XXXIV 
Bampton 
Bd A i 
1793 
INTRODUCTION. [Prior Discoveries. 
ihmpton and captain Hill of the New-South- Wales corps, who was a pas- 
and Alt. sengei% went away armed, with five seamen in a whale boat; and 
were expected to return on the following day; but the 4 th, 5 th, and 
6th, passed, without any tidings of them; although many signal 
guns had been fired. 
On the 7th, two boats, manned and armed, under the command 
of Mr Dell, chief mate of the Hormuzeer, were sent in search of 
the whale boat. On reaching the island, Mr. Dell heard conch 
shells sounding in different parts ; and saw eighty or ninety armed 
natives upon the shore. To the inquiries, by signs, after the miss- 
ing boat, they answered that she was gone to the westward; but 
none of them would venture near; nor did they pay attention to a 
white handkerchief which was held up, and had before been con- 
sidered a signal of peace. 
As the boats proceeded in their search, round the island, the 
natives followed along the shore, with increasing numbers. One 
man, who was rubbed with something blue, and appeared to be a 
chief, had a small axe in his hand; which was known, from the red 
helve to have belonged to Mr. Shaw. On reaching the bay in the 
north-west side of the island, Mr. Dell remarked that the natives 
disappeared; all except about thirty, who were very anxious m 
persuading him to land. They brought down women ; and made 
signs that the boat and people whom he sought, were a little way 
up in the island. He, however, rowed onward; when the beach 
was immediately crowded with people, who had been lying in 
ambush, expecting him to land. 
After having gone entirely round the island, and seen nothing 
of the object of his research, Mr. Dell returned to the first cove; 
where a great concourse of natives, armed with bows, arrows, clubs, 
and lances, were assembled at the outskirt of the wood. By offer- 
ing knives and other things, a few were induced to approach the 
boat; and the coxswain seized one of them by the hair and neck, 
with' the intention of his being taken off to the ships, to give an 
