Having Taken A View Of
The Bay, And Found That Fresh Water, Which We Most Wanted, Was To Be Had, I
Returned On Board, And Carried Out A Kedge-Anchor With Three Hawsers Upon
An End, To Warp The Ship In By, And Hove Short On The Bower.
One would have
thought that the natives, by this time, would have been so sensible of the
effect of
Our fire-arms, as not to have provoked us to fire upon them any
more, but the event proved otherwise; for the boat had no sooner left the
kedge-anchor, than two men in a canoe put off from the shore, took hold of
the buoy rope, and attempted to drag it ashore, little considering what was
fast to it. Lest, after discovering their mistake, they should take away
the buoy, I ordered a musket to be fired at them; the ball fell short, and
they took not the least notice of it; but a second having passed over them,
they let go the buoy, and made for the shore. This was the last shot we had
occasion to fire at any of them, while we lay at this place. It probably
had more effect than killing the man, by shewing them that they were not
safe at any distance; at least we had reason to think so, for they
afterwards stood in great dread of the musket. Nevertheless, they would
very often be exercising their talent of thieving upon us, which I thought
proper to put up with, as our stay was not likely to be long amongst them.
The trouble these people gave us retarded us so long, that, before we were
ready to heave the anchor, the wind began to increase, and blew in squalls
out of the bay, so that we were obliged to lie fast.
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