with the intention of boarding us on both sides. Having a 

 fine breeze from north-north-east, we lay-to, until they had approached 

 within one-third of a mile of the vessel ; we then filled away, with the 

 wind abaft of the beam ; and in a few minutes more the Antarctic took 

 up her feet, and slid over the briny ocean, with her stern to these treach- 

 erous savages, at the rate of ten miles an hour 



This was the only step we could have taken to avoid slaughtering 

 these ignorant, misguided people ; who were not yet willing to relin- 

 quish their rash adventure, but continued to follow the vessel for more 

 than four miles, when they gave up the chase, and turned towards 

 the islands. No doubt this system of treachery, which prevails, or 

 did once prevail, on every inhabited island in the Pacific Ocean, is a 

 part of their education. They sin without the law, and should be 

 judged without the law. Knowing, as I do, that there are many 

 calling themselves Christians, who could not " cast the first stone" at 

 these untutored children of nature, I could not find it in my heart to 

 throw cold iron and lead among them. If they enjoyed the blessing 

 of missionary teachers, but few years would elapse before the natives 

 of all these groups of islands would become as exemplary for honesty, 

 fidelity, and hospitality as those of the Sandwich, Friendly, and So- 

 ciety Islands. Let our missionary societies look to this : here is a 

 wide field open for their pious and philanthropic labours ; a field which 



