PORTER’S JOURNAL. 
79 
animation; reported to me that the centinel was lying down asleep, 
and that he had not disturbed him. I determined now, should this 
be the case, to punish him as he deserved. I felt the necessity 
of vigilance, not only on account of our prisoners, but on account 
of the natives. I felt persuaded that we owed the friendly foot¬ 
ing on which we now stood with them entirely to our convincing 
them we were always on our guard, and I was determined that 
the safety of the whole should not be hazarded by the neglect of 
the marines. I therefore seized my pistol, and followed by the 
sergeant and a guard proceeded for the bake-house, where we 
found the culprit fast asleep, his musket lying beside him. I di¬ 
rected him to be seized, and at the same moment he was wound¬ 
ed through the fleshy part of the thigh; this example had a pro¬ 
per effect, and rendered every person more vigilant, particularly 
the marines. I shall make no further comments on this affair: if 
the punishment should appear a severe one, let those who cen¬ 
sure me place themselves for a moment in my situation: I was far 
distant from the means of obtaining a judicial inquiry into his of¬ 
fence, which would probably have terminated fatally for him; 
promptness and vigilance on my part were the only sure guarantees 
to the success of a cruize as eventful and as extraordinary perhaps 
as any that was ever made. 
As I before observed, Sunday night was the period fixed on 
by the conspirators for making their attempt; but it unfortunately 
(or rather fortunately) for them it so happened that a ship hove 
in sight off the mouth of the harbour on Saturday afternoon, and 
on discovering us stood off to sea under a press of sail. The 
Essex Junior immediately slipped her cables and gave chace to 
her, and not expecting her back before Monday, I put all my 
prisoners in irons, and thus at once frustrated a scheme which 
had wholly engrossed them for the last week; and with a deter¬ 
mination that I would make them suffer for violating their parole, 
I sent them all on shore to the village, and set them to work in 
building a wall to surround it, which was finished before my de¬ 
parture from the island. 
On Sunday afternoon the Essex Junior arrived: Mr. Downes 
had spoke the stranger, she proved to be the American ship Al¬ 
batross, from the Sandwich islands, and had come for the purpose 
