The first that fell was Mr. Lewis, the ship's clerk. He was leaning,
with folded arms, over a bale of blankets, engaged in bargaining, when
he received a deadly stab in the back, and fell down the companion-way.
Mr. M'Kay, who was seated on the taffrail, sprang on his feet, but was
instantly knocked down with a war-club and flung backwards into the sea,
where he was despatched by the women in the canoes.
In the meantime Captain Thorn made desperate fight against fearful odds.
He was a powerful as well as a resolute man, but he had come upon
deck without weapons. Shewish, the young chief singled him out as his
peculiar prey, and rushed upon him at the first outbreak. The captain
had barely time to draw a clasp-knife with one blow of which he laid
the young savage dead at his feet. Several of the stoutest followers
of Shewish now set upon him. He defended himself vigorously, dealing
crippling blows to right and left, and strewing the quarter-deck with
the slain and wounded. His object was to fight his way to the cabin,
where there were fire-arms; but he was hemmed in with foes, covered with
wounds, and faint with loss of blood. For an instant he leaned upon the
tiller wheel, when a blow from behind, with a war-club, felled him to
the deck, where he was despatched with knives and thrown overboard.
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