POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
45 
them leaped into the sea^ and grasping the rope with 
one handj began swimming with the other^ labouring and 
shouting with all their mighty as they supposed they were 
drawing the vessel towards the shore. Their clamour 
attracted the attention of the seamen, and it was found 
no easy matter, even when all hands were employed, to 
draw in the rope. While the greater part of the crew 
were thus engaged, a seaman leaning over the stern with 
a cutlass in his hand, so terrified the natives, that as they 
were drawn near the vessel they quitted their hold, and 
by this means the hawser was secured. A breeze shortly 
after springing up, they steered away, happy to escape 
from the savages by whom they had been surrounded. 
On the present occasion we experienced a signal deli¬ 
verance, which, though it did not at the time appear so 
remarkable, afterwards powerfully affected our minds. 
As soon as the ship was cleared of the natives, and the 
wind was wafting us from their shores, I went down 
to the cabin, where Mrs. Ellis and the nurse had been sit¬ 
ting ever since their first approach to the ship ; and when 
I saw our little daughter, only four months old, sleep¬ 
ing securely in her birth, I was deeply impressed with 
the merciful providence of God, in the preservation of 
the child. During the forenoon, the infant had been 
playing unconsciously in her nurse^s lap upon the quar¬ 
ter-deck, under the awning, which was usually spread in 
fine weather, and she had but recently taken her 
to the cabin, when the natives came on board. Had 
the child been on deck, and had my attention been for a 
moment diverted, even though I had been standing by 
the side of the nurse, there is every reason to believe that 
the motives which induced them to seize the boys 
on the deck, and even the dog in his kennel, would 
