, and terminating in
the chain of mountains which appeared to be far inland.

In the evening I went on shore, accompanied by Mr Banks and Dr
Solander, with the pinnace and yawl and a party of men. We landed
abreast of the ship, on the east side of the river, which was here about
forty yards broad; but seeing some natives on the west side, whom I
wished to speak with, and finding the river not fordable, I ordered the
yawl in to carry us over, and left the pinnace at the entrance. When we
came near the place where the people were assembled, they all ran away;
however, we landed, and leaving four boys to take care of the yawl, we
walked up to some huts which were about two or three hundred yards from
the water-side. When we had got some distance from the boat, four men,
armed with long lances, rushed out of the woods, and running up to
attack the boat, would certainly have cut her off, if the people in the
pinnace had not discovered them, and called to the boys to drop down the
stream: The boys instantly obeyed; but being closely pursued by the
Indians, the cockswain of the pinnace, who had the charge of the boats,
fired a musket over their heads; at this they stopped and looked round
them, but in a few minutes renewed the pursuit, brandishing their lances
in a threatening manner: The cockswain then fired a second musket over
their heads, but of this they took no notice; and one of them lifting up
his spear to dart it at the boat, another piece was fired, which shot
him dead. When he fell, the other three stood motionless for some
minutes, as if petrified with astonishment; as soon as they recovered,
they went back, dragging after them the dead body, which, however, they
soon left, that it might not encumber their flight. At the report of the
first musket we drew together, having straggled to a little distance
from each other, and made the best of our way back to the boat; and
crossing the river, we soon saw the Indian lying dead upon the ground.
Upon examining the body, we found that he had been shot through the
heart: He was a man of the middle size and stature; his complexion was
brown, but not very dark; and one side of his face was tattowed in
spiral lines of a very regular figure: He was covered with a fine cloth,
of a manufacture altogether new to us, and it was tied on exactly
according to the representation in Valentyn's Account of Abel Tasman's
Voyage, vol. 3, part 2, page 50, his hair also was tied in a knot on t