he
ship; and as these advanced, some of the men began singing, some blowing
conchs, and others playing on flutes. One of them, with a person sitting
under a canopy, approached the ship so close, as to allow this person to
hand up a bunch of red and yellow feathers, making signs it was for the
captain. He then put off to a little distance, and, on holding up the
branch of a cocoa-nut tree, there was an universal shout from all the
canoes, which at the same moment moved towards the ship, and a shower of
stones was poured into her on every side. The guard was now ordered to
fire, and two of the quarter-deck guns, loaded with small shot, were
fired among them at the same time, which created great terror and
confusion, and caused them to retreat to a short distance. In a few
minutes, however, they renewed the attack. The great guns were now
ordered to be discharged among them, and also into a mass of canoes that
were putting off from the shore. It is stated that, at this time, there
could not be less than three hundred canoes about the ship, having on
board at least two thousand men. Again they dispersed, but having soon
collected into something like order, they hoisted white streamers, and
pulled towards the ship's stern, when they again began to throw stones
with great force and dexterity, by the help of slings, each of the
stones weighing about two pounds, and many of them wounded the people on
board. At length a shot hit the canoe that apparently had the chief on
board, and cut it asunder. This was no sooner observed by the rest, than
they all dispersed in such haste, that in half an hour there was not a
single canoe to be seen; and all the people who had crowded the shore
fled over the hills with the utmost precipitation. What was to happen on
the following day was matter of conjecture, but this point was soon
decided.

The white man landed;--need the rest be told?
The new world stretch'd its dusk hand to the old.

Lieutenant Furneaux, on the next morning, landed, without opposition,
close to a fine river that fell into the bay--stuck up a staff on which
was hoisted a pendant,--turned a turf,--and by this process took
possession of the island in the name of his Majesty, and called it _King
George the Third's Island_. Just as he was embarking, an old man, to
whom the Lieutenant had given a few trifles, brought some green boughs,
which he threw down at the foot of the staff, then retiring, brought
about a doze