e as if it was a
machine to assist him in managing or throwing the lance: They called to
us in a very loud tone, and in a harsh dissonant language, of which
neither we nor Tupia understood a single word: They brandished their
weapons, and seemed resolved to defend their coast to the uttermost,
though they were but two, and we were forty. I could not but admire
their courage, and being very unwilling that hostilities should commence
with such inequality of force between us, I ordered the boat to lie upon
her oars: We then parlied by signs for about a quarter of an hour, and
to bespeak their good-will, I threw them nails, beads, and other
trifles, which they took up and seemed to be well pleased with. I then
made signs that I wanted water, and, by all the means that I could
devise, endeavoured to convince them that we would do them no harm: They
now waved to us, and I was willing to interpret it as an invitation; but
upon our putting the boat in, they came again to oppose us. One appeared
to be a youth about nineteen or twenty, and the other a man of middle
age: As I had now no other resource, I fired a musquet between them.
Upon the report, the youngest dropped a bundle of lances upon the rock,
but recollecting himself in an instant he snatched them up again with
great haste: A stone was then thrown at us, upon which I ordered a
musquet to be fired with small shot, which struck the eldest upon the
legs, and he immediately ran to one of the houses, which was distant
about an hundred yards: I now hoped that our contest was over, and we
immediately landed; but we had scarcely left the boat when he returned,
and we then perceived that he had left the rock only to fetch a shield
or target for his defence. As soon as he came up, he threw a lance at
us, and his comrade another; they fell where we stood thickest, but
happily hurt nobody. A third musquet with small shot was then fired at
them, upon which one of them threw another lance, and both immediately
ran away: If we had pursued, we might probably have taken one of them;
but Mr Banks suggesting that the lances might be poisoned, I thought it
not prudent to venture into the woods. We repaired immediately to the
huts, in one of which we found the children, who had hidden themselves
behind a shield and some bark; we peeped at them, but left them in their
retreat, without their knowing that they had been discovered, and we
threw into the house when we went away some beads, ribbon