gave them some beads and other trifles, with which they seemed to be much pleased:  That he then made signs to them for some cocoa-nuts, which they brought him, and with great appearance of friendship and hospitality, gave him a broiled fish and some boiled yams:  That he then proceeded with his party to the houses, which, he said, were not more than fifteen or twenty yards from the water-side, and soon after saw a great number of canoes coming round the western point of the bay, and many Indians among the trees:  That being alarmed at these appearances, he hastily left the house where they had been received, and with the men, made the best of his way towards the boat; but that, before he could get on board, the Indians attacked as well those that were with him as those that were in the boat, both from the canoes and the shore.  Their number, he said, was between three and four hundred:  Their weapons were bows and arrows, the bows were six feet five inches long, and the arrows four feet four, which they discharged in platoons, as regularly as the best disciplined troops in Europe:  That it being necessary to defend himself and his people when they were thus attacked, they fired among the Indians to favour their getting into their boat, and did great execution, killing many and wounding more:  That they were not however discouraged, but continued to press forward, still discharging their arrows by platoons in almost one continued flight:  That the grappling being foul, occasioned a delay in hauling off the boat, during which time he, and half of the boat’s crew, were desperately wounded:  That at last they cut the rope, and ran off under their foresail, still keeping up their fire with blunderbusses, each loaded with eight or ten pistol balls, which the Indians returned with their arrows, those on shore wading after them breast-high into the sea:  When they had got clear of these, the canoes pursued them with great fortitude and vigour, till one of them was sunk, and the numbers on board the rest greatly reduced by the fire, and then they returned to the shore.

Such was the story of the master, who, with three of my best seamen, died some time afterwards of the wounds they had received; but culpable as he appears to have been by his own account, he appears to have been still more so by the testimony of those who survived him.  They said, that the Indians behaved with the greatest confidence and friendship till he gave them just cause of offence, by ordering the people that were with him, who had been regaled in one of their houses, to cut down a cocoa-nut tree; and insisting upon the execution of his order, notwithstanding the displeasure which the Indians strongly expressed upon the occasion:  As soon as the tree fell, all of them except one, who seemed to be a person of authority, went away; and in a short time a great number of them were observed to draw together into a body among the trees, by a midshipman who was one of the party that