*2S& moft perfect indifference and unconcern. They fold us November. ; J
>— ~~— / many more of their weapons without making any other
satur ay 4. attempt to defraud US) for a confiderable time; at laft, however,
one of them thought fit to paddle away with two different
pieces of cloth which had been given for the fame
weapon: when he had got about an hundred yards diftance
and thought himfelf fecure of his prize, a mufket was fired
after him, which fortunately flruck the boat juft at the water’s
edge, and made two holes in her fide; this only incited
them to ply their paddles with greater activity, and the reft
of the canoes alfo made off with the utmoft expedition. As
the laft proof of our fuperiority therefore, we fired a round
fliot over them, and not a boat flopped till they got on Ihore.
About ten o’clock, I went with two boats to found the
bay, and look out for a more convenient anchoring-place,
the Mafter being in one boat and myfelf in the other. We
pulled firft over to the north fhore, from which fome canoes
came out to meet u s ; as we advanced, however, they retired,
inviting us to follow them: but, feeing them all
armed, I did not think it proper to comply, but went towards
the head of the bay, where I obferved a village upon a very
high point, fortified in the manner that has been already
defcribed, and having fixed upon an anchoring-place not far
from where the Ihip lay, I returned on board.
At three o’clock in the afternoon, I weighed, run in nearer
to the Ihore, and anchored in four fathom and an half
water, with a foft fandy bottom, the fouth point of the bay
bearing E. diftant one mile, and a river which the boats can
enter at low water S. S. E. diftant a mile and an half.
Sunday 5. In the morning, the natives came off again to the Ihip,
and we had the fatisfadlion to obferve that their behaviour
was very different from what it had been yefterday: among
5 them
R O U N D T H E WORLD. 333.
them was an old man, whom we had before remarked for
his prudence and honeftyhis name Was T o i a v a , and he
feemed to be a perfon o f a fuperior rank; in the tranfadtions
o f yefterday morning he had behaved with great propriety
and good fenfe, lying in a fmall canoe, always near the Ihip,
and treating thofe on board as if he neither intended a fraud
nor fufpedted an injury: with fome perfuafion this man and
another came on board, and ventured into the cabbin, where
I prefented each of them with a piece of Engliftx cloth and
fome fpike nails. They told us that the Indians were now
very much afraid of us, and on our part we promifed friend-
Ihip if they would behave peaceably, defiring only to pur-
chafe what they had to fell upon their own terms.
After the natives had left us, I went with the pinnace and
long-boat into the river with a defign to haul the feine, and
fent the Mafter in the yawl to found the bay and dredge for
fifti. The Indians who were on one fide of the river, expref-
fed their friendftiip by all the figns they could devife, beckoning
us to land among them -, but we chofe to go alhore on
the other fide, as the fituation was more convenient for
hauling the feine and lhooting birds, of which we faw great
numbers of various kinds: the Indians with much perfuafion,
about noon, ventured over to us. With the feine we
had very little fuccefs, catching only a few mullets, neither
did we get any thing by the trawl or the dredge, except a
few Ihells ; but we Ihot feveral birds, moft of them refem-
bling fea-pies, except that they had black plumage, and
red bills and feet. While we were abfent with our guns, the
people who ftaid by the boats faw two of the Indians quarrel
and fight: they began the battle with their lances, but fome
old men interpofed and took them away, leaving them to
decide the difference, like Englilhmen, with their lifts: they
boxed with great vigour and obftinacy for fome time, but by
U u a degrees