Yet amidst this state of endurance and disappointment, in hearing repeatedly of the arrival of ships at the north and south, most of which proved to be idle reports, while expectation was almost wearied out in looking for them, we did not wholly despond, relying on the mercy of the Supreme Being, to offer up to whom our devotions on the days appointed for His worship was our chief consolation and support, though we were sometimes obliged, by our taskmasters, to infringe upon the Sabbath, which was to me a source of much regret. We were, nevertheless, treated at times with much kindness by Maquina, who would give us a plenty of the best that he had to eat, and occasionally, some small present of cloth for a garment, promising me that, if any ship should arrive within a hundred miles of Nootka, he would send a canoe with a letter from me to the captain, so that he might come to our release. These flattering promises and marks of attention were, however, at those times when he thought himself in personal danger from a mutinous spirit, which the scarcity of provisions had excited among the natives, who, like true savages, imputed all their public calamities, of whatever kind, to the misconduct of their chief, or when he was apprehensive of an attack from some of the other tribes, who were irritated with him for cutting off the _Boston_, as it had prevented ships from coming to trade with them, and were constantly alarming him with idle stories of vessels that were preparing to come against him and exterminate both him and his people. At such times, he made us keep guard over him both night and day, armed with cutlasses and pistols, being apparently afraid to trust any of his own men. At one time, it was a general revolt of his people that he apprehended; then three of his principal chiefs, among whom was his elder brother, had conspired to take away his life; and at length he fancied that a small party of Klaooquates, between whom and the Nootkians little friendship subsisted, had come to Nootka, under a pretence of trade, for the sole purpose of murdering him and his family, telling us, probably to sharpen our vigilance, that their intention was to kill us likewise; and so strongly were his fears excited on this occasion, that he not only ordered us to keep near him armed by day, whenever he went out, and to patrol at night before his house while they remained, but to continue the same guard for three days after they were gone, and to fire, at one and at four in the morning, one of the great guns, to let them know, if, as he suspected, they were lurking in the neighbourhood, that he was on his guard.