Chap. III. JACK GUARD. 58 
dition was dispatched by Sir Richard Bourke to reco- 
ver the captives. It consisted of the Alligator frigate 
of twenty-six guns, commanded by Captain Lambert ; 
and the Isabella schooner as a tender, with a company 
of the 50th regiment of foot. The captive sailors 
were first given up, though it appears under the 
promise of utu being paid, made by Guard and con- 
firmed by two interpreters who infringed Captain 
Lambert's especial orders, to make an unconditional 
demand for the restitution of all the prisoners. As, 
however, they were left four days on shore alone 
among the natives, they were forced to save their 
lives, which were threatened, by promising ransom, and 
that the ships would trade for whalebone. At Te 
Namu, a native pa between Cape Egmont and Wai- 
mate, Mrs. Guard was recovered, with her infant 
child. She had been forced to live with a native chief, 
and had been often ill-treated, and even wounded, by 
the natives. In the conflict in which she was taken 
she had received some wounds on the head ; and after 
this the head of her brother, who had been killed and 
his body eaten, was constantly exhibited to her, after 
offering her part of the flesh. These circumstances 
had very naturally exasperated Guard, and many of 
the ship's crew sympathized with him. When the 
chief in question came down to the beach at Te Nait.u, 
he was recognized by Guard, and ordered to be seized 
and taken on board by the officer in command of a 
party on shore. Guard was in command of the whale- 
boat which alone could get through the violent surf. 
The chief jumped overboard, and was then fired at and 
wounded. On his recapture, they treated him with 
great cruelty ; wounding him so severely that his life 
was despaired of when he arrived on board the Alliga- 
tor. He was recovered, however, by the care of the 
