ir boat, and did great execution, killing
many and wounding more: That they were not however discouraged, but
continued to press forward, still discharging their arrows by platoons
in almost one continued flight: That the grappling being foul,
occasioned a delay in hauling off the boat, during which time he, and
half of the boat's crew, were desperately wounded: That at last they cut
the rope, and ran off under their foresail, still keeping up their fire
with blunderbusses, each loaded with eight or ten pistol balls, which
the Indians returned with their arrows, those on shore wading after them
breast-high into the sea: When they had got clear of these, the canoes
pursued them with great fortitude and vigour, till one of them was sunk,
and the numbers on board the rest greatly reduced by the fire, and then
they returned to the shore.

Such was the story of the master, who, with three of my best seamen,
died some time afterwards of the wounds they had received; but culpable
as he appears to have been by his own account, he appears to have been
still more so by the testimony of those who survived him. They said,
that the Indians behaved with the greatest confidence and friendship
till he gave them just cause of offence, by ordering the people that
were with him, who had been regaled in one of their houses, to cut down
a cocoa-nut tree; and insisting upon the execution of his order,
notwithstanding the displeasure which the Indians strongly expressed
upon the occasion: As soon as the tree fell, all of them except one, who
seemed to be a person of authority, went away; and in a short time a
great number of them were observed to draw together into a body among
the trees, by a midshipman who was one of the party that were on shore,
and who immediately acquainted the master with what he had seen, and
told him, that from the behaviour of the people he imagined an attack
was intended: That the master made light of the intelligence, and
instead of repairing immediately to the boat, as he was urged to do,
fired one of his pistols at a mark: That the Indian who had till that
time continued with them left them abruptly, and joined the body in the
wood: That the master, even after this, by an infatuation that is
altogether unaccountable, continued to trifle away his time on shore,
and did not attempt to recover the boat till the attack was begun.

As the expedition to find a better place for the ship had issued thus
unhappily, I det