s seized this opportunity of commencing an attack upon the
ship. First, the chief threw off the mat which he wore as a cloak, and,
brandishing a tomahawk in his hand, began a war-song, when all the rest
immediately threw off their mats likewise, and, being entirely naked,
began to dance with such violence that I thought they would have stove
in the ship's deck.

"The captain, in the meantime, was leaning against the companion, when
one of the natives went unperceived behind him, and struck him three or
four blows on the head with a tomahawk, which instantly killed him. The
cook, on seeing him attacked, ran to his assistance, but was immediately
murdered in the same manner.

"I now sat down on the jib-boom, with tears in my eyes, and trembling
with terror.

"Here I next saw the chief mate come running up the companion ladder,
but before he reached the deck he was struck on the back of the neck in
the same manner as the captain and the cook had been. He fell with the
blow, but did not die immediately.

"A number of the natives now rushed in at the cabin door, while others
jumped down through the skylight, and others were employed in cutting
the lanyards of the rigging of the stays. At the same time, four of our
crew jumped overboard off the foreyard, but were picked up by some
canoes that were coming from the shore, and immediately bound hand and
foot.

"The natives now mounted the rigging, and drove the rest of the crew
down, all of whom were made prisoners. One of the chiefs beckoned to me
to come to him, which I immediately did, and surrendered myself. We were
then put all together into a large canoe, our hands being tied; and the
New Zealanders, searching us, took from us our knives, pipes,
tobacco-boxes, and various other articles. The two dead bodies, and the
wounded mate, were thrown into the canoe along with us. The mate groaned
terribly, and seemed in great agony, the tomahawk having cut two inches
deep into the back of his neck; and all the while one of the natives,
who sat in the canoe with us, kept licking the blood from the wound with
his tongue. Meantime, a number of women who had been left in the ship
had jumped overboard, and were swimming to the shore, after having cut
her cable, so that she drifted, and ran aground on the bar near the
mouth of the river. The natives had not sense to shake the reefs out of
the sails, but had chopped them off along the yards with their
tomahawks, leaving the reefed p