self into the character of a savage: and yet this has often happened. Several Europeans are scattered among the South Sea islands. The facilities of subsistence, arising from a soil of the highest fertility, exemption from labour even to indolence, and unrestricted intercourse with the female sex, these are the allurements which a sailor, after the fatigues of a long voyage, is not always able to resist. The natives, crafty and insinuating, take every opportunity to seduce the sailors : sensible of the superiority of European skill, they are eager to obtain their assistance in battle, and their instructions in the make and use of domestic implements. It has of late also been customary to permit convicts from Botany Bay to assist in navigating vessels bound thither: these people seldom fail to avail themselves of the opportunity to escape, and afford no slight ground for the apprehension of Mr. Turnbull, that in no great length of time the South Sea islands may become nests of plunderers and pirates.

At Ulietea our adventurers found an Englishman of the name of Pulpit, who brought with him his wife, as he called her, an Otaheitan girl of about fourteen or fifteen. The moment the poor fellow got upon deck he returned thanks to heaven, in the most fervent and impressive manner, that he had escaped out of the hands of the most savage murderers. It seems that he had been landed in Huaheine by the brig Venus: and in return for his voluntary service on board that ship he had been supplied with such articles as would be useful to him on the island. Among these was a musket and double-barrelled gun, which were objects of such eager ness to the natives, that in order to procure them they resolved upon his murder. This horrible project was discovered to him by the Otaheitan girl, who faithfully assisted her lover in his attempts to elude the attack of his murderers. Pulpit, how ever, was at last surprized by a party of natives, and led away as a sacrifice to some of their divinities: they disputed among themselves concerning the treatment he was to receive, and his life was spared by the authority of an elderly woman of rank, on condition that he should give up his various implements and arms, and repair some muskets belonging to the natives. Pulpit made his escape to Ulietea, but he assured his deliverers that the inhabitants here had the same character of dissimulation, treachery, and ferocity with the people of Huaheine. The event proved the truth

of his assertion: on the night before the intended departure of the vessel from Ulietea, it was discovered that four of the crew had deserted; three of these were Botany Bay convicts, who had been taken on board to work the ship, under an engagement that they should be returned to Port Jackson. These fellows had concerted with the Ulieteans to cut the vessel from her anchors, and when she should be driven ashore, to plunder her of her small arms and ammunition, and murder the crew. As soon as this desertion was discovered, Mr. Turnbull, with a degree of courage bordering on temerity, went singly on shore at two o'clock in the morn ing, and requested of the king (who had been a constant visitor on board the ship) to exert his utmost authority in restoring the men. The king affected the greatest surprise, and declared that they certainly had not landed, although it was afterwards known that half an hour before they had passed by his house. In a short time the situation of Mr. Turnbull became extremely critical: he felt himself surrounded by an hundred islanders, who were sagacious enough to know that if they had come to an open rupture and murdered him on the spot, it would have defeated the object they had in view; and who, on the other hand, were sufficiently aware of their own relative superiority at the time, to make their own terms for the restoration of the deserters, who, at last it was acknowledged, were concealed in a house but a little way up the country. These terms were the immediate gift of a musket and the promise of more fire-arms. Mr. T. returned to his ship, doubtless not without self-congratulation on his escape: some of the crew, however, had been tainted, and it was necessary to inflict summary punishment on two of the ringleaders. On the following night Mr. T. was roused from his sleep by an alarm that the ship was on shore: it was dark; but on sounding, twelve fathoms of water were found, and there was no sensible motion of the ship or of the water. On examining the cables, Mr. T. found them both lying slack on the deck; and the seamen being commanded to haul them up, the first pull brought the ends of both of them on board! They had been cut, and with the slightest breeze from sea the vessel would have been drifted on shore; indeed the natives had contrived to fasten a long and stout rope to the rudder, five or six feet under water, with which they had intended to draw the ship on shore.

This timely discovery enabled the captain, by clearing away another anchor with an iron stock, to haul the vessel seven or eight fathoms off from the reef. The natives had all this time preserved the profoundest silence, in momentary expectation of the bulging of the vessel: when they found their desperate plans detected they became perfectly outrageous, begun a furious assault with stones, and kept up, during the greater part of the following day, a discharge from fourteen muskets, which they had among them, and which did great damage to the rigging, boardings, nettings, and boats. The discharge of small arms from the ship, far from intimidating the natives, made them more outrageous: fortunately the horrid menaces which they held out of flaying and roasting alive any who should fall into their hands, restored loyalty and unanimity among the crew. Two of the deserters were seen instigating the natives with the greatest activity. Several attempts were made to recover the lost anchors, but in vain: the natives kept up so well-directed a fire that it was impossible. In the course of the day they made repeated exertions to gain the prize they had so treacherously laid a snare for, and it was necessary to employ the large guns against them in order to defeat the purpose. These had the desired effect, and the ship, in the darkness of the following night, got under sail and escaped from her perilous situation.

From the Society Islands our adventurers proceeded, with some Otaheitans whom they had taken on board, to the Sandwich Islands: the first land they made was Wahoo, where, notwithstanding the example of treachery and ferociousness displayed by the Ulieteans, the shipcarpenter deserted, and it was thought adviseable not to go on shore for the recovery even of so necessary an artificer, lest more of the crew should follow his example !

