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j 7 7 3» bcloi'igiftg to the watch j were on deck* this accident is neither mentioned in the log-book of the ffiip, nor in any of the journals yet publifhed. It feemed in the beginning as if both ihips would ftrike with their broadfides againft each other, but direiftly upon that the Adventure dropped aftern, and with the point o f her bowfprit came within two Or three yards at -leaft of our mizen-ihrouds, and fo made a flourifh over our taffarel and enfign-ftaff. Upon this, an officer who belonged to another watch immediately ob- ferved, that it was in the higheft degree imprudent, and without the leaft ffiow o f reafon, to fail up to each other in fuch a briik gale and high furge; to which the officer o f the watch made no farther reply, than juft to .repeat feveral times with great feeming fatisfa&ion, “ It is all over now.” Indeed, they both allowed, that-we were very near fuffering ihipwreek in the middle o f the ocean. The other accident I ffiall relate, concerned myfelf alone. Once when I was on a botanical excurfion in Huaheine, fome Indians fell upon me and plundered -me; leaving the upper part of my body quite naked, with feveral marks o f violence on my head and breaft. This incident proceeded partly from a fancy the'Indians 'had taken to my clothes, and partly from.a delire of revenge; Captain Cook having juft before been obliged to drive away an impudent Indian by force, and take his weapons from him. We were feparated from the Adventure on the coaft o f New Zealand by a ftorm, and never faw her afterwards. She came to anchor in Qyeen . Charlotte's-found, before before we went from thence, where ihe had the misfor- mm Auguft. tune to lofe her whole boat’s crew, coniifting o f ten men, who were killed, roafted, and eaten by the cannibals. Upon which ihe fet out on her way home, and arrived in Europe a year before the ffiip commanded by Captain Cook. N 2 S E C T .


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