278 cook's first voyage oct. 



covered them, and called to the boys to drop down 

 the stream : the boys instantly obeyed ; but being 

 closely pursued by the Indians, the Cockswain of the 

 ])innace, who had the charge of the boats, fired a 

 musket over their heads ; at this they stopped and 

 looked round them, but in a few minutes renewed 

 the pursuit, brandishing their lances in a threatening 

 manner : the Cockswain then fired a second musket 

 over their heads, but of this they took no notice ; 

 and one of them lifting up his spear to dart it at the 

 boat, another piece was fired, which shot him dead. 

 When he fell, the other three stood motionless for 

 some minutes, as if petrified with astonishment; as 

 soon as they recovered, they went back, dragging 

 after them the dead body, which however they soon 

 left, that it might not encumber their flight. At the 

 report of the first musket, we drew together, having 

 straggled to a little distance from each other, and 

 made the best of our way back to the boat ; and 

 crossing the river, we soon saw the Indian lying dead 

 upon the ground. Upon examining the body, we 

 lound that he had been shot through the heart : he 

 was a man of the middle size and stature ; his com- 

 plexion was brow^n, but not very dark ; and one side 

 of his face was tattowed in spiral lines of a very regu- 

 lar figure : he was covered with a fine cloth, of a 

 manufacture altogether new to us, and it was tied on 

 exactly according to the representation in Valentyn's 

 Account of Abel Tasman's Voyage, vol. iii. part 2. 

 page 50. : his hair also was tied in a knot on the top 

 of his head, but' had no feather in it. We returned 

 immediately to the ship, where we could hear the 

 people on shore talking with great earnestness, and 

 in a very loud tone, probably about what had hap- 

 pened, and what should be done. 



In the morning, we saw several of the natives 

 where they had been seen the night before, and some 

 walking with a quick pace towards the place where 

 we had landed, most of them unarmed ; but three or 



