* g | C A P T A I N C A R T E R E T ' S V O Y A G E
1767. hofpitality, gave: him a broiled fifli arid feme boiled yamse
, that he then proceeded with his party to the houfes, which»
Thurfday 13. he'faid, were not more than fifteen or twenty yards from
the water fide, and foon after faw a great number of canoes
coming round the weftern point of the bay, and many Indians
among the trees : that being alarmed at thefe appearances,
he haftily left the houfe where they had been received,
and with the men, made the beft o f his way towards
the bo at; but that, before he could get on board, the In,
dians attacked as well thofe that were with, him- as thofs
that were in the boat, both from the canoes- and the-Ihore,
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
difeharged in platoons,, as regularly as the beft difeiplined
.troops in Europe: that it being neceffary to defend himfelf
and his people when 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 difeouraged, but. continued to
prefs forward,, ftill difeharging,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 boafs c rew,, were defperately
wounded: that at laft they: cut the., rope, and ran off under
their forefail, ftill keeping, up their fire with blunderbufles,
each loaded with eight or ten p.iftol balls, which the Indians
returned with their arrows, thofe. on Ihore wading after
them breaft high into the fea : when they had got clear of
thefe, the canoes- purfued them witlr great fortitude and
vigour, till one of them was funk, and the numbers on board
the reft greatly reduced by the fire, and then they returned
to the fhore.
Such
Such was the ftory of the Matter, who with three o f 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 ftill more fo by the
teftimony of thofe who furvived him. They faid, that the
Indians behaved with the greateft confidence and friendfhip
till he gave them juft caufe of offence, by ordering the
people that were with him, who had been regaled in one of
their houfes, to cut down a cocoa-nut tree, and infilling
upon the execution of his order, notwithftanding the dif-
pleafure which the Indians ftrongly expreffed upon the oc-
cafion: as foon as the tree fell, all of them except one, who
feemed to be a perfon o f authority, went aw a y ; and in a
fhort time a great number o f them were obferved to draw
together into a body among the trees, by a Midlhipman
who was one of the party that were on Ihore, and who immediately
acquainted the Matter with what he had feen, and
told him, that from the behaviour o f the people he imagined
an attack was intended: that the Mafter made light of the
intelligence, and inftead of repairing immediately to the
boat, as he was urged to do, fired one of his piftols at a
m a rk : 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 Ihore, and did not attempt to recover the boat
till the attack was begun.
As the expedition to find a better place for the lhip had
iffued thus unhappily, I determined to try what could be
done, where we la y ; the next day therefore, the lhip Friday 14.
was brought down by the ftern, as far as we could
effedl it, and the carpenter, the only one of the crew who
Von. I. Z z was