h the butt-end of a musket.

Captain Cook now felt that the safety of the party depended on prompt,
decisive action, for the more he exercised forbearance the more did the
savages threaten. He therefore fired his second barrel, which was
loaded with ball, and killed one of the foremost.

A general attack with stones immediately followed. This was met by a
discharge of muskets from the marines and the people in the boats.
Contrary to expectation, the natives stood the fire with great firmness.
From the accounts given of the transaction, it would appear that all
the marines had discharged their muskets--none having reserved fire.
This was a fatal mistake, because, before they had time to reload the
natives rushed upon them in overwhelming numbers, and with fearful
yells. Then followed a scene of indescribable horror and confusion.

Captain King, Cook's intimate friend, says, in regard to this closing
scene, that four of the marines were cut off among the rocks in their
retreat, and fell a sacrifice to the fury of the enemy; three more were
dangerously wounded. The lieutenant, who had received a stab between
the shoulders with a _pahooa_, having fortunately reserved his fire,
shot the man who had wounded him just as he was going to repeat the
blow. The unfortunate Captain Cook, when last seen distinctly, was
standing at the water's edge, calling out to the men in the boats to
cease firing and to pull in. If it be true, as some of those who were
present have imagined, that the marines and boatmen had fired without
his orders, and that he was desirous of preventing further bloodshed, it
is not improbable that his humanity, on this occasion, proved fatal to
him; for it was remarked that while he faced the natives none of them
had offered him any violence, but that having turned about to give his
order to the boats, he was stabbed in the back, and fell with his face
into the water.

On seeing him fall the savages gave a great shout, rushed upon him, and
dragged him on shore. They then surrounded him, and, snatching the
daggers out of each other's hands, showed a savage eagerness to have a
share in his destruction.

"Thus," continues King, "fell our great and excellent commander! After
a life of so much distinguished and successful enterprise, his death, as
far as regards himself, cannot be reckoned premature, since he lived to
finish the great work for which he seems to have been designed, and was
rather removed f