islanders, as to let our comrades in the canoes know where we were.

We kept a sharp look out till dark, but saw no more of them. I proposed
that we should attempt to communicate with the men in the canoes, and
desire them to permit some of them to drift on shore after taking out
the women, as the islanders would then in all probability go away. But
as the men very justly remarked, nobody in the first place would venture
on such a dangerous service, and in the next, if the islanders obtained
some of their canoes, they would attack the others and overpower the
sailors that were in them. This plan was therefore justly overruled. I
then proposed that one man should steal down to the beach, swim off, and
desire the fourteen men to take all the women into one canoe, and pull
round to the north side of the island during the night, leaving the
remainder for the islanders to go away in. This was considered a good
scheme, but no one would volunteer, and, as I had proposed it, I thought
that I was in honour bound to go, as otherwise the men would, in future,
have had no opinion of me. I therefore stated my intention, and taking
my musket and ammunition, I slipped down by a rope. As soon as I was on
my legs, I perceived something crawling out of the wood towards the
ship. I could not exactly decipher what it was, so I crept under the
counter of the vessel, where it was so dark that I could not be
distinguished. As it approached, I made it out to be one of the
islanders with a faggot of wood on his back; he placed it close to the
side of the vessel, and then crawled back as before. I now perceived
that there were hundreds of these faggots about the ship, which the
islanders had contrived to carry there during the night; for although
the moon was up, yet the vessel was so inclosed with trees that the
light did not penetrate. I immediately comprehended that it was their
intention to set fire to the vessel, and I was thinking of communicating
the information to my companions on board, when two more crawled from
the woods, and deposited their bundles so close to me, that we were
nearly in contact. I therefore was obliged to leave those who were on
board to make the best of it, and imitating the islanders, I crawled
from the vessel into the brushwood, trailing the gun after me. It was
fortunate that I took this precaution, for in the very part of the wood
where I crept to, there were dozens of them making up faggots, but it
was too thick