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Very early next morning, the natives vifited them again in much greater numbersthan before; bringing with them bread-fruit, plantains, and one pig, all of whichthey exchanged for nails, &c. But in this traffic they would frequently keep theirgoods and make no return, till at laft the captain was obliged to fire a mufquet-ballover one man who had feveral times ferved them in this manner; after which theydealt more fairly and foon after feveral of them came on board. As the captain wasgoing in a boat to look for a more convenient place to moor the ihip in, he obfervedtoo many of the natives on board, and faid to the officers, “ You mull; look well afterthefe people, or they will certainly carry off fomething or other.” He had hardlygot into the boat, before he was told they had ftolen one of the iron ftaunchions fromthe oppofite gangway, and were making off with it He ordered them to fire over thecanoe till he could get round in the boat, but not to kill any one. But the nativesmade too much noife for him to be heard, and the unhappy thief was killed at thethird fhot. Two others in the fame canoe leaped overboard, but got in again juft ashe came to them. The ftaunchion they had thrown overboard. One of them, aman grown, fat bailing the blood and water out of the canoe, in a kind of hyftericlaugh. The other, a youth about fourteen or fifteen years of age, looked on thedeceafed with a ferious and dejected countenance. They had afterwards reafon tobelieve he was his fon.
At this unhappy accident all the natives retired with precipitation. The captainfollowed them into the bay, and prevailed upon the people in one canoe to come along-fide the boat, and receive fome nails and other things which he gave them. One■would have thought that the natives, by this time, would have been fo fenfible of theeffed of fire arms, as not to have provoked them to fire upon them any more; butthe event proved otherwife. For the boat had no fooner left the kedge anchor, thantwo men in the canoe put off from the ffiore, took hold of the buoy-rope, andattempted to drag it afliore, little confidering what was fall to it. Left, after difcover-ing their miftake, they ffiould take away the buoy, the captain ordered a mufquet tobe fired at them. The ball fell Ihort, and they took not the lead notice of it; buta fecond having palled over them, they let go the buoy, and made for the ffiore.This was the laft fhot they had occafion to fire at any of them, while they lay at thisplace. It probably had more effed than killing the man, by ffiewing them that theyWere not fafe at any diftance ; neverthelefs, they would very often be exercifing theirtalent of thieving, which they thought proper to put up with, as their ftay was notlikely to be long amongft them.
On the roth, early in the morning, fome people from more diftant parts came incanoes alongfide, and fold them fome pigs ; fo that they had now fufficient to give thecrew a frefh meal. They were, in general, fo fmall, that forty or fifty were hardlyfufficient for this purpofe. After dinner, the captain went on fhore and collededeighteen pigs.
Next morning he went down to the fame place where he had been the precedingevening; but inftead of getting pigs, as he expeded, found the feene quite changed. Then ails, and other things, they were mad after but the evening before, they now defpifed;and inftead of them wanted they did not know what; fo that he was obliged to returnwith three or four little pigs, which coft more than a dozen did the day before. TheReason was, feveral of the young gentlemen having landed the preceding day, had givenaway in exchange various articles which the people had not feen before, and which tookwith them more than nails, or more ufeful iron tools. But what ruined their marketthe nioft was one of them giving for a pig a very large quantity of red feathers he
2 had