immediately presented to him; in return for which he desired him to accept a kind of cravat, made of coarse calico, which was tied round his own, his dress being somewhat after the Dutch fashion.  After this interchange of cravats, he enquired of the officer whether the ship was furnished with any articles for trade; to which he answered that she was sufficiently furnished to trade for provisions, but nothing more:  The chief replied, that whatever we wanted we should have.  After this conference, which I considered as an earnest of every advantage which this place could afford us, the boats returned on board laden with water, and we went cheerfully on with our business on board the ship.  In about two hours, however, we saw with equal surprise and concern, many hundreds of armed men, posting themselves in parties at different places, among the trees, upon the beach, a-breast of the ship; their weapons were muskets, bows and arrows, long pikes or spears, broad-swords, a kind of hanger called a cress, and targets:  We observed also, that they hauled a canoe, which lay under a shed upon the beach, up into the woods.  These were not friendly appearances, and they were succeeded by others that were still more hostile; for these people spent all the remainder of the day in entering and rushing out of the woods, as if they had been making sallies to attack an enemy; sometimes shooting their arrows, and throwing their lances into the water towards the ship; and sometimes lifting their targets, and brandishing their swords at us in a menacing manner.  In the mean time we were not idle on board:  We got up our guns, repaired our rigging, and put every thing in order before evening, and then, being ready to sail, I determined, if possible, to get another conference with the people on shore, and learn the reason of so sudden and unaccountable a change of behaviour.  The lieutenant therefore was again dispatched, and as a testimony that our disposition was still peaceable, the table-cloth was again displayed as a flag of truce.  I had the precaution, however, to order the boat to a part of the beach which was clear of wood, that the people on board might not be liable to mischief from enemies whom they could not see; I also ordered that nobody should go on shore.  When the Indians saw the boat came to the beach, and observed that nobody landed, one of them came out of the wood, with a bow and arrows in his hand, and made signs for the boat to come to the place where he stood.  This the officer very prudently declined, as he would then have been within bow-shot of an ambuscade, and after waiting some time, and finding that a conference could be procured upon no other terms, he returned back to the ship.  It was certainly in my power to have destroyed many of these unfriendly people, by firing my great guns into the wood, but it would have answered no good purpose:  We could not afterwards have procured wood and water here without risking the loss of our own people, and I still hoped that refreshment might be procured upon friendly terms at the town, which, now I was in a condition to defend myself against a sudden assault, I resolved to visit.