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FOBTBR^S JOURNAL. 



with natives. — The garden still continued in a flourishing 

 state. Several dishes of lettuce had already been served 

 up; and, on the 14th, lieut. Gamble and his companions 

 enjoyed the rare luxury of a mess of turnips and cucumbers. 



But the frowns of fortune again soon appeared. The 

 watchman on board the Greenwich, in the night of the 

 1 8th, at 2 o'clock, called out, that the boat was missing 

 from alongside. The alarm was immediately given, and 

 on examination, lieut. Gamble discovered that John Robin- 

 son, who had recently suffered punishment for theft, Isaac 

 Coffin, the deserter, Peter C. Swook, and John Welch, had 

 made their escape. It could scarcely be credited at first, 

 that men, even of the lowest order in society, surrounded 

 by savages, and without the possibility of reaching a civil- 

 ized part of the world, in an open boat, could seriously 

 think of deserting. But on a nearer investigation of the 

 matter, such was found to be actually the case. They had 

 taken with them from the Greenwich, three muskets, and 

 nearly all the cartridges ; from the Seringapatam, five mus- 

 kets, five barrels of powder, all the carpenter's tools, two 

 cords of boat boards, an English ensign, a compass, all the 

 clothes of Joseph Curtis, two shirts of midshipman Feltus, 

 a hat belonging to one of the seamen, some provisions — • 

 and many other articles, of minor value. Lieut. Gamble 

 instantly ordered the only one of the remaining boats to be 

 manned, in which he could possibly hope to overtake them, 

 but the villains had taken the precaution to scuttle her, 

 and she was therefore of no use. Not having a sufficient 

 number of hands to man two boats ; ignorant of the course 

 they had taken ; and ngt knowing in whom to place confi- . 

 dence — he determined, for the present, to relinquish the 

 pursuit. The next morning, while at breakfast, the men 

 on deck cried out, that the natives were coming down, in a 

 large body, to attack them. Lieut. Gamble immediately 

 ran up, and perceived a great multitude of the islanders 

 within a short distance of the encampment. In these cir- 

 cumstances, not a moment was to be lost* The guns were 

 cast loose, and loaded with grape-shot, and the men on 

 shore directed to repair on board the Greenwich, with their 

 muskets ; but before they left the beach, lieut. Gamble 

 discovered that the natives were merely bringing down 

 vegetable?, and were wholly unarmed. Being unable. 



