to her. Several of them, without any ceremony, went on board; drew
their knives; made signs to the officer and people on deck to keep
off; and began to look about them for plunder. The first thing
they met with was the rudder of one of the boats, which they threw
over-board to those of their party who had remained in the canoes.
Before they had time to find another object that pleased their
fancy, the crew were alarmed, and began to come upon deck armed with
cutlasses. On seeing this, the whole company of plunderers sneaked off
into their canoes, with as much deliberation and indifference as they
had given up the boat; and they were observed describing to those who
had not been on board, how much longer the knives of the ship's crew
were than their own. It was at this time, that my boat was on the
sounding duty, which they must have seen; for they proceeded directly
for her, after their disappointment at the Discovery. I have not the
least doubt, that their visiting us so very early in the morning was
with a view to plunder; on a supposition, that they should find every
body asleep.

May we not, from these circumstances, reasonably infer, that these
people are unacquainted with fire-arms? For, certainly, if they
had known any thing of their effect, they never would have dared to
attempt taking a boat from under ship's guns, in the face of above a
hundred men; for most of my people were looking at them, at the very
instant they made the attempt. However, after all these tricks, we
had the good fortune to leave them as ignorant, in this respect, as we
found them. For they neither heard nor saw a musquet fired, unless at
birds.

Just as we were going to weigh the anchor, to proceed farther up the
bay, it began to blow and to rain as hard as before; so that we
were obliged to veer away the cable again, and lay fast. Toward the
evening, finding that the gale did not moderate, and that it might be
some time before an opportunity offered to get higher up, I came to a
resolution to heel the ship where we were; and, with this view, moored
her with a kedge-anchor and hawser. In heaving the anchor out of the
boat, one of the seamen, either through ignorance or carelessness, or
both, was carried over-board by the buoy-rope, and followed the
anchor to the bottom. It is remarkable, that, in this very critical
situation, he had presence of mind to disengage himself, and come up
to the surface of the water, where he was taken up, wit