Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/110

44 gun-room, when an Indian caught hold of him by the hand: he luckily escaped from his grasp, ran down the scuttle, and reached the gun-room, where he found the cooper: but considering the magazine the safest place, they ran immediately there; and having consulted what was best to be done, they came to the resolution of blowing up the vessel, and, like Samson of old, to sacrifice themselves and their enemies together. Bent upon this bold and heroic enterprise, Mr. Mariner repaired to the gun-room to procure flint and steel, but was not able to get at the muskets without making too much noise, for the arm-chest lay beneath the boarding-pikes, which had carelessly been thrown down the scuttle the preceding evening: the noise occasioned by clearing them away, as the uproar above began to cease, would undoubtedly have attracted the notice of the Indians; he therefore returned to the magazine, where he found the cooper in great distress from the apprehension of his impending fate. Mr. Mariner next proposed that they should go at once upon deck, and be killed quickly, while their enemies were still hot with