o shore," _i.e._ from New Guinea to within sight of the coast of
Queensland without finding an opening, and having to choose between the
alternatives of shipwreck or of death by famine, they went boldly at it,
and beat over the reef. Even then they would have starved but for their
providential encounter with a small Dutch vessel cruising a little to the
westward of Endeavour Straits, which supplied them with water and
provisions. The governor of the first Dutch settlement they touched at,
having a description of the mutineers from the British Government, and
observing that their schooner was built of foreign timber, refused to
believe their account of themselves, especially as Oliver, being a petty
officer, could produce no commission or warrant in support of his
statement, and imprisoned them all, without, however, treating them with
harshness. On the first opportunity he sent them to Samarang, where
Edwards had them released. The plucky little schooner was sold, to begin
another career of usefulness as set forth in the footnote to p. 33, and
her purchase money was divided among the _Pandora's_ crew.

Thus ended one of the most eventful voyages in the history of South Sea
discovery, dismissed by Edwards in a few lines; by Hamilton in two pages.
The search made among the naval archives at the Record Office leaves but
little hope that any log-book or journal has been preserved.

Meanwhile, Edwards, disappointed in his search for the tender at Namuka
and Tofoa, and prevented by a head wind from examining Tongatabu, set his
course again for Samoa, and passed within sight of Vavau by the way.
Making the easterly extremity of the group, he visited in turn Manua,
Tutuila, and Upolu, but, like Bougainville, did not sight Savaii, which
lay a little to the northward of his course. It is not surprising that
the natives of Upolu denied all knowledge of the tender, seeing that they
had made a determined attempt upon her less than a month before. From
Samoa he sailed to Vavau which he named Howe's Group, in ignorance that
it had been discovered by Maurelle ten years before, and subsequently
visited by La Perouse. Running southward, he made Pylstaart, at that time
inhabited by Tongan castaways, and the fact that he did not stop to
examine it, although he saw by the smoke that it was inhabited, shows
that he had begun to tire of his search for the mutineers. Having
enquired at Tongatabu and Eua, he returned to Namuka for water, and at