According to Mr. Turnbull, the inhabitants of the Sandwich Isles are astonishingly more advanced in civilization than those of the Society Islands: these latter, indeed, have made no perceptible progress since the time of captain Cook. Like all savages-would that the remark were limited to savages in its application-their avidity for intoxicating substances is excessive: some Europeans planted the vine in Otaheite, and explained its future utility if allowed to remain unmolested. The avidity of the natives broke through all

restraint, and the grapes were plucked off before they were ripe. Not relishing the fruit equally with their own ava, they imagined that the spirit was in the root, and endeavoured to extract it by mastication, (the nauseating process which is employed on the ava root); finding their efforts unsuccessful, they revenged their disappointment by treading it under foot.

Mr. Turnbull suggests that the labours of the Missionaries would be far more successful among the Sandwich Islands than they are likely to be at Otaheite or Tongataboo: here they could have the advantage, support, and influence from several Europeans, and of a sovereign, Tamahama, the great chief of the Sandwich Islands, a man of insatiable ambition, and very uncommon genius. In a short space of time he will, without doubt, make himself master of every island: he was now on the point of invading Attowaie, an island to the leeward, whither our voyagers proceeded for a supply of salt and yams. The king of Attowaie had acquired so much knowledge of our language from some Englishmen who had followed his fortunes, that he was able to understand and answer any plain question which was put to him: the natives of Otaheite, although they have had still greater opportunities of hearing the English language, scarcely pronounce the proper names of those persons with whom they are most familiarly acquainted. The king of Attowaie professed a high regard for the British nation, and, as a proof of it, had taken to himself the name of King George, and to his children, who are numerous, he had given those of the royal family of England, beginning with the Prince of Wales, &c.

"This unhappy man, who, from every thing we saw and heard, is well deserving of a better fate, had already suffered so much from the ambition and power of Tamahama, that he was now about to adopt one of the most extravagant resolutions that can be conceived.

"The Europeans who had attached themselves to his fortunes, some of whom were carpenters, blacksmiths, &c. were now with their offspring a numerous body. As their last resource, they were constructing a vessel suited to the attempt of a long voyage, and in the event of the expected invasion, they proposed to escape from the island, and seek a refuge from the cruelty of their enemy in some one of the islands which they have heard are interspersed in the main sea. They are wholly ignorant of the method of measuring a ship's course, or of the other necessary branches of navigation. A compass, indeed, they possess. Their intention in the first place, is, to steet

to the westward, in the hope of reaching some part of the coast of China; or, by keeping their wind to the southward, to fall in with Otaheite, or some other of the Society Islands."

After having obtained provisions and salt, our voyagers left the Leeward Islands, and arrived at Owhyhee: here they received a visit from Mr. Young, who, with Mr. Davis and captain Stewart, had followed the fortunes of Tamahama for fourteen years. It appears that this ambitious chieftain has profited to the utmost by the instruction and assistance given him by Captain Vancouver. The islanders under his dominion make frequent trading voyages to the north-west coast of America, and it is the intention of Tamahama to open a trade with China in vessels of their own construction, and to be navigated by their own people. The progress of the Sandwich islanders in the mechanical arts, according to Mr. Young's account to Mr. Turnbull, has been astonishingly rapid: his royal residence at Mouie is said to be built after the European style, of brick, and with glazed windows, by European and American artificers, of whom he has a great variety.

"It was only in 1792 that captain Vancouver laid down the keel of Tamahama's first vessel, or rather craft; but so assiduously has he applied himself to effect his grand and favourite object, the establishment of a naval force, that at the period of our arrival he had upwards of twenty vessels of different sizes, from twenty-five to fifty tons; some of them were even copper-bottoined.

"He was, however, at this time much in want of naval stores; and, to have his navy quickly placed on a respectable footing, would pay well for them. He has also a certain number of body-guards to attend him, independently of the number of chiefs who are resured to accompany him on all his journies and expeditions."

A marine force of such strength, and so rapidly created, has given him an astonish ing superiority over his neighbours: he now sends his warriors into distant parts, employs some of his small vessels as transports, and his larger ones as men of war, which are occasionally mounted with a few light guns. Tamahama's body-guards go regularly on duty, and relieve each other as in Europe, calling out all is well every half hour: their uniform is a blue

great-coat with yellow facings. Mr. Turnbull has forgotten to inform us of the nature of the traffic which takes place between the north-west parts of America and the Sandwich Islands: he prepares himself, however, with an answer to the very natural enquiry as to the possible nature of the commerce which can be carried on between these latter and the Chinese; he says that they are able to furnish fire-arms, gun-powder, hardware, and cloth of different sorts. A superabundance of these Tamabama is represented to have obtained from Europeans and Americans, in exchange for labour and refreshments supplied to the shipping who have touched there. This statement, we fear, will not obtain very general credit without further confirmation. Besides these articles of foreign introduction, the Sandwich islanders possess the sandal wood and pearl oyster-shell, of native produce.

Having accomplished the object of their visit to the Sandwich Islands, that of laying in a stock of salt, our navigators returned to Otaheite: in their course they fell in with several low islands, on some of which they landed, and had reason to believe, from the shyness of the natives, and their indifference to the proffered trinkets and tools, that they had never before been visited by Europeans. For the situation of these islands we are referred to ArrowSmith's map, although Mr. Turnbull bas neither given us the name of them, their longitude nor their latitude. So much for his contributions to the advancement of maritime discovery!

During the absence of the Margaret† the ship Nautilus had visited Otaheite, and taken away all the hogs she could procure it was agreed, therefore, that the captain should proceed to some of the windward islands for a supply, whilst Mr. Turnbull, with a few assistants, remained at Otaheite on the salting business. was expected to be about three weeks: at the expiration of two months the crew reached the island in a punt made from her wreck. Thus fatally terminated all the hopes of the voyage!

She

The accounts of Otaheite and the Soefety Islands given by the Missionaries in the transactions of their society, are by far the most valuable of any that we have: