his feizing the fpear, he in a great meafure parried the blow, and de-
ftroyed its force; but on its being inftantly repeated, he received a very
deep wound in the upper part of his thigh, which was little fhor.t o f being
mortal. George Bridgeman was alfo badly wounded lower down
in the thigh, by a fpear that paffed quite through, from one fide to
the other. I had the fatisfaftion however to learn from Mr. Menzies,
after he had drefled the wounds, that he confidered neither of them likely
to be attended with any prefent danger, nor with confequences that
would be inconvenient hereafter.
Betton and Bridgeman had both received their wounds as I was returning
the fecond time to. the ftern of the boat, and juft before that I
was compelled to give the order to fire; the former as above ftated, and
the latter in preventing thofe in the large canoe, lying acrofs our boat’s
bows, from urilhipping one of the wall-pieces. Their wounds being
drefled, and births as convenient as eircumftances would admit, one in
each boat, being made for our unfortunate Ihip-mates, we departed,
giving the point on which we had landed the name of E scape P oint ,
fituated in latitude 55* 37', longitude 228° 30'; and to a fmall opening;
about a league to the northward of this point, the name of T r a it o r ’s
Go v e ; thefe treacherous people having from thence made their firft
appearance.
From Lieutenant Swaine and Mr. Menzies I learned, that when
thefe audacious people firft approached them in the launch, they behaved
with the greateft friendlinefs and good humour, offering their fkins
for fale, two of which were thrown into the launch; and in return
they accepted any thing that was given them with apparent fatisfaftion.
In confequence of the friendly intercourfe that had taken place, and the
avidity of the Indians in their commercial purfuits, they prefled on the
boat to take hold of her, but on this being objefted to, and the canoes
obliged to keep at a refpeftable diftance, fome little difcontent was ob-
ferved to Ihew itfelf amongft them. This was attributed to their great ea-
gemefs for trading, until the canoe conducted by the old virago, who was
the only female of the party, finding the launch would not comply with
their felicitations to flop and trade, paddled acrofs the bow of the boat
with
R O U N D T H E W O R L D .
with the intention of flopping her progrefs. On this occafion a mulket
was prefented, with menaces that had the defired effeft of making her
drop a-ftern; much againfl the will of the old lhrew, whofe defigns were
evidently not o f the molt friendly nature. ■
It was now deemed expedient to be vigilantly upon their guard,
to have all their arms at hand, and to charge fuch as were unloaded
; which was done in the moft private way, left any alarm fhould
be given to the Indians, who were kept by figns at a proper diftance,
and only one canoe at a time allowed to come near enough to receive
the prefents that were offered; thefe were accepted with great civility,
and the general tenor o f their conduft betokened a friendly difpofi-
tion. In this humour, to all appearance, they paddled haftily towards
the yawl, feemingly in confequence of the invitation of their comrades,
who were by this time aflembled about our boat. Notwithftanding
they were obferved by the gentlemen in the launch to ufe uncommon
exertions for the purpofe of reaching the yawl, yet their efforts were at
firft attributed to diverfion, or eagernefs to arrive at a better market;
until they obferved their fpears to be in motion, when they loft no time
in coming to our relief.
The conduft of thefe people, fo unlike that of any of the natives
we had hitherto met with, inclines the mind to advert to fome caufe
that could have produced a deportment fo oppofite to that which we
had in general experienced. I was apprehenfive at firft, that during
my abfence from the boat fome offence, however inadvertently, had been
given; but on inquiry, nothing of the fort appeared to have happened;
on the contrary, to the moment of my return from the fhore, the Indians
had fpared no pains to imprefs us with the moft favorable idea of
their good intentions, by frequently uttering the word “ Wacon,” figni-
fying in their language, friendfhip. Their attack upon us fhould therefore
appear, either to have been planned on their firft feeing us, or determined
upon in confequence of our temporizing conduft, which
it is eafy to imagine they would interpret into fear of their fuperior
numbers. Whether their motives were rather to take revenge on us
for injuries they may have fuftained from other civilized vifitors;
3 A 2 or
3%
■793-
Auguft.