296 JOURNAL OF THE "ST. PAUL" 



headway, and those ashore had the weather in their favor for coming 

 out. As we fired from our cannon we thought we saw some one on shore 

 shooting a gun, but we heard no noise. We observed also a fire on the 

 beach as if in answer to us. We fired another gun. 



At the ninth hour in the evening we observed fire on the beach. Took 

 soundings, 66 fathoms; very little wind. We hung out two lanterns, one 

 at the ensign staff and the other at the gaff. The fire on the beach 

 appeared and disappeared by turns. 



At the first hour in the afternoon we saw the fire. 



At the third hour we fired guns to summon the boats. 



At the fourth hour we fired guns. 



At the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth hours we tacked close to the place 

 into which the boats had gone. Our position is latitude 57 51' N. 



July 25, 1741 



Latitude by observation 57 50' 6"; from Vaua, longitude 57 10' 2", 

 rhumb N82°35'E, distance 2,007 knots. 



First hour. We noticed two boats rowing from the bay into which our 

 boats had gone; one of them was large, and the other small. We naturally 

 thought they were our boats, and we stood towards them. There was 

 very little wind stirring, and I ordered that the sails be taken in and the 

 shrouds tightened!?]. When the small boat drew close to us we became 

 aware that it was not our boat, for it had a sharp bow, and that those in 

 it did not row with oars but paddled. The boat did not, however, come 

 near enough so that we could see the faces of those in it. All that we did 

 see was that it contained four persons, one at the stern and the others at 

 the paddle. One of them had on clothes of red material. Being that far 

 away they stood up and shouted twice "Agai, Agai," waved their hands, 

 and turned back to shore. I commanded my men to wave white kerchiefs 

 and to invite those in the boat to come to our ship. Many of my men did 

 that but it did no good; the boat proceeded on its way to shore. We 

 could not pursue them because in the first place we had no wind, in the 

 second place the small boat went very fast, and the large one had stopped 

 a considerable distance from us. They continued to pull away and 

 finally disappeared in the bay from which they had come. We then be- 

 came convinced that some misfortune had happened to our men, 128 for it 

 was the eighth day since the Fleet Master had left; during that period 

 there was plenty of fine weather for returning, and we had sailed quite 

 close to the place, and yet he did not appear. Since the boatswain had 

 gone we had not been away from the place, the weather had been fair, 

 and if a misfortune had not overtaken them they would have returned. 

 The fact that the Americans did not dare to approach our ship leads us 

 to believe that they have either killed or detained our men. We re- 



120 See note on p. 311. 



