"This Was Their River; They Did Not Allow White Men To
Use It.
We must pay toll for leave to pass." It was somewhat
humiliating to do so, but it was pay or fight; and, rather than
fight, we submitted to the humiliation of paying for their
friendship, and gave them thirty yards of cloth.
They pledged
themselves to be our friends ever afterwards, and said they would
have food cooked for us on our return. We then hoisted sail, and
proceeded, glad that the affair had been amicably settled. Those on
shore walked up to the bend above to look at the boat, as we
supposed; but the moment she was abreast of them, they gave us a
volley of musket-balls and poisoned arrows, without a word of
warning. Fortunately we were so near, that all the arrows passed
clear over us, but four musket-balls went through the sail just above
our heads. All our assailants bolted into the bushes and long grass
the instant after firing, save two, one of whom was about to
discharge a musket and the other an arrow, when arrested by the fire
of the second boat. Not one of them showed their faces again, till
we were a thousand yards away. A few shots were then fired over
their heads, to give them an idea of the range of our rifles, and
they all fled into the woods. Those on the sandbank rushed off too,
with the utmost speed; but as they had not shot at us, we did not
molest them, and they went off safely with their cloth.
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