eir lances against a tree,
and advanced towards us in a friendly manner: When they came up, we
returned the darts or lances that we had taken from them, and we
perceived with great satisfaction that this rendered the reconciliation
complete. We found in this party four persons whom we had never seen
before, who as usual were introduced to us by name; but the man who had
been wounded in the attempt to burn our nets and linen, was not among
them; we knew however that he could not be dangerously hurt, by the
distance at which the shot reached him. We made all of them presents of
such trinkets as we had about us, and they walked back with us towards
the ship: As we went along, they told us, by signs, that they would not
set fire to the grass any more; and we distributed among them some
musquet balls, and endeavoured to make them understand their use and
effect. When they came abreast of the ship, they sat down, but could not
be prevailed upon to come on board; we therefore left them, and in about
two hours they went away, soon after which we perceived the woods on
fire at about two miles distance. If this accident had happened a very
little while sooner, the consequence might have been dreadful; for our
powder had been aboard but a few-days, and the store-tent, with many
valuable things which it contained, had not been removed many hours. We
had no idea of the fury with which grass would burn in this hot climate,
nor consequently of the difficulty of extinguishing it; but we
determined, that if it should ever again be necessary for us to pitch
our tents in such a situation, our first measure should be to clear the
ground round us.

In the afternoon we got every thing on board the ship, new-birthed her,
and let her swing with the tide; and at night the master returned, with
the discouraging account that there was no passage for the ship to the
northward.

The next morning, at low water, I went and sounded and buoyed the bar,
the ship being now ready for sea. We saw no Indians this day, but all
the hills round us for many miles were on fire, which at night made a
most striking and beautiful appearance.

The 21st past without our getting sight of any of the inhabitants, and
indeed without a single incident worth notice. On the 22d, we killed a
turtle for the day's provision, upon opening which we found a wooden
harpoon or turtle-peg, about as thick as a man's finger, near fifteen
inches long, and bearded at the end, such as