84 COOKS FIRST VOYAGE MAY, 



Indians keep their ground till they came pretty near 

 them, they were seized with a sudden fear very com- 

 mon to the rash and fool-hardy, and made a hasty re- 

 treat. This step, which insured the danger that it was 

 taken to avoid, encouragedtheIndians,and four of them 



running forward, discharged their lances at the fugi- 

 tives, with such force, that flying no less than forty 

 yards, they went beyond them. As the Indians did 

 not pursue, our people, recovering their spirits, stop- 

 ped to collect the lances when they came up to the 

 place where they lay ; upon which the Indians, in 

 their turn, began to retire. Just at this time I came 

 up, with Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, and Tupia ; and 

 being desirous to convince the Indians that we were 

 neither afraid of them, nor intended them any mis- 

 chief, we advanced towards them, making signs of 

 expostulation and entreaty ; but they could not be 

 persuaded to wait till we could come up. Mr. Gore 

 told us, that he had seen some of them up the bay, who 

 had invited him by signs to come on shore, which he, 

 certainly with great prudence, declined. 



The morning of the next day was so rainy, that we 

 were all glad to stay on board. In the afternoon, 

 however, it cleared up, and we made another excur- 

 sion along the sea-coast to the southward : we went 

 ashore, and Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander gathered 

 many plants ; but besides these we saw nothing wor- 

 thy of notice. At our first entering the woods, we 

 met with three of the natives, who instantly ran away: 

 more of them were seen by some of the people, but 

 they all disappeared, with great precipitation, as soon 

 as they found that they were discovered. By the 

 boldness of these people at our first landing, and the 

 terror that seized them at the sight of us afterwards, 

 it appears that they were sufficiently intimidated by 

 our fire-arms : not that we had any reason to think 

 the people much hurt by the small shot which we 

 were obliged to fire at them, when they attacked us 

 at our coming out of the boat ; but they had proba- 



