128 Ralph S. Kuykendall English sailors were employed on the beach salting the pork and preparing it for shipment. Several of the crew with an officer had been sent for salt to a place some dis- tance away. The Englishmen being thus scattered and the vessels almost deserted, except for the two captains, who remained on board, a large double Canoe, full of men, rang'd up along side the Prince Laboo, & struck her small boat, that lay along side, & somewhat damag'd her upon which Capt. Gordon run to ye gangway to blame them for it, & the Indian on board taken that ad- vantage pitchd him overboard, & there they im- mediatly dispatchd him. they directly repair'd along side the Jack'all, where Capt. Brown was walking the poop, by himself, when one of ye Savages gets up on the poop, & made a pass at the Good old Captain with an Iron dagger, which he fend'd of, & seized a Swivell worm & drove the fellow of, he was soon follow'd by a number more, which the Captain likewise beat of, but at last he was overpower'd by numbers & receiv'd a fatal stab in the back of the neck & was pitch'd from the poop on to the main deck where he soon ex- pir'd, & so by there savage artfulness they got possession of both vessells, without the loss of a man on there side, in the meantime they had seiz'd the Boats & People that where on shore. 38 Greatheed, whose account, while less detailed than Boit's graphic narrative, agrees with it in the main, adds that when Mr. Lamport, the officer who had been sent for salt, arrived at the place appointed, his boat was at- tacked and himself and the crew knocked down and cruelly treated by the mob, till they gave up resistance. They were then led captive to a hut about a mile distant, where they learned the mur- der of their captains, and other events. They were stripped, and remained one hour and a half in expectation of death, till they were freed from it by an order which Taetere [Kalanikupule] sent 38 Boit.
