THE TONGA ISLANDS. 243 began by about two hundred men ; the unfor- tunate poor man, who had run up the beach, was knocked down, and the stones flew like a shower of shot. Many Indians got hold of the stern rope, and were near hauling us on shore, and would certainly have done it, if I had not had a knife in my pocket, with which I cut the rope. We then hauled oiF to the grapnel, every one being more or less hurt. At this time I saw five of the natives about the poor man they had killed, and two of them were beating him about the head with stones in their hands. " We had no time to reflect, before, to my. surprise, they filled their canoes with stones, and twelve men came off after us to renew the attack, which they did so effectually as nearly to disable all of us. Our grapnel was foul, but Providence here assisted us ; the fluke broke, and we got to our oars and pulled to sea. They, however, could paddle round us, so that we were obliged to sustain the attack without being able to return it, except with such stones as lodged in the boat, and in this I found we were very inferior to them. We could not close, because our boat was lumbered and heavy, and that they knew very well : I therefore adopted the expedient of throwing overboard some clothes, which they lost time in picking R 2
