The French officer shrugged his shoulders, and said that he was but carrying out the orders of his superiors.
On this the captain ordered his boat to be lowered, and pulled away on board the French man-of-war. He there threatened to throw the ship on the hands of the French if the soldiers were not immediately withdrawn.
After a little time the captain returned, accompanied by a French lieutenant, who brought an order for the soldiers to return on shore. Our stay here was rendered very unpleasant by the French. As soon as we got our fresh provisions on board we sailed again for the westward, proceeding as before among the coral reefs, which lie to the north of the Society Islands. The navigation is exceedingly dangerous, as many of them are so low that they cannot be seen till the ship is close to them, and we had to keep a very sharp look-out as we sailed on. The most dangerous of all those we sighted was the Sidney group, which consist of bare sandbanks, without the least vegetation, and are nearly level with the surface of the sea. We landed on some of them to obtain birds’ eggs and fish, which are very plentiful, but they are uninhabited, as there is no fresh water.
Still sailing west we touched at the Kingsmills, passing also several other islands, till we came off Strong’s Island. Here is a magnificent harbour, surrounded by coral reefs, but the mouth is so narrow that we could not have attempted to enter had not the boats of three vessels lying there come out to assist in towing us in. On bringing up, a number of natives came off, who talked capital English, and seemed very intelligent fellows. We found that the chief of the island was named King George.
In a short time another canoe came off with a fine-looking fellow on board, who seemed as eager to trade and obtain anything he could as the rest of the natives.
At last Captain Hawkins, turning to him, said, rather roughly, “You and the other chaps must be off now.”
“You know who I am?” asked the native. “I King George, chief of all these islands.”
“I beg your majesty’s pardon, but you don’t look much like a king,” said the captain, laughing.
The chief, however, didn’t appear to be angry, and shook hands with the captain and officers, and stepping into the canoe paddled away for the shore.
“We must take care these fellows don’t play us any trick,” observed the captain to Mr Griffiths. “We’ll give them a salute to show them that we’re wide-awake.”