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The foremast of the Resolution being at length stepped, which operation had been attended with considerable difficulty, and some danger, on account of the rottenness of the ropes, which caused the purchase several times to give way, on the evening of the 22d of February, 1779, the two ships weighed and stood out of the bay. The natives were collected in great numbers on the shore, and, as the ships passed along, received the last farewels of those on board with every mark of affection and good-will.

CHAP. III.

Captain Clerke's attempt to navigate the North Sea, in the year 1779; his death; and the return of the ships to England by the route of the East-Indies.

ALL the time that the ships had laid in Karakakooa Bay, when they first touched there, captain Clerke laboured under such a decline of health, that he scarce ever quitted his ship to go on shore; and with a body wasting and decaying, but with a mind still ardent and zealous for the cause in which he was embarked, he now proceeded to accomplish what still remained of the purposes of the expedition. Our commander passed the small islands of Tahoorowa, Ranai, and Moratoi, without stopping at either. On the 27th he brought the ships to an anchor off the island of Woahoo; but the water proving brackish, it was determined to proceed to Atooi, where our navigators had been well provided and entertained the preceding year. Here the ships arrived on the 1st of March, and immediately several men in canoes came alongside; but they were observed not to welcome their visiters with the

same cordiality in their manner, and satisfaction in their countenances, as at the former visit. These Indians no sooner got on board, than one of the men began to relate, that the sailors had left a disorder among the women, of which many persons of both sexes had died. He was himself afflicted with this disease, and gave a very full and minute account of the various symptoms with which it had been attended. The next day an affray happened on shore, between the watering-party and the natives, occasioned by the rudeness of the latter in pressing into the line, for which a marine gave one of them a slight prick with a bayonet; but by the spirited exertions of Mr. King, who commanded the party, and his prudent moderation, the misunderstanding subsided, but not without bloodshed, for a man and a woman were shot. All the chiefs had absented themselves, and without their interposition, the common people had ever been found to be turbulent and unmanageable. The next day the beach was deserted of natives, the landing-place and lake being found to be tabooed with white flags; from whence it was concluded, that some of the chiefs had visited those parts in the night. A day or two after, two or three chiefs came on board the ships, and apologized for the conduct of the people. They informed the commander, that the government of Atooi was in dispute between Toneoneo, who held it when captain Cook was there last year, and a boy named Teavee, both of whom were the grandsons of Perreorannee, king of Woahoo, by different fathers. To the former of these the government of Atooi had been assigned, and that of Oneeheow to the latter, by their grandfather, who, of course, claimed the supreme power over both islands.

This quarrel had arisen about the goats which captain Cook had left there, the right of property in which was claimed by Toneoneo. A few days before the arrival of the ships, a battle had been fought in consequence of this dispute, in which Toneoneo had been worsted. The mother of Teavee, who had married a second husband, a chief of Atooi, and at the head of a powerful faction there, had formed a design of improving this success, to the driving of Toneono out of the island, and advancing her son to the government. On the 6th, the mother and sister of the young prince, and his father-in-law, with many other chiefs of that party, came on board the Resolution, and made several curious and valuable presents to captain Clerke; among the rest some fish-hooks, which they assured him were formed of the bones of his old friend, the father of Terreeoboo, who had been killed in an unsuccessful descent upon the island of Woahoo; and the prince's sister presented him with a fly-flap, the handle of which was a human bone, and had been given her as a trophy by her father-in-law. Young Teavee was not of the company, being engaged in performing some religious ceremonies, in consequence of the victory obtained, which ceremonies were to continue twenty days.

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Whilst this party was in the ship, Toneoneo likewise paid a visit to captain Clerke; but when he heard that the dowager-princess was on board, (whose ambition appears to have been the principal cause of the war,) he could scarcely be prevailed upon to ascend. This reluctance did not seem to arise from any apprehension which he entertained concerning his own safety, but from a dislike to meet one to whom he bore so strong an enmity.

Their meeting was silent, but with angry and lowering looks on both sides. He staid only a short time, and seemed much dejected; but the attendant wo◄ men upon the princess, both at his entering and going away, prostrated themselves before him. It appeared very extraordinary, that a person who was then in a state of actual hostility, and preparing for another battle, should trust himself, almost alone, within the power of his enemies; and it should seem from thence, that the civil dissensions, which are frequent throughout all the South Sea islands, are carried on without much acrimony, and that the deposed governor continues to enjoy the rank of an earee. It is difficult to reconcile that insulting triumph over a dead enemy, in which these islanders indulge themselves, with this mildness towards a living foe; and equally hard to account for such an accommodation of feelings to times and circumstances, among Indians, who are, in general, entirely under the influence of that passion which has possession of them.

On the 8th the two ships sailed for Oneeheow, another of the Sandwich Islands, where they anchored in the afternoon. Mr. Bligh went so far to the north as to satisfy himself that Oreehoua was a separate island from Oneeheow. On the 13th they finally took leave of this cluster, and sailed to the westward. The sight of men of war and tropical birds, with many boobies, not many days after, indicated the vicinity of land, but it was not their fortune to meet with any. Captain Clerke intended to have kept for some time within the tropical latitudes, in hopes of making discoveries; but the unsettled state of the weather, together with light winds, determined him to steer north-west by north.

On the 29th of March the thermometer was generally at 80 degrees, and sometimes at 83. At that time there was a considerable swell from the N.W. and in no period of the voyage did the ship roll so violently. On the 4th of April they got out of the tropical regions; on the 6th they lost the tradewinds, in latitude 29° 50'.

The standing orders established by captain Cook, of airing the bedding, placing fires between decks, washing them with vinegar, and smoking them with gun powder, were observed without intermission. For some time even the occupation of mending the sailor's old jackets had risen into a duty both of difficulty and importance: for in ships of war the sailors are so accustomed to be directed in the care of themselves by their officers, that they lose every idea of foresight, and contract the thoughtlessness of infants. The experience they had during the voyage to the north the preceding year, might have made them sensible of the necessity of paying some attention to those concerns; but if such reflections ever occurred to them, their impression was so transitory, that upon the return of the ships to the tropical climates, their fur jackets, as well as the rest of their warm covering, were kicked about the decks, as things of no value, though it was generally known in both ships, that they were to make another voyage towards the pole. These discarded habits were picked up by the officers, and, being carefully laid by, were now restored to the owners. On the 10th the ships crossed the track of the Spanish galleons from the Manillas to Acapulco; and expected to have fallen in with the island of Rio de Pata, which De Lisle lays down as in latitude 33° 30′ north, longitude 166° east. The next

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