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 
