this was the spot where the
attack had been made. We now searched all along at the back of the beach,
to see if the cutter was there, but instead of her, the most horrible
scene was presented to our view; for there lay the hearts, heads, and
lungs of several of our people, with hands and limbs in a mangled
condition, some broiled and some raw; but no other parts of their bodies,
which made us suspect that the cannibals had feasted upon and devoured
the rest. At a little distance we saw the dogs gnawing their entrails. We
observed a large body of the natives collected together on a hill about
two miles off, but as night drew on apace, we could not advance to such a
distance; neither did we think it safe to attack them, or even to quit
the shore to take an account of the number killed, our troop being a very
small one, and the savages were both numerous, fierce, and much
irritated. While we remained almost stupefied on the spot, Mr. Fannen
said that he heard the cannibals assembling in the woods, on which we
returned to our boat, and having hauled alongside the canoes, we
demolished three of them. During this transaction the fire on the top of
the hill disappeared, and we could hear the savages in the woods at high
words, quarrelling, perhaps, on account of their different opinions,
whether they should attack us and try to save their canoes. They were
armed with long lances, and weapons not unlike a sergeant's halbert in
shape, made of hard wood, and mounted with bone instead of iron. We
suspected that the dead bodies of our people had been divided among those
different parties of cannibals who had been concerned in the massacre,
and it was not improbable that the group we saw at a distance by the fire
were feasting upon some of them, as those on shore had been where the
remains were found, before they had been disturbed by our unexpected
visit. Be that as it may, we could discover no traces of more than four
of our friends' bodies, nor could we find the place where the cutter was
concealed. It now grew dark, on which account we collected carefully the
remains of our mangled friends, and, putting off, made the best of our
way from this polluted place. When we opened the upper part of the Sound,
we saw a very large fire about three or four miles higher up, which
formed a complete oval, reaching from the top of a hill down almost to
the water-side, the middle space being enclosed all round by the fire,
like a hedge. Mr. Burn