But They Were Not For Parting So
Soon, And Now Attempted By Force, What They Could Not Obtain By Gentler
Means.
The gang-board happened unluckily to be laid out for me to come into
the boat, I say unluckily,
For if it had not been out, and if the crew had
been a little quicker in getting the boat off, the natives might not have
had time to put their design in execution, nor would the following
disagreeable scene have happened. As we were putting off the boat, they
laid hold of the gang-board, and unhooked it off the boat's stern. But as
they did not take it away, I thought this had been done by accident, and
ordered the boat in again to take it up. Then they themselves hooked it
over the boat's stern, and attempted to haul her ashore; others, at the
same time, snatched the oars out of the people's hands. On my pointing a
musket at them, they in some measure desisted, but returned in an instant,
seemingly determined to haul the boat ashore. At the head of this party was
the chief; the others, who could not come at the boat, stood behind with
darts, stones, and bows and arrows in hand, ready to support them. Signs
and threats having no effect, our own safety became the only consideration;
and yet I was unwilling to fire on the multitude, and resolved to make the
chief alone fall a victim to his own treachery; but my musket at this
critical moment missed fire. Whatever idea they might have formed of the
arms we held in our hands, they must now have looked upon them as childish
weapons, and began to let us see how much better theirs were, by throwing
stones and darts, and by shooting arrows. This made it absolutely necessary
for me to give orders to fire. The first discharge threw them into
confusion; but a second was hardly sufficient to drive them off the beach;
and after all, they continued to throw stones from behind the trees and
bushes, and, every now and then, to pop out and throw a dart. Four lay, to
all appearance, dead on the shore; but two of them afterwards crawled into
the bushes. Happy it was for these people, that not half our muskets would
go off, otherwise many more must have fallen. We had one man wounded in the
cheek with a dart, the point of which was as thick as my finger, and yet it
entered above two inches, which shews that it must have come with great
force, though indeed we were very near them. An arrow struck Mr Gilbert's
naked breast, who was about thirty yards off; but probably it had struck
something before; for it hardly penetrated the skin. The arrows were
pointed with hard wood.
As soon as we got on board, I ordered the anchor to be weighed, with a view
of anchoring near the landing-place.
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