SEPT. 1770 FIRE THROWN BY NATIVES 327 



yards beyond us, and running towards us, the foremost threw 

 something out of his hand which flew on one side of him 

 and burned exactly like gunpowder. The other two 

 immediately threw two darts at us, on which we fired. 

 Most of our guns were loaded with small shot, which, at the 

 distance they were from us, I suppose they hardly felt, for 

 they moved not at all, but immediately threw a third dart, 

 on which we loaded and fired again. Our balls, I suppose, 

 this time fell near them, but none of them were materially 

 hurt, as they ran away with great alacrity. From this 

 specimen of the people we immediately concluded that 

 nothing was to be got here but by force, which would, of 

 course, be attended with the destruction of many of these 

 poor people, whose territories we certainly had no right to 

 invade, either as discoverers or people in real want of pro- 

 visions. We therefore resolved to go into our boat and 

 leave this coast to some after-comer who might have either 

 more time or better opportunities of gaining the friendship 

 of its inhabitants. Before we had got abreast of her, how- 

 ever, we saw the two people in her make signals to us that 

 more Indians were coming along shore, and before we had 

 got into the water we saw them come round a point about 

 500 yards from us. They had probably met the three who 

 first attacked us, for on seeing us they halted and seemed 

 to wait till the main body should come up, nor did they 

 come nearer us while we waded to the boat. When we 

 were embarked and afloat, we rowed towards them and 

 fired some muskets over their heads into the trees, on 

 which they walked gradually off, continuing to throw 

 abundance of their fires, whatever they might be designed 

 for. We guessed their numbers to be about 100. After 

 we had watched them and their behaviour as long as we 

 chose, we returned to the ship, where our friends had 

 suffered much anxiety for our sakes, imagining that the fires 

 thrown by the Indians were real muskets, so much did they 

 resemble the fire and smoke made by the firing of one. 

 These " fire-arms " were also seen by Torres (see p. li.) 



The place where we landed we judged to be near Cabo de 



