I 



PKEFACE. 



levelled his musket, and shot him dead."* At this^ 

 moment Captain Cook returned ; but it having been 

 found that the sentry had his orders " to punish the 

 least threat from a native with immediate death," 

 " the soldier was therefore^" continues Mr. Forster, 

 " immediately cleared, and the right to dispose of 

 the lives of the natives at pleasure, remained un- 

 controverted."t 



On another occasion, Mr. Forster relates the fol- 

 lowing fact. It seems one of the natives, finding an 

 iron stanchion loose, seized it, and was making off 

 in his canoe. " At this moment an officer came 

 upon deck, snatched up a musket ; and, taking ex- 

 act aim, shot the man through the head." " The 

 Captain (Cook) in his boat came up, and saw the 

 canoe full of blood, and the dead corse lying in it. 

 The other native baled the blood out into the sea^ 

 and then retired to the shore, with all the other 

 canoes, and left us perfectly alone." " We cannot 

 but lament," continues Mr. Forster, " that the time 

 in which this man was killed, hy a person^ who was 

 ignorant of his offence, did not admit of any previous 

 consideration. The first discoverers and conquerors 

 of America have often and very deservedly been 

 stigmatized with cruelty, because they treated the 

 wretched natives of that continent, not as their 

 brethren, but as irrational beasts, whom it was law- 

 ful to shoot for diversion ; and yet, in our enlight- 

 ened age, prejudice and rashness have often proved 

 fatal to the inhabitants of the South Sea. Mahine 

 (a native) burst into tears, when he saw one man 

 killing another on so trifling an occasion," &c.J We 

 do not hear that this act was ever censured, much 

 less punished, by Capt. Cook. 



* Forster, vol. 2. p. 351, 2. f Ibid. p. 253. 



i Ibid. pp. 11, 12. 



