ally the case or not I could not make
out; but, after cross-questioning the two natives, I came to the
conclusion that he himself had no hand in the massacre, and was entirely
ignorant of it till afterwards. What has become of poor Barber and his
boat's crew I am anxious to ascertain; but he would have had a fearfully
long passage to make to any other island, and I'm afraid that he and his
companions must have perished from hunger and thirst before they could
have reached any friendly shore.

"Having fallen in shortly after I heard this with the _Lydia_ and
_Pearl_, I communicated the intelligence to them, and we determined to
put in here to ascertain the truth of the story.

"Now you have come we shall be sufficiently strong-handed both to defend
ourselves from the natives, and to recover the _Harriet's_ cargo if we
cannot raise her."

Captain Hawkins at once entered into Captain Rounds' views, and they
agreed the next morning with their brother captains to set to work.
Captain Rounds, who was a very ingenious man, had a diving-bell
constructed out of a cask, with pipes to lead the air into it.

Proceeding with the boats, we found the ship sunk in six fathoms of
water at a spot Jackey and Tubbs pointed out. They willingly agreed to
descend in the diving-bell, and Brown and another man also went down in
it. It was then found that the ship had been set on fire, but she had
sunk before the flames had reached the cargo. It was calculated that
there were one thousand six hundred barrels of oil in her.

Her figure-head and other articles were got up, thus clearly identifying
her as the unfortunate _Harriet_.

The captains proposed raising her, and dividing the oil between them;
but after a great deal of consultation it was considered that they had
better give up the plan, as it would have occupied a long time, and
caused a difficulty on their arrival at home as to whether they had a
right to possess themselves of it. Thus the results of many a hard
month's labour were lost.

King George watched our proceedings with much interest, generally
hovering about the boats in his canoe while we were at work. Perhaps he
thought from the first that we should not succeed, though I think we
should have done so had it been desirable to make the attempt. As soon
as the undertaking was abandoned, the other vessels, which had only come
in for water and provisions, sailed, and we were left alone in the
harbour. The king, who d