7th of December, having refitted the ship, completed our water
and wood, and got every thing ready for sea, we sent our large cutter,
with Mr Rowe, a midshipman, and the boat's crew, to gather wild greens
for the ship's company; with orders to return that evening, as I
intended to sail the next morning. But on the boat's not returning the
same evening, nor the next morning, being under great uneasiness about
her, I hoisted out the launch, and sent her with the second lieutenant,
Mr Burney, manned with the boat's crew and ten marines, in search of
her. My orders to Mr Burney were first, to look well into East Bay, and
then to proceed to Grass Cove, the place to which Mr Rowe had been sent;
and if he heard nothing of the boat there, to go farther up the sound,
and come back along the west shore. As Mr Rowe had left the ship an hour
before the time proposed, and in a great hurry, I was strongly persuaded
that his curiosity had carried him into East Bay, none in our ship
having ever been there; or else, that some accident had happened to the
boat, either by going adrift through the boat-keeper's negligence, or by
being stove among the rocks. This was almost every body's opinion; and
on this supposition, the carpenter's mate was sent in the launch, with
some sheets of tin. I had not the least suspicion that our people had
received any injury from the natives, our boats having frequently been
higher up, and worse provided. How much I was mistaken, too soon
appeared; for Mr Burney having returned about eleven o'clock the same
night, made his report of a horrible scene indeed, which cannot be
better described than in his own words, which now follow.

"On the 18th, we left the ship; and having a light breeze in our favour,
we soon got round Long Island, and within Long Point. I examined every
cove, on the larboard hand, as we went along, looking well all around
with a spy-glass, which I took for that purpose. At half past one, we
stopped at a beach on the left-hand side going up East Bay, to boil some
victuals, as we brought nothing but raw meat with us. Whilst we were
cooking, I saw an Indian on the opposite shore, running along a beach to
the head of the bay. Our meat being drest, we got into the boat and put
off; and, in a short time, arrived at the head of this reach, where we
saw an Indian settlement."

"As we drew near, some of the Indians came down on the rocks, and waved
for us to be gone, but seeing we disregarded them,