■ 77+- known to his countrymen. For as foon as he landed, we obferv-
. Au£U‘1' , edhim to go firft to the one party, and then to the other; nor
Saturday 6. wag hCj ever feen by us with any thing like a weapon
in his hand. After this, three fellows came in a canoe
under the Hern, one of them brandilking a club, with which
he ftruck the fhip’s fide, and committed other adfcs of defiance,
but at laft offered to exchange it for a firing of beads,
and fome other trifles. Thefe were fent down to him by a
lin e ; but the moment they were in his poffeflion, he and
his companions paddled off in all hafte, without giving the
club or any thing elfe in return. This was what I expected,
and indeed what I was not forry for, as I wanted an opportunity
toJhew the multitude on fhore, the effeft of our firearms,
without materially hurting any of them. Having a
fowling-piece loaded with fmall-fliot (N° 3.) I gave the fellow
the contents ; and, when they were above mufquet-
lhot off, I ordered fome o f the mufquetoons, or wall-pieces, to
be fired, which made them leap out o f the canoe, keep under
heroff-fide, and fwim with her afhore. This tranfaftion feemed
to make little or no impreffion on the people there. On the
contrary, they began to halloo, and to make fport of it.
After mooring thé fhip, by four anchors, with her broad-
fide to the landing-place, hardly mufquet-fhot off, and
placing our artillery in fUch a manner as to command the
whole harbour, I embarked with the marines, and a party of
feamen, in three boats, and rowed in for the fhore. It hath
been already mentioned, that the two di-vifions of the natives
were drawn up on each fide the landing-place. They had
left a fpace between them of about thirty or forty yards, in
which were laid, to the moft advantage, a few fmall bunches
of plantains, a yam, and two or three roots. Between thefe
and
and' the water were ftuck upright in the fand, for what
nurpofe I never could learn, four fmall reeds, about two feet 1— ~—
* r , . • i n 1 Saturday 6, from each other, in a line at right angles to the lhore, where
they remained for two or three days after. The old man before
mentioned, and two more, flood by thefe things, inviting
us, by figns, to land; but I had not forgot the trap I was fo
near being caught in at the laft ifland; and this looked
fomething like it. We anfwered, by making figns for the
two divifions to retire farther back, and give us more room.
The old man feemed to defire them fo to do, but no more
regard was paid to him than to us. More were continually
joining them, and, except two or three old men, not one unarmed.
In fhort, every tiring confpired to make us believe
they meant to attack us as foon as we fhould be
on fhore ; the confequence of which was eafily fuppofed ;
many of them muft have been killed and wounded, and
we fhould hardly have efcaped unhurt; two things I equally
wifhed to prevent. Since, therefore, they would not give us
the room we required, I thought it was better to frighten
them into it, than to oblige them by the deadly effedt of our
fire-arms. I accordingly ordered a mufquet to be fired over
the party on our right, which was by far the ftrongeft body;
but the alarm it gave them was momentary. In an inftant
they recovered themfelves, and began to difplay their weapons.
One fellow fhewed us his backfide, in a manner
which plainly conveyed his meaning. After this I ordered
three or four more mufquets to be fired. This was the fignal:
for the fhip to, fire a fe-w- great guns,..which prefently dif-
perfed them; and then we landed, and marked out the
limits, on the right and left, by a line. Our old friend flood
his ground, though defected by.his two companions, and I
rewarded his confidence with a prefent. The natives came
6 ■ gradually