From the 28th of April the natives had manifested none but the most friendly feelings; no single disturbance had occurred; but on the 9th of May, while D'Urville, with almost all his officers, went to pay a visit to one of the leading chiefs, named Palou, the reception accorded to them was marked by a most unusual reserve, altogether inconsistent with the noisy and enthusiastic demonstrations of the preceding days. The distrust evinced by the islanders aroused that of D'Urville, who, remembering how few were the men left on board the _Astrolabe_, felt considerable uneasiness. However, nothing unusual happened during his absence from the ship. But it was only the cowardice of Palou which had caused the failure of a conspiracy, aiming at nothing less than the massacre, at one blow, of the whole of the staff, after which there would have been no difficulty in prevailing over the crew, who were already more than half-disposed to adopt the easy mode of life of the islanders. Such at least was the conclusion the commander came to, and subsequent events showed that he was right. These apprehensions determined D'Urville to leave Tonga Tabou as quickly as possible, and on the 13th every preparation was made to set sail on the following day. The apprentice Dudemaine was walking about on the large island, whilst the apprentice Faraquet, with nine men, was engaged on the small island, Pangai Modou, in getting fresh water, or studying the tide, when Tahofa, one of the chiefs, with several other islanders, then on board the _Astrolabe_, gave a signal. The canoes pushed off at once and made for the shore. On trying to discover the cause of this sudden retreat, it was observed that the sailors on the island Pangai Modou were being forcibly dragged off by the natives. D'Urville was about to fire off a cannon, when he decided that it would be safer to send a boat to shore. This boat took off the two sailors and the apprentice Dudemaine, but was fired upon when despatched shortly afterwards to set fire to the huts, and to try to capture some natives as hostages. One native was killed and several others were wounded, whilst a corporal of the marines received such severe bayonet wounds, that he died two hours later. [Illustration: Attack from the natives of Tonga Tabou.]