the savage was making another stroke, Lieutenant Dayman, who up
till now had exercised the utmost forbearance, fired at him with
a musket. The man did not drop, although wounded in the thigh.
But even this, unquestionably their first experience of firearms,
did not intimidate the natives, one of whom, standing on a block
of coral, threw a spear which passed across the breast of one of
the boat's crew and lodged in the bend of one arm, opening a
vein. They raised a loud shout when the spear was seen to take
effect, and threw several others which missed. Lieutenant
Simpson, who had been watching what was going on, then fired from
the pinnace with buckshot and struck them, when, finding that the
large boat, though at anchor, could assist the smaller one, the
canoes were paddled inshore in great haste and confusion. Some
more musket shots were fired, and the galley went in chase
endeavouring to turn the canoes, so as to bring them under fire
of the pinnace's twelve-pounder howitzer, which was speedily
mounted and fired. The shot either struck one of the canoes or
went within a few inches of the mark, on which the natives
instantly jumped overboard into the shallow water, making for the
mangroves, which they succeeded in reaching, dragging their
canoes with them. Two rounds of grape-shot crashing through the
branches dispersed the party, but afterwards they moved two of
the canoes out of sight. The remaining one was brought out after
breakfast by the galley under cover of the pinnace, and was towed
off to some distance. The paddles having been taken out and the
spears broken and left in her, she was let go to drift down
toward a village whence the attacking party were supposed to have
come. Some blood in this canoe, although not the one most aimed
at, showed that the firing had not been ineffective. This act of
deliberate treachery was perpetrated by persons who had always
been well treated by us, for several of the natives present were
recognised as having been alongside the ship in Coral Haven.
This, their first act of positive hostility, affords, I think,
conclusive evidence of the savage disposition of the natives of
this part of the Louisiade Archipelago when incited by the hope
of plunder, and shews that no confidence should ever be reposed