dom escaped from the dexterity of his pursuers. * * * At North East harbour our boats rowed along the thick jungle, which projecting some feet from the land, grew over and touched the water, forming an impenetrable thicket, whence the savage shot his arrow in security with almost unerring aim: the boats returned with four men wounded, and disappointed in the object of their search, to find fresh water. The Commodore, with a strong party of officers and marines, landed on a small island, to which their canoes had been seen to go early on the same morning: on this spot the trees were, as on the main land, so thick, that our men could not penetrate; and as they walked round the sandy beach in search of an entrance, eleven of them received severe wounds from the arrows of the savages concealed in the wood. Some hours elapsed before they were discovered; at length, when seen in the tops of the trees, the enraged marines quickly despatched seven of them, and three were taken with their canoes. Never was man found in a more perfect state of nature: they were all mules, without a vestige of clothing; their woolly heads smeared with a red ochre, their bodies tattooed; their stature under the middling size, or about four feet seven inches. They exhibited the utmost degree of terror when brought on board, with their hands tied behind their backs, and attempted to bite all who came near them, but were pacified by kindness, and soon became so familiar as to dance in their stile to our drum and fife. We had strong suspicion of their being cannibals, some of the governor’s people at Port Cornwallis having been found murdered, and slices cut out of them, as if intended for food: they appeared apprehensive they were to meet a similar fate, and at night one of them jumped overboard and escaped; the other two, on the following day, were landed, and we saw them no more. On the recapture of Trincomalee in 1795, the possession of the Andaman islands was no longer of that advantage which they had promised to be in 1788, and the proposed naval establishment at North East harbour was laid aside. The small settlement of Port Cornwallis was retained, in order to preserve the British right to the islands, and in the course of the war our ships frequently resorted to them[1].”
Mr. Brenton continued on the East India station until Dec. 1791, at which period the Crown was ordered home, under the command of Captain Robert Manners Sutton; Commodore Cornwallis having previously shifted his broad pendant to the Minerva frigate.
Shortly after the Crown’s arrival in England (May, 1792), Mr, Brenton was placed by the late Sir Philip Affleck, then a Lord of the Admiralty, on board the Bellona 74, Captain George Wilson. In Aug. 1704, we find him joining the
- ↑ See id. pp.341–343.
