91 
party to fight them. Twelve canoes 
were put in the .water, each one carry¬ 
ing a part of the provisions, and man¬ 
ned by about two hundred persons. 
After an absence of four or five days, 
during which time we exchanged civili¬ 
ties with numerous chiefs, we returned 
to Milly, and hauled up the canoes. I 
now learned that the principal chief, had 
said that it would have been wrong to 
kill me, firmly believing that the dis¬ 
ease with which they had been afflicted, 
had been sent by their , God, as a pun¬ 
ishment for having killed Payne and the 
others ! The malady having now en¬ 
tirely disappeared, they considered that 
crime as expiated X 
About two days after my return, there 
was great excitement, in consequence 
of the appearance of a ship ! Seeing 
the natives were very much displeased 
at the circumstance, I concealed as well 
as I could, the giaddening emotions 
which filled my breast; and, surround¬ 
ed by about three hundred of them, 
went round a point of land, when I 
