e
contained fourteen Indians; the other twelve. Approaching within arrow
shot, they discharged a volley into the boat. One of these
keen-pointed weapons, struck John Coleman in the throat, and instantly
killed him. Two other Englishmen were wounded.

The Indians seemed satisfied with their revenge. Though they numbered
twenty-six warriors, and there were but two white men left unwounded,
the savages permitted them to continue their passage to the vessel,
without further molestation. The journalist, who records this assault,
is silent respecting the provocation which led to it.

Hudson was alarmed by this hostility, and expected an immediate attack
upon the ship. He promptly erected bulwarks along the sides of his
vessel as a protection from the arrows of the fleet of war canoes,
with which, he supposed, he would be surrounded the next morning.

But the night passed quietly away; the morning dawned, and a few
canoes approached from another part of the bay, with no signs of
hostility. These peaceful Indians had manifestly heard nothing of the
disturbance of the night before. They came unarmed, with all friendly
attestations, unsuspicious of danger, and brought corn and tobacco,
which they offered in exchange for such trinkets as they could obtain.
The next morning, two large canoes approached from the shores of the
bay which was many leagues in extent, one of which canoes seemed to be
filled with warriors, thoroughly armed. The other was a trading boat.

It is probable that those in the war canoe, came as a protection for
their companions. It is hardly conceivable that the Indians, naturally
timid and wary, could have thought, with a single war canoe containing
scarcely a dozen men, armed with arrows, to attack the formidable
vessel of Sir Henry Hudson, armed, as they well knew it to be, with
the terrible energies of thunder and lightning.

The Indians were so unsuspicious of danger, that two of them
unhesitatingly came on board. Sir Henry, we must think treacherously,
seized them as prisoners, and ordered the canoes containing their
companions, to keep at a distance. Soon another canoe came, from
another direction, with only two men in it. Sir Henry received them
both on board, and seized them also as prisoners. He intended to hold
them as hostages, that he might thus protect himself from any
hostility on the part of the natives.

One of these men upon finding himself a captive, leaped overboard and
swam ashore. S