WHALING VOYAGE. 
337 
duct no more than that it was a mere petty brawl 
between him and the governor ; every generous mind 
would have felt the same towards him, when all the cir- 
cumstances are considered, but in this island there are 
wretches who require blood for an angry word,-— and so 
it happened with Stavers, who continued to call upon his 
cowardly acquaintance until near sunset, but no one up 
to that time molested him in the least, although there 
was a Spanish guard near the palace — or more properly, 
white-washed barn- — of eight or ten men, whom I believe 
he also challenged. 
The captain, however, having called for a long time 
in vain, became quite exhausted from the heat of the 
sun and other causes, and he therefore retired at last 
into the house of an Englishman who resided near the 
palace ; when he had retired thither, he placed his 
pistols upon a table, and seating himself began to relate 
the particulars of the transaction which had occurred 
between himself and the governor. But while in the 
act of so doing, it being at the time quite dark, a man 
entered the house under the pretence of speaking to 
Stavers, when approaching close to the table, he sud- 
denly seized the pistols, and retreated from the house 
immediately, followed by the captain, who was not the 
kind of person to brook conduct such as that without 
explanation. But the poor fellow by his precipitation 
only fell into an ambush which had been cunningly 
contrived and laid for him — for the moment he passed 
over the threshold of the house, in chase of the man 
who had taken the pistols, he was assailed by nine or 
a 
