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] by the natives, and the crew inhumanly murdered.

His chief object, therefore, in going there was, in his own words, "pour venger sur les insulaires le massacre de nos compatriots;" and also to afford relief to any of the crew that might by possibility have escaped to some of the contiguous islets. On his arrival at the great western bay of the island, he found the accounts he had received were but too true; the remains of the burnt ship were still to be seen, and one of her boats was recovered, but he could not hear anything of the crew, nor whether any of them had escaped in the boats of the ship. Although his arrangements appear to have been made with the greatest judgment, yet he did not succeed in securing the principal actors in this dreadful tragedy. He, however, landed a large force, and totally destroyed their pahs or strongholds, and burnt as many of their boats as he could find, thus depriving them of the power of attacking any other vessel. He succeeded also in decoying one of their principal chiefs, named Eitouna, and two of his people on board, whom he kept as prisoners, and from whom he derived the following information respecting the circumstances which led to the unfortunate collision with the New Zealanders.

The Jean Bart arrived at Chatham Island early in May, and before she gained the anchorage several canoes belonging to the two tribes of New Zealanders who had possessed themselves of the island went alongside. It was about 2 when