April' ®00<i thickeft, but happily hurt nobody. A third naufquett
— — with fmall Ihot was then fired at them, upon which one o f
Saturday-28. . , r
them threw another lance, and both immediately ran awayr
i f we had purfued, we might probably have taken one of
them, but Mr. Banks fuggefting that the lances might be
poifoned, I- thought it not prudent to venture into the woods.
We repaired immediately to the huts, in one of which we
found the children, who had hidden themfelves behind a
Ihield and fome bark; we^peeped at them, but left-them in-
their retreat, without their knowing that they had been dif-
covered,- and we threw into the houfe when we went away
fome beads, ribbons, pieces of cloth, and other prefents;
which we hoped would procurers the good-wili of the-inhabitants
when- they fhould return ; but the lances which
we found lying about, we' took away with us, tor the number
©f about fifty : they were from fix to fifteen feet long, and-
all of them had four prongs in’ the manner o f a fiffi-gig, each
of which was pointed with fifli-bone, and very {harp: we
obferved that they were fmeared-with a vifcous fubftance of
a green colour, which favoured the opinion of their being
poifoned, though we afterwards difco-vered that it was a mif-
take: they appeared, by the fea-weed that we found flicking
to them, to have been ufed in ftriking filh. Upon examining
the canoes that lay upon the beach, we found them to be the
worft we had ever feen: they were between twelve and-
fourteen feet long, and made of the bark of a tree in one
piece, which was drawn together and tied up at each end,
the middle being kept’ open by flicks which were placed
acrofs them from gunwale to gunwale as thwarts. We then
fearched for frefli water, but found none, except in a fmall
hole which had been dug in the fand.
Having reimbarked in our boat, we depofited our lances
on board the {hip, and then went over to the north point of
the
$
;the bay, where we had feen feveral of the inhabitants when
v?e were entering it, but which we now found totally de-
■ ferted. Here however we found freffi water, which trickled
down from the top of the rocks, and flood in pools among
the hollows at the bottom,; but it was -fituated fo as not to
be procured for our ufe without difficulty.
1770.
April.
Saturday zS.
In the morning, therefore, I fent a party of men to that Sunday 29.
part of the ffiore where we firft landed, with orders to dig
holes in the fand where the water might gather; but going
•afliore myfelf with the Gentlemen foon afterwards, we
found, upon a more diligent fearch, a -fmall ftream, more
-than fufficient for our purpofe.
Upon vifiting the hut where we had feen the children, we
were greatly mortified to find that the beads and ribbons
which we had left there the night before, had not been
moved from their places; and that not an Indian was to be
feen.
Having fent fame empty water-cafks on ffiore, and left a
party of men to cut wood, I went myfelf in the pinnace t©
found, and examine the bay; during my excurfion I faw feveral
of the natives, but they all fled at my approach. In
.one of the places where I landed I found feveral fmall fires,
and freffi mufcles broiling upon them ; here alfo I found
Lome o f the largeft oyfter-Ihells I had ever feen.
As foon as the wooders and waterers came on board to dinner,
ten or twelve of the natives came down to the place,
and looked with great attention and curiofity at the calks,
hut did not touch them : they took away however the canoes
which lay near the landing-place, and again difappeared.
In the afternoon, when our people were again affiore, fix-
teen or eighteen Indians, all armed, came boldly within
about an hundred yards -of them, and then flopped : two of
M 2 them