We parted with the Aramata, being unwilling to return to the Marquesas with them.
About a week after, we spoke the bark James Calvin, of London, returning from Keppell's Island, with the boy. Capt. Coleman lowered away his boat with its full complement of men, harpoons, lines and lances, and went on board of her, while the mate of the James Calvin, with his boat, crew, and apparatus, came on board our ship. This is the way ships usually meet at sea. From them we learned the full particulars of the massacre.
Soon as she heard of it she resolved to go to the island, and at all hazards take the boy away. As they entered the harbor several of the natives came to the ship; they suffered them to go aboard, treated them well, gave them many presents, which won their good feelings. As they were about leaving, the captain told them, (through a native of the Sandwich Islands who could talk with them,) that the king of the Sandwich Islands had sent many presents to their king, which he could get by coming on board the next day. The next morning the king came on board, and, as was desired, the boy was brought with him, who was among the first who came. Soon as the boy was fairly on board, the crew rushed upon the unsuspecting natives, and drove what few had come on board over into the sea. Bearing full, they left the harbor.
The boy's story was simply as follows:
The ship came into the harbor, where she lay, the captain thinking to go on shore the next morning.—About midnight the natives came upon it in so still a manner, that the watch upon deck did not hear them. Those they killed, and as the others attempted to come above they were killed also. The whole crew except six men and the boy were killed on board; these were taken on shore, and the men killed.
The boy was saved by an old woman who took a great liking to him. The bodies of those killed on board were brought on shore, and eaten with the others. All articles of value were taken off, and the ship burned.
Parting with the James Calvin, we stood for the Duke of York's Island, taking on our way one small whale and three black fish.
Arriving at the island, we lowered away and went on shore, taking our guns with us. We shot many birds of different kinds, among them was one called a Mingo, a large and beautiful bird; the back and top of his wings were a dark gray, the under part of the body and wings were a bright red. While sailing over our heads he presented a most beautiful appearance.
We saw no marks of cultivation whatever upon the island, there being nothing but a long, low, sandy beach, with here and there a grove of cocoa-nuts and palm trees. We rowed around two or three miles, and found a little harbor with a beautiful white coral beach. A short distance from the shore we found a mound, which was evidently the resting-place of some person whom Fate appointed to die at that desolate place.
This was made by laying a wall of stone about seven feet long and two wide, being about fifteen inches high. The stones were laid very closely together, so as to keep out the land lobsters and crabs that swarmed the island.