A VOYAGE TO 
56 
Februar natives > ant * apprehending they meant to attack us, ordered 
two four-pounders to be fired at them. Fortunately thefe 
guns, though well aimed, did no mifchief, and yet gave 
the natives a convincing proof of their power. One of the 
balls broke a cocoa-nut tree in the middle, under which a 
party of them were fitting; and the other fhivered a rock, 
that flood in an exa& line with them. As I had, juft before, 
given them the ftrongeft aflurances of their fafety, I was 
exceedingly mortified at this a£t of hoftility; and, to pre¬ 
vent a repetition of it, immediately difpatched a boat to ac¬ 
quaint Captain Clerke, that, at prefent, I was on the moft 
friendly terms with the natives ; and that, if occafion ftiould 
hereafter arife for altering my conduCt toward them, I 
would hoift a jack, as a fignal for him to afford us all the 
afliftance in his power. 
We expected the return of the boat with the utmoft im¬ 
patience ; and after remaining a quarter of an hour, under 
the moft torturing anxiety and fufpenfe, our fears were at 
length confirmed, by the arrival of Mr. Bligh, with orders 
to ftrike the tents as quickly as poflible, and to fend the 
fails, that were repairing, on board. Juft at the fame mo¬ 
ment, our friend Kaireekeea having alfo received intelli¬ 
gence of the death of Captain Cook, from a native, who had 
arrived from the other fide of the bay, came to me, with 
great forrow and dejection in his countenance, to inquire, 
if it was true ? 
Our fttuation was, at this time, extremely critical and im¬ 
portant. Not only our own lives, but the event of the ex¬ 
pedition, and the return of at leaft one of the fhips, being- 
involved in the fame common danger. We had the maft of 
the Refolution, and the greateft part of our fails, on fhore, 
under the protection of only fix marines : their lofs would 
have 
