Seeing
The Shallopp Come Towards Me, I Spake A Kinde Of Jargon Like That Of The
Salvages, Which Signify'd Nothing,
Only to amuse those in the boat or to
make them speake, the better to observe them, & to see if
There might bee
any that had frequented the Indians & that spak their Languadge. All were
silent; & the boat coming a ground 10 or 12 paces from me, seeing one of
the seamen leap in the water to come a shore, I showed him my wepons,
forbidding him to stirr, telling him that none in the Boate should come a
shore untill I knew who they were; & observing by the make of the shipp &
the habit of the saylors that they were English, I spake in their
Languadge, & I understood that the seamen that leapt in the water which I
hinder'd to proceed any farther said aloud, "Governor, it is English they
spake unto you;" & upon my continuing to ask who they were who comanded the
shipp, & what they sought there, some body answer'd, "What has any body to
doe to inquire? Wee are English." Unto which I reply'd, "And I am French,
and require you to bee gon;" & at the same instant making signe unto my men
to appeare, they shewed themselves at the entrance of the wood. Those of
the shallop thinking in all likelyhood wee were more in number, were about
to have answer'd me in mild terms & to tell me they were of London, that
the shipp belong'd unto the Hudson Bay Company, & was Comanded by Capt
Guillem.
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