“Early the next morning we landed with our muskets, and found the army drawn up for battle. The warriors were armed with spears and short clubs, and their hair dressed up in the strangest fashion, and stuck full of feathers. They were almost naked, with the exception of kilts round their waists. We kept in the rear, ready to advance when called upon to act, and the warriors marched forward, singing songs and shouting their war-cries. In a short time they came in front of the enemy, who were seen drawn up in a wood. Both parties halted and began abusing each other, our friends telling their enemies that they were women, and would soon run away; and warning them that they only came to be killed, if they dared to advance further. After this style of compliment had been exchanged for some time, they rushed towards each other grinning and making faces, when they once more halted, and began throwing their spears. We on this advanced, and fired a volley, which threw them into the greatest confusion. It was evidently totally unexpected, and, before they could recover, our friends rushed in on them, speared some and made others prisoners. We, meantime, were loading, and, having done so, advanced and fired a second volley. The enemy, though brave fellows, began to fly, when our friends dashed in among them, and, with our assistance, a large number were captured. Many of those who escaped were seized by the crews of the boats, and at once dragged off. The victory was complete, and the old chief at once handed over to us all the prisoners he had taken. This was an advantage to them, for they would otherwise have been killed.
“By this means we collected about forty men, whom we carried at once on board.
”‘We may as well have some of our friends,’ observed the supercargo, and he accordingly returned on shore to invite the old chief, and as many people as he chose to bring off to visit the ship, and receive some presents which he was told we had prepared for him. The chief looked highly pleased, and much to the satisfaction of the supercargo, accepted his polite invitation.
“Next morning the chief and several people came alongside. The chief said he desired to thank us for the service we had rendered him, and to present us with some cocoa-nut oil and rolls of cloth which would be prepared in a day or two if we would wait for them.
“The captain assured him of his friendship, and begged him to accept some presents in return for those he intended to make, and invited him and several of his principal attendants into the cabin to receive them, while his people were asked by the crew to go down forward. No sooner were our guests below than they were seized and lashed hand and foot before they could give the alarm to those who remained on deck. All hands then rushed on deck, and quickly knocked down the greater number of those who were collected there; a few uttering loud cries of terror leapt overboard, while those in the canoes, suspecting that something was wrong, shoved off, and began to paddle away towards the shore. Our shot sent after them caused such alarm that several of the canoes returned, others escaped, two or three were knocked to pieces, and some of the people in them drowned.
“We considered this a good haul, but we had some difficulty in keeping order between the new comers and their enemies whom we had before captured; by going among them, however, with our clubs, and showing them that we would stand no nonsense, we brought them into order. Again making sail, we continued our course along the coast, here and there capturing canoes, and occasionally landing and carrying off a few people, though we were not again so successful as in the case I have described.
“In one small canoe we found a Portuguese with two Samoaians; the latter we put below hatches, but the captain was afraid of detaining the white man, who declined joining us, and allowed him to make the best of his way to shore.
“We found two of our consorts cruising off this coast, but in a short time the suspicions of the people on shore were aroused, and we therefore left it and proceeded on to visit certain groups of islands lying 8 or 10 degrees south of the equator. From one of these islands we got nearly a hundred people, and another vessel which followed us captured several more, though most of the natives as soon as a sail hove in sight ran off from the coast.
“By various means, from one island or another, we captured fifty or sixty more, till at length with a full cargo we steered eastward to put them on shore, as before, on Easter Island.