Alabama state intelligencer., 1831-10-01

coman1ing them, and he was patticularl, cautioned to be on his guard, a caution how ever, which he disregardedj for shortly after. wards the natives made a general and sue. cesssful attack on them from the woods-twc ot the crew that were in the jolly boat had just time to shove her off. When out of the reach of the arr ows, they laid by and took on board three of the crew that had saved them selves in the water. The whale boat des- patched by the Captain with ten armed men, on hearing the war whoop of the natives. saved two more of them; the remainder were all massacred with the exception of one whose fate we shall hereafter mention.
 Captain morell, with a diminished crew, found it impossible to prosecute the objects of his voyage, and he therefore determined to return to minilla, to obtain reinforcement of men. Helarrivcd there on the 25th June, and having shipped fourteen more men, sailed a. gain on the 9th August. On the 18th Sep tember he once more reached the island where he had lost so many of his crew, and which, from that circumstance, he called Massacre islands; but he had no sooner come to an an- chor that he was attacked by the natives in their canoes; brisk fire from the schooner, howeyS. oempelled them to fetrsat tgfiat ,u, un on91th} lxyrf in which to the great joy of all on board the schooner, they found one of their old crew, Leonard Shaw, who at the time of the massacre had hidden himself in the woods, and escaped He had remained concealed ffteeen days, subsisting on only four cocoa nuts, when he was discovered by the natives and cruelty wounded.
 From this man Captain Morell learned, that the skulls of thirteen of his men that were killed, were hanging at the Chiefs door, and .i.. 41s TaI the natives had consulted together on killing and eating Shaw himself, but delayed it in consequence of the absence of some of their chiefs They afterwards sent him on board with proposals, of pacific nature.
 Shaw, while on the island, was employed by the natives in manufacturing knives out of the iron they had obtained from the vessel.- He was badly treated by them, they giving him hardly enough to live upon. He repre- sents the whole of the island as under the sway of one chief, who rules with absolute power; each of the other islands has a subordinate chief, with many others dependent on him. - He says he could discover among them no trace of religion, no appearance of any thing like reverence for superior power The chiefs indulge in polygamy, but the generality of the men have but one wife. The women are reserved and chaste, their husbands killing them without any scruple on the least suspi- cion of infidelity Shaw thinks they kill all the children except those of the chief, he having perceived none other amongst them. Their huts are made of bamboos, and the leaves of the cocoa nut trees, on the fruit oi which, and the banana and fish, they entire ly subsist. The islands arc entirely covered with wood, few foot-paths only running through them. The huts are built in small l Il. -AI-- C-.. of fishing.
 The l, ngth of this article warns us to bring it to close; we therefore conhne ourselves to but one other encounter with the natives Captain Morell in order to protect the peo- pie at work on shore, caused kind of bat tery to be costructed on the top of two large trees, about 40 feet from the ground. anc mounted it with four brass swivels; sixteer of his best men were placed in it with mus kets and provisions; but 1t was hardly com pleted when the natives came down in large force and attacked the men below: the fire from the battery, to their great surprise opened upon them, and compelled them to re- treat with severe loss.
 | We pass over the purchase of the Massa ere Island from its chief, his death and many other details. No exertions of Captain Mo rell could pacify the natives; they continued to persevere in their hostilitles, notwlthstand
 ing the great loss of lives they sustained, ant the burning of their huts, and eventually com pelled him to give up the hope of obtaining cargo of fish from the reaf of rocks whlcf bounds their shore.
 Captain Morell still prosecuted his voy age, and made many other important disco veries; they arc, however. his property, ant we therefore abstain from noticing them, il the hope that he will at another day real that advantage from them, which, during this voyage, has been denied him.
 One of the natives from the Massacre Is
 lands, and another from another Island sub sequently discovered, have been brough home by Captain Morell. As may be sup posed, they are objects of much curiosity They will be exhibited tomorrow at Tam many Hall. His intention is to return wltl them to their homes, when he hopes that th treatment they have received at his hand will ensure him better reception from thei countrymen, and that the knowledge the. will have acquired here will be the means introducing amongst them some of the advan taees of civilization.