erefore his stay among
them was but short. When he reported this circumstance to the officers
at the fort, they recollected that Owhaw had foretold, that in four days
we should fire our great guns; and as this was the eve of the third day,
the situation in which Tubourai Tamaide and his family had been found,
alarmed them. The centries therefore were doubled at the fort, and the
gentlemen slept under arms; at two in the morning, Mr Banks himself went
round the point, but found every thing so quiet, that he gave up all
suspicions of mischief intended by the natives as groundless. We had,
however, another source of security; our little fortification was now
complete. The north and south sides consisted of a bank of earth four
feet and a half high on the inside, and a ditch without ten feet broad
and six deep; on the west side, facing the bay, there was a bank of
earth four feet high, and pallisadoes upon that, but no ditch, the works
here being at high-water mark; on the east side, upon the bank of the
river, was placed a double row of water casks, filled with water; and
as this was the weakest side, the two four-pounders were planted there,
and six swivel guns were mounted so as to command the only two avenues
from the woods. Our garrison consisted of about five-and-forty men with
small arms, including the officers, and the gentlemen who resided on
shore; and our centries were as well relieved as on the best regulated
frontier in Europe.

We continued our vigilance the next day, though we had no particular
reason to think it necessary; but about ten o'clock in the morning,
Tomio came running to the tents, with a mixture of grief and fear in her
countenance, and taking Mr Banks, to whom they applied in every
emergency and distress, by the arm, intimated that Tubourai Tamaide was
dying, in consequence of something which our people had given him to
eat, and that he must instantly go with her to his house. Mr Banks set
out without delay, and found his Indian friend leaning his head against
a post, in an attitude of the utmost languor and despondency; the people
about him intimated that he had been vomitting, and brought out a leaf
folded up with great care, which they said contained some of the poison,
by the deleterious effects of which he was now dying. Mr Banks hastily
opened the leaf, and upon examining its contents found them to be no
other than a chew of tobacco, which the chief had begged of some of our
people, and wh