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 lbs. 
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 lbs, which was caught yesterday, 
