NECESSARY PRECAUTIONS. 261 
ed timid at first, but our orator having encou- 
raged them, they became so impudent and 
daring, that they seemed disposed to storm the 
ship. I ranged my sailors fully armed round 
the deck, to keep off such disagreeable visi- 
tants, but with strict orders to avoid hurting 
them. It was, however, only the bayonets and 
lances which prevented the multitude from 
climbing into the ship; and some of the most 
daring, by patiently enduring heavy and re- 
peated blows, even succeeded in reaching the 
deck ; they grasped with both hands any object 
they could cling to, so pertinaceously, that it 
required the united efforts of several of our 
strongest sailors to throw them overboard. 
HKixcept a few cocoa-nuts, they brought us no 
kind of provisions, but by pantomimic gestures 
invited us to land ; endeavouring to signify that 
we should be richly provided on shore with 
every thing we wanted. The savages had pro- 
bably destined for us the fate of De Langle 
and his companions ; they appeared unarmed, 
but had artfully concealed clubs and short 
lances in their canoes. 
A very few of them, whom we permitted to 
