RAPA. 367 
when we turned round, anumber of the natives 
appeared on deck, and others were climbing 
over the bulwarks. They were the most savage- 
looking natives I have ever seen, and their be- 
haviour was as unceremonious as their appearance 
was uninviting. Vancouver found them unusually 
shy at first, but afterwards remarkably bold, and 
exceedingly anxious to possess every article of iron 
they saw: although his ship was surrounded by 
not fewer than three hundred natives, there were 
neither young children, women, nor aged persons, 
in any of their canoes. 
A gigantic, fierce-looking fellow, who had seized 
a youth standing by the gangway, boarded us, 
and endeavoured to lift him from the deck; but 
the lad, struggling, escaped from his grasp. He 
then seized our cabin-boy, but the sailors coming 
to his assistance, and the native finding he could 
not disengage him from their hold, pulled his 
woollen shirt over his head, and was preparing to 
leap out of the ship, when he was arrested by the 
sailors. We had a large ship-dog chained to his 
kennel on the deck, and, although this animal was 
not only fearless, but savage, yet the appearance 
of the natives seemed to terrify him. One of 
them caught the dog in his arms, and was pro- 
ceeding over the ship’s side with him, but per- 
ceiving him fastened to the kennel by his chain, 
he was obliged to relinquish his prize, evidently 
disappointed. He then seized the kennel, with 
the dog in it; when, finding it nailed to the deck, 
he ceased his attempts to remove it, and gazed 
round the ship, in search of some object less 
secure. We had brought from Port Jackson two 
young kittens; one of these now came up from 
the cabin, but she no sooner made her appearance 
