1767. Auguft. the inhabitants, at a place about fourteen or fifteen miles to the weftward of the fhip's ftaThurfd. 13. tion, where he had founded fome bays, he came to a grappling, and veered the boat to the beach, where he landed with four men, armed with mufquets and pistols: that the Indians at first were afraid of him, and retired, but that foon after they came down to him, and he gave them fome beads and other trifles, with which they seemed to be much pleased: that he then made figns to them for fome coccoa-nuts, which they brought him, and with great appearance of friendship and hofpitality, gave him a broiled fifh and fome boiled yams: that he then proceeded with his party to the houses, which, he faid, were not more than fifteen or twenty yards from the water fide, and soon after saw a great number of canoes coming round the weftern point of the bay, and many Indians among trees that being alarmed at these appearances, he hastily left the house where they had been received, and with the men made the best of his way towards the boat; but that, before he could get on board, the Indians attacked as well those that were with him as thofe that were in the boat, both from the canoes and the fhore. Their number, he faid, was between three and four hundred: their weapons were bows and arrows, the bows were fix feet five inches long, and the arrows four feet four, which they dif the charged 1 1767. Auguft. charged in platoons, as regularly as the best disciplined troops in Europe: that it being neceffary to defend himself and his people when Thurid. 3. they were thus attacked, they fired among the Indians to favour their getting into their boat, and did great execution, killing many and wounding more: that they were not however difcouraged, but continued to press forward, ftill discharging their arrows by platoons in almoft one continued flight: that the grappling being foul, occafioned a delay in hauling off the boat, during which time he, and half of the boat's crew, were defperately wounded: that at laft they cut the rope, and ran off under their forefail, ftill keeping up their fire with blunderbuffes, each loaded with eight or ten piftol balls, which the Indians returned with their arrows, thofe on fhore wading after them breaft-high into the fea: when they had got clear of thefe, the canoes purfued them with great fortitude and vigour, till one of them was funk, and the numbers on board the rest greatly reduced by the fire, and then they returned to the fhore. Such was the ftory of the mafter, who, with three of my beft feamen, died fome time afterwards of the wounds they had received; but culpable as he appears to have been by his own account, he appears to have been still more fo by the testimony of those who furvived him. Auguft. 1767. They faid, that the Indians behaved with the greatest confidence and friendship till he gave Thurfd. 13. them juft caufe of offence, by ordering the : people that were with him, who had been regaled in one of their houses, to cut down a cocoa-nut tree, and infifting upon the execution of his order, notwithstanding the displeasure which the Indians ftrongly expreffed upon the occafion as foon as the tree fell, all of them except one, who feemed to be a perfon of authority, went away; and in a fhort time a great number of them were observed to draw together into a body among the trees, by a midshipman who was one of the party that were on fhore, and who immediately acquainted the mafter with what he had feen, and told him, that from the behaviour of the people he imagined an attack was intended: that the master made light of the intelligence, and instead of repairing immediately to the boat, as he was urged to do, fired one of his pistols at a mark : that the Indian who had till that time continued with them then left them abruptly, and joined the body in the wood: that the mafter, even after this, by an infatuation that is altogether unaccountable, continued to trifle away his time on fhore, and did not attempt to recover the boat till the attack was begun. As the expedition to find a better place for the fhip had iffued thus unhappily, I deter 1767. Auguft. mined to try what could be done, where we lay; the next day therefore, the ship was brought down by the ftern, as far as we could Friday 14. effect it, and the carpenter, the only one of the crew who was in tolerable health, caulked the bows, as far down as he could come at the bottom; and though he did not quite stop the leak, he very much reduced it. In the afternoon a fresh galé fet right into the bay, which made the fhip ride with her ftern very near the fhore, and we obferved a great number of the natives fculking among the trees upon the beach, who probably expected that the wind would have forced the fhip on fhore. The next morning, the weather being fine, Saturd, 15. we veered the ship close in shore, with a spring upon our cable, fo that we brought our broadfide to bear upon the watering-place, for the protection of the boats that were to be employed there. As there was reason to suppose that the natives whom we had feen among the trees the night before, were not now far diftant, I fired a couple of shot into the wood, before I fent the waterers afhore; I alfo fent the lieutenant in the. cutter, well manned and armed, with the boat that carried them, and ordered him and his people to keep on board, and lie close to the beach to cover the watering-boat while fhe was loading, and to keep discharging mufquets into the wood on each fide of the party that were filling F 3 Auguft. 1767. filling the water. Thefe orders were well executed, the beach was fteep, fo that the boats Saturd. 15. could lie clofe to the people that were at work, and the lieutenant from the cutter fired three or four vollies of fmall arms into the woods before any of the men went on fhore, and none of the natives appearing, the waterers landed and went to work. But notwithstanding all these precau tions, before they had been on shore a quarter of an hour, a flight of arrows was discharged among them, one of which dangerously wounded a man that was filling water in the breast, and another ftuck into a bareca on which Mr. Pitcairn was fitting. The people on board the cutter immediately fired feveral vollies of fmall arms into that part of the wood from which the arrows came, and I recalled the boats that I might more effectually drive the Indians from their ambuscades with grape-fhot from the fhip's guns. When the boats and people were on board, we began to fire, and foon after faw about two hundred men rush out of the woods, and run along the beach with the utmost preci pitation. We judged the coaft to be now effectually cleared, but in a little time we perceived that a great number had got together on the westermost point of the bay, where they pro bably thought themselves beyond our reach to convince them therefore of the contrary, I ordered a gun to be fired at them with round fhot; |