at to think of
it, but said, two or three times, we should all be devoured. I must
confess, considering we were becalmed, and the current set strong towards
the shore, I liked it the worse; however, I bade them not be afraid, but
bring the ship to an anchor as soon as we came so near as to know that we
must engage them. The weather continued calm, and they came on apace
towards us, so I gave orders to come to an anchor, and furl all our
sails; as for the savages, I told them they had nothing to fear but fire,
and therefore they should get their boats out, and fasten them, one close
by the head and the other by the stern, and man them both well, and wait
the issue in that posture: this I did, that the men in the boats might he
ready with sheets and buckets to put out any fire these savages might
endeavour to fix to the outside of the ship.

In this posture we lay by for them, and in a little while they came up
with us; but never was such a horrid sight seen by Christians; though my
mate was much mistaken in his calculation of their number, yet when they
came up we reckoned about a hundred and twenty-six canoes; some of them
had sixteen or seventeen men in them, and some more, and the least six or
seven. When they came nearer to us, they seemed to be struck with wonder
and astonishment, as at a sight which doubtless they had never seen
before; nor could they at first, as we afterwards understood, know what
to make of us; they came boldly up, however, very near to us, and seemed
to go about to row round us; but we called to our men in the boats not to
let them come too near them. This very order brought us to an engagement
with them, without our designing it; for five or six of the large canoes
came so near our long-boat, that our men beckoned with their hands to
keep them back, which they understood very well, and went back: but at
their retreat about fifty arrows came on board us from those boats, and
one of our men in the long-boat was very much wounded. However, I called
to them not to fire by any means; but we handed down some deal boards
into the boat, and the carpenter presently set up a kind of fence, like
waste boards, to cover them from the arrows of the savages, if they
should shoot again.

About half-an-hour afterwards they all came up in a body astern of us,
and so near that we could easily discern what they were, though we could
not tell their design; and I easily found they were some of my old
friends,