ty. Honest Vulcan, our blacksmith (two or three men being near
him) was at work with his bellows and anvil near the riverbank. This
man's labour seemed to excite very much their curiosity; and again the
overseer and Bulger advanced quietly towards those natives who had
approached nearest to the blacksmith. Hearing at length much laughter, I
concluded that a truce had been effected as usual, and I too walked
forward with my branch. But on going to the spot I found that all the
laughter came from our party, the natives having refused to sit down and
continuing to wave the branches in our people's faces, having also
repeatedly spit at them; the whole of which conduct was good-naturedly
borne in hopes of establishing a more amicable intercourse. As a
peace-offering I then presented the man who appeared to be the leader
with a tomahawk, the use of which he immediately guessed by turning round
to a log and chopping at it. Two other stout fellows (our morning visitor
being one of them) then rudely demanded my pistols from my belt;
whereupon I drew one and, curious to see the effect, I fired it at a
tree.

SINGULAR BEHAVIOUR ON THE DISCHARGE OF A PISTOL.

The scene which followed I cannot satisfactorily describe or represent,
although I shall never forget it. As if they had previously suspected we
were evil demons, and had at length a clear proof of it, they repeated
their gesticulations of defiance with tenfold fury, and accompanied the
action with demoniac looks, hideous shouts and a war-song, crouching,
jumping, spitting, springing with the spear, and throwing dust at us, as
they slowly retired. In short, their hideous crouching postures, measured
gestures, and low jumps, all to the tune of a wild song, with the
fiendish glare of their countenances, at times all black, but now all
eyes and teeth, seemed a fitter spectacle for Pandemonium than the light
of the bounteous sun. Thus these savages slowly retired along the
riverbank, all the while dancing in a circle like the witches in Macbeth,
and leaving us in expectation of their return and perhaps an attack in
the morning. Any further attempt to appease them was out of the question.

CONJECTURES.

Whether they were by nature implacable or whether their inveterate
hostility proceeded from some cause of disquiet or apprehension
unimaginable by us it was too probable they might ere long force upon us
the painful necessity of making them acquainted with the superiority of
our