the only two musquets that were fired.  For before our people had time to discharge a third, or to load again those that had been fired, the natives rushed in upon them, overpowered them with their numbers, and put them all to death.  Pedro and his companions, besides relating the history of the massacre, made us acquainted with the very spot that was the scene of it.  It is at the corner of the cove on the right hand.  They pointed to the place of the sun, to mark to us at what hour of the day it happened; and, according to this, it must have been late in the afternoon.  They also shewed us the place where the boat lay; and it appeared to be about two hundred yards distant from that where the crew were seated.  One of their number, a black servant of Captain Furneaux, was left in the boat to take care of her.

We were afterward told that this black was the cause of the quarrel, which was said to have happened thus:  One of the natives stealing something out of the boat, the Negro gave him a severe blow with a stick.  The cries of the fellow being heard by his countrymen at a distance, they imagined he was killed, and immediately began the attack on our people; who, before they had time to reach the boat, or to arm themselves against the unexpected impending danger, fell a sacrifice to the fury of their savage assailants.

The first of these accounts was confirmed by the testimony of many of the natives whom we conversed with at different times, and who, I think, could have no interest in deceiving us.  The second manner of relating the transaction, rests upon the authority of the young New Zealander, who chose to abandon his country and go away with us, and who, consequently, could have no possible view in disguising the truth.  All agreeing that the quarrel happened when the boat’s crew were sitting at their meal, it is highly probable that both accounts are true, as they perfectly coincide.  For we may very naturally suppose, that while some of the natives were stealing from the man who had been left in the boat, others of them might take the same liberties with the property of our people who were on shore.

Be this as it will, all agree that the quarrel first took its rise from some thefts, in the commission of which the natives were detected.  All agree, also, that there was no premeditated plan of bloodshed, and that, if these thefts had not been unfortunately too hastily resented no mischief would have happened.  For Kahoora’s greatest enemies, those who solicited his destruction most earnestly, at the same time confessed that he had no intention to quarrel, much less to kill, till the fray had actually commenced.  It also appears that the unhappy victims were under no sort of apprehension of their fate, otherwise they never would have ventured to sit down to a repast at so considerable a distance from their boat, amongst people who were the next moment to be their murderers.  What became of the boat I never could learn.  Some said she was pulled to pieces and burnt, others told us that she was carried, they knew not whither, by a party of strangers.