who had remained in the canoes.  Before they had time to find another object that pleased their fancy, the crew were alarmed, and began to come upon deck armed with cutlasses.  On seeing this, the whole company of plunderers sneaked off into their canoes, with as much deliberation and indifference as they had given up the boat; and they were observed describing to those who had not been on board, how much longer the knives of the ship’s crew were than their own.  It was at this time, that my boat was on the sounding duty, which they must have seen; for they proceeded directly for her, after their disappointment at the Discovery.  I have not the least doubt, that their visiting us so very early in the morning was with a view to plunder; on a supposition, that they should find every body asleep.

May we not, from these circumstances, reasonably infer, that these people are unacquainted with fire-arms?  For, certainly, if they had known any thing of their effect, they never would have dared to attempt taking a boat from under ship’s guns, in the face of above a hundred men; for most of my people were looking at them, at the very instant they made the attempt.  However, after all these tricks, we had the good fortune to leave them as ignorant, in this respect, as we found them.  For they neither heard nor saw a musquet fired, unless at birds.

Just as we were going to weigh the anchor, to proceed farther up the bay, it began to blow and to rain as hard as before; so that we were obliged to veer away the cable again, and lay fast.  Toward the evening, finding that the gale did not moderate, and that it might be some time before an opportunity offered to get higher up, I came to a resolution to heel the ship where we were; and, with this view, moored her with a kedge-anchor and hawser.  In heaving the anchor out of the boat, one of the seamen, either through ignorance or carelessness, or both, was carried over-board by the buoy-rope, and followed the anchor to the bottom.  It is remarkable, that, in this very critical situation, he had presence of mind to disengage himself, and come up to the surface of the water, where he was taken up, with one of his legs fractured in a dangerous manner.

Early the next morning, we gave the ship a good heel to port, in order to come at, and stop the leak.  On ripping off the sheathing, it was found to be in the seams, which were very open, both in and under the wale, and, in several places, not a bit of oakum in them.  While the carpenters were making good these defects, we filled all our empty water-casks, at a stream hard by the ship.  The wind was now moderate, but the weather was thick and hazy, with rain.

The natives, who left us the preceding day, when the bad weather came on, paid us another visit this morning.  Those who came first, were in small canoes; others, afterward, arrived in large boats; in one of which were twenty women, and one man, besides children.