as a consciousness of being innocent of
having in the least manner wilfully aided the destroyers of the lives
of our officers, and the authors of our now, truly unhappy situation.

The natives now began to help themselves to whatever articles suited
them, and when some of them began to pull the tent down, an old man
and his wife took hold of me, and after conducting me a few rods from
the tent, sat down, keeping fast hold of my hands. Under the most
fearful apprehensions I endeavoured to get from them, but they
insisted upon detaining me. I endeavoured to console myself with the
idea, that gratitude had prompted them to take care of me, as I had
frequently taken the part of this old woman, when she had been teased
by others; but alas! the reflection followed, that if this was the
case, there was a probability that not only my bosom friend, was about
to be sacrificed, but I should be left alone to drag out a weary
existence, with beings, strangers to the endearing ties which bind the
hearts of civilized man.

Whether Payne and his associates offered any resistance to the course
now pursued by the natives or not, I do not know. Suffice it to say,
that all at once my ears were astounded with the most terrifying
whoops and yells; when a massacre commenced but little exceeded by the
one perpetrated on board the Globe. Our men fled in all directions,
but met a foe at every turn. Lilliston and Joe Brown (the Sandwich
Islander,) fell within six feet of me, and as soon as down, the
natives macerated their heads with large stones. The first whom I saw
killed, was Columbus Worth. An old woman, apparently sixty years of
age, ran him through with a spear, and finished him with stones!

My protectors, for now they were truly so, shut out the scene by
laying down upon the top of me, to hide me from the view of the
merciless foe! I was however discovered, and one of the natives
attempted to get a blow at me with a handspike, which was prevented by
them; when, after a few words, he hurried away.

As soon as the work of death had been completed, the old man took me
by the hand and hurried me along towards the village. My feet were
very much laccerated in passing over the _causeways_ of sharp coral
rock, but my conductor fearing we might be pursued, hurried me onward
to the village, where we arrived about noon. In a few minutes the
wigwam or hut of the old man, was surrounded, and all seeming to talk
at once, and with great excitement