Chapter 27 - Page 2

they would spread the notice, and she had
spoken the Dragon, which had gone in quest of the Jonas and the Abraham,
both of which were a few leagues to windward. Capt. Betts, however, had
come on board the Anne, and now joined his old friend, the governor,
when about four leagues from the cape. Glad enough was Mark Woolston to
meet with the Anne, and to find so good an assistant on board her. That
schooner, which was regularly pilot-boat built, was the fastest craft
about the islands, and it was a great matter to put head-quarters on
board her. The Martha came next, and the whale-boat was sent in to find
that sloop, which was up at the Reef, and to order her out immediately
to join the governor. Pennock was the highest in authority, in the
group, after the governor, and a letter was sent to him, apprising him
of all that was known, and exhorting him to vigilance and activity;
pointing out, somewhat in detail, the different steps he was to take, in
order that no time might be lost. This done, the governor stood in
towards Whaling Bight, in order to ascertain the state of things at that
point.

The alarm had been given all over the group, and when the Anne reached
her place of destination, it was ascertained that the men had been
assembled under arms, and every precaution taken. But Whaling Bight was
the great place of resort of the Kannakas, and there were no less than
forty of those men there at that moment, engaged in trying out oil, or
in fitting craft for the fisheries. No one could say which side these
fellows would take, should it appear that their proper chiefs were
engaged with the strangers; though, otherwise, the colonists counted on
their assistance with a good deal of confidence. On all ordinary
occasions, a reasonably fair understanding existed between the colonists
and the Kannakas. It is true, that the former were a little too fond of
getting as much work as possible, for rather small compensations, out of
these semi-savages; but, as articles of small intrinsic value still went
a great way in these bargains, no serious difficulty had yet arisen out
of the different transactions. Some persons thought that the Kannakas
had risen in their demands, and put less value on a scrap of old iron,
than had been their original way of thinking, now that so many of their
countrymen had been back and forth a few times, between the group and
other parts of the world; a circumstance that was very naturally to be
expected. But the governor knew mankind too well not to understand that
all unequal associations lead to discontent. Men may get to be so far
accustomed to inferior stations, and to their duties and feelings, as to
consider their condition the result of natural laws; but the least taste
of liberty