ing to the rock, tried to cling to it, when another blow with a club deprived him of life. They then hauled him up lifeless on the rocks, and snatching the dagger from each other's hands, shewed a savage eagerness to have a share in his destruction. The fatal event occurred about 8 o'clock, only an hour after he had landed.
Such was the lamentable end of the most illustrious of navigators. It is painful to think, that he who had done so much to preserve the lives, and increase the comforts, of the savages of the Pacific, should thus fall by their hands; and that some of the improved implements with which he furnished them, should be employed to destroy him. Kaneena had purchased a large dagger, for a hog, only the day before; and this dagger was probably used in the bloody tragedy. It is still more deplorable to reflect, that a Commander who had made it his constant study to promote the welfare of his officers and crew, should have been deserted by some of them in the hour of peril, and left to perish before their eyes in the hands of barbarians, when a vigorous effort on their part might perhaps have saved him. Even the recovery of his lifeless body was an object worth contending for; and five young midshipmen, who arrived in a small boat at the close of the fatal business, saw the beach almost entirely deserted by the natives, who had been dispersed by the fire of the boats, and some shots from the Resolution; so that the body might have been recovered without much difficulty: yet the Lieutenant returned on board, without making the attempt. Whether the late order for stopping their grog, had somewhat alienated the affections of the seamen from their otherwise beloved Cap-
