dark when we dashed the canoe through the breakers and
landed. We hauled her up some distance, as there was every appearance
of worse weather, and sheltered ourselves under the lee of a high
rock. The wind now blew fiercely, and rain descended in torrents. We
tried to light a fire to warm ourselves, but could not succeed, so we
lay down on one bear-skin, and covered ourselves with the others,
waiting impatiently for daylight. When the day dawned, the weather was
worse than ever. We now looked out for a better place of concealment
for ourselves and our canoe, and found one at about fifty yards'
distance: between two high rocks there was a narrow cleft or passage,
which was large enough for us and for the canoe, and this hid us both
from the storm and from the sea. Into this cleft we hauled our canoe
and withdrew ourselves, making a meal off some fish we roasted on the
embers. We remained there for two days, when the weather moderated,
but the sea was still too rough for us to launch the canoe; so we
decided upon remaining one day more, although our provisions were all
gone and our calabashes quite empty. On the third day, to our great
surprise and alarm, we heard the report of a musket not far from us.
From this we knew that we could not be very far from the English
settlements, for it was only the Indians near to the settlements who
had obtained muskets. But whether it was an Indian or a white man who
fired we could not, of course, tell. I recollected that, in the last
advices we had had from James Town, our factors had stated that there
was a cruel war carried on between the Indians and the settlers, and
that the Indians had ravaged the plantations; but that was two years
ago, and how it might be now it was impossible to tell. A second
report of a musket still nearer induced me to creep along by the side
of the rock, and look out to see if any one was near. To my great
alarm, I perceived five Indians with muskets not a hundred yards off.
I drew back, as I hoped, unperceived, but the eye of an Indian was too
keen. They had discovered me; and whilst I was relating to the
Portuguese captain what I had seen, they were suddenly upon us. We had
no time to make resistance, even if we were inclined so to do, we
therefore sat still. They came up and looked at us. The wet had washed
off a great portion of the paint upon my back and shoulders. One of
the Indians touched me on the shoulder, and said, "Ugh!--white man
paint like Ind