436 ATTACK UPON THE ANTARCTIC. [1830. 



not imagine. As the sun was about setting, we at first conjectured that 

 it might be some religious ceremony that detained them, such as paying 

 their evening adoration to the departing luminary. Our conjectures 

 and doubts, however, were not of long duration. A party of about 

 three hundred warriors was soon observed to put off from the shore, 

 and join those who were lying on their oars. 



In the next moment we could see the new comers hastily distributing 

 war-clubs, spears, bows and arrows, and other offensive weapons, 

 among the traders who had so recently left us with every demonstration 

 of friendship. By the aid of our glasses, we watched these suspicious 

 movements with painful interest. When the arms were distributed to 

 every canoe, we could see them paint their faces red, and adorn then: 

 heads with cocoanut leaves and red feathers. They then appeared to 

 hold a short council of war ; and in a few minutes after, the whole 

 force started for the Antarctic, with great speed, and in two divisions. 

 As they drew near, we could perceive that their ferocious countenances 

 exhibited a desperate determination to succeed in carrying the Antarctic, 

 or perish in the attempt. 



I now repented of my forbearance on a former occasion. I regretted 

 that I did not then lay-to, for a few minutes, and punish their treachery, 

 while we had a fine breeze and daylight in our favour. I regretted it 

 for their own sake ; for at that time a slight chastisement would have 

 been sufficient to admonish them of the impropriety of their conduct. 

 But they were now imboldened by our lenity, and the mistaken confi- 

 dence that they had to deal with cowards. We could not leave them 

 to the enjoyment of their error, for we were perfectly becalmed ; the 

 sun had set, and the alternative was life or death. They persisted in 

 their fatal folly, and the result was inevitable. 



It is scarcely necessary to say that we were prepared for such an 

 emergency. Every man was at his quarters, ready to receive the 

 impending assault. The guns were double-shotted with grape and 

 canister ; the swivels were loaded with canisters of musket-balls ; 

 one hundred loaded muskets were on deck, all in excellent order ; 

 each of the crew was armed with a brace of pistols, and a cut- 

 lass by his side, with a boarding-pike within his reach. Every man 

 was ready to sacrifice his life in defence of the Antarctic ; and their 

 enthusiasm was not in the least diminished by the knowledge that the 

 fate of a lady was connected with the result. 



The savage warriors advanced in fine order, and with great rapidity ; 

 exhibiting in their manoeuvres a coolness, tact, skilfulness, and deliberate 

 calculation that I was not prepared to expect, and which would have 

 honoured a better cause. As soon as they approached within close 

 pistol-shot, and by the time that their first volley of arrows was 

 fastened in the empty sails, now flapping in useless drapery against the 

 masts, the Antarctic opened a brisk and well-directed fire, from her great 

 guns, swivels, and musketry ; which must have appeared to the assail- 

 ants as one sheet of flame. Agreeably to previous orders, the pieces 

 were all immediately reloaded as before, but not discharged. 



We waited, somewhat anxiously, for the smoke to clear away, in 

 order to ascertain the situation and disposition of the enemy ; who, to 



