They Had
Peacefully Bartered Their Fruits And Nuts For Beads, And Had Been
Treated In A Friendly Fashion Throughout.
But the currents of passion
that sweep through the minds of savage peoples baffle analysis.
Something had disturbed them; what it was can hardly be surmised.
One
of the officers believed that the gift of some beads to a few, excited
the envy of the others. It may be so; mere envy plays such a large part
in the affairs even of civilised peoples, that we need not wonder to
find it arousing the anger of savages. Laperouse tells what occurred in
these terms: -
"Several canoes, after having sold their ladings of provisions on board
our ships, had returned ashore, and all landed in this bay, so that it
was gradually filled. Instead of two hundred persons, including women
and children, whom M. de Langle found when he arrived at half past one,
there were ten or twelve hundred by three o'clock. He succeeded in
embarking his water; but the bay was by this time nearly dry, and he
could not hope to get his boats afloat before four o'clock, when the
tide would have risen. He stepped into them, however, with his
detachment, and posted himself in the bow, with his musket and his
marines, forbidding them to fire unless he gave orders.
"This, he began to realise, he would soon be forced to do. Stones flew
about, and the natives, only up to the knees in water, surrounded the
boats within less than three yards.
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