MAY 1770 COWARDICE OF THE NATIVES 269 



himself a long way from any one else, met by accident with 

 a very old man and woman and some children. They were 

 sitting under a tree, and neither party saw the other till 

 they were close together. They showed signs of fear, but 

 did not attempt to run away. The midshipman had nothing 

 about him to give them but some parrots which he had 

 shot. These they refused, drawing away when he offered 

 them, in token either of extreme fear or disgust. The 

 people were very old and gray-headed, the children young. 

 The hair of the man was bushy about his head, and his 

 beard long and rough : the woman's hair was cropped short 

 round her head. They were very dark-coloured, but not 

 black, nor was their hair woolly. 



On our return to the ship we found also that our second 

 lieutenant, who had gone out striking, had met with great 

 success. He had observed that the large sting-rays, of 

 which there are abundance in the bay, followed the flowing 

 tide into very shallow water ; he therefore took the oppor- 

 tunity, and struck several in not more than two or three 

 feet of water. One that was larger than the rest weighed, 

 when his guts were taken out, 239 Ibs. 



Our surgeon, who strayed a long way from the others, 

 with one man in his company, in coming out of a thicket 

 observed six Indians standing about sixty yards from him. 

 One of these gave a signal by a word, whereupon a lance 

 was thrown out of the wood at him, which, however, did 

 not come very near him. The six Indians, on seeing that 

 it had not taken effect, ran away in an instant, but on 

 turning about towards the place from whence the lance 

 came, he saw a young lad, who had undoubtedly thrown 

 it, come down from a tree where he had been stationed, 

 probably for that purpose. He descended, however, and 

 ran away so quickly that it was impossible even to attempt 

 to pursue him. 



6th. Went to sea this morning with a fair breeze of wind. 

 The land we sailed past during the whole forenoon appeared 

 broken and likely for harbours. We dined to-day upon a 

 sting-ray weighing 336 Ibs., which was caught yesterday, 



