Discovery of Otaheite
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stones, drew together very close round the ship, some of the men on board singing in a hoarse voice, some blowing conchs, and some playing on a flute. After some time, a man who sat upon a canopy that was fixed on one of the large double canoes, made signs that he wished to come up to the ship' side; I immediately intimated my consent, and when he came along side, he gave one of the men a bunch of red and yellow feathers, making signs that he should carry it to me. I received it with expressions of amity, and immediately got some trinkets to present him in return, but to my great surprise he had put off a little distance from the ship, and upon throwing up the branch of a cocoa-nut tree, there was an universal shout from all the canoes, which at once moved towards the ship, and a shower of stones was poured into her on every side. As an attack was now begun, in which our arms only could render us superior to the multitude that assailed us, especially as great part [sic] of the ship's company was in a sick and feeble condition, I ordered the guard to fire; two of the quarter-deck guns, which I loaded with small shot, were also fired nearly at the same time, and the Indians appeared to be thrown into some confusion: in a few minutes, however, they renewed the attack, and all our people that were able to come upon deck, having by this time got to their quarters, I ordered them to fire the great guns, and to play some of them constantly at a place on shore, where a great number of canoes were still taking in men, and pushing off towards the ship with the utmost expedition. When the great guns began to fire, there were not less than three hundred canoes about the ship, having on board at least two thousand men; many thousands were also upon the shore, and more canoes coming from every quarter: the firing, however, soon drove away the canoes that were about the ship, and put a stop to the
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Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from Volume I of the London 1773 Edition: National Library of Australia call no. FERG 7243, page 444, 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/hv01/444.html