INTERVIEW WITH NATIVES. 9,$\ 



containing thirty or forty men, evidently determined 

 to dispute our passage. When we came within 

 about 150 yards of them, we lay on our oars. They 

 were all shouting and gesticulating, flourishing their 

 paddles and splashing up water into the air towards 

 us, while we observed several adjusting their bows 

 and casting loose their bundles of arrows. There 

 was then a regular war-cry, a measured beat against 

 the sides of the canoes with their paddles, and the 

 two ends of the line advanced towards us. Captain 

 Blackwood accordingly ordered the muskets to be 

 got out, giving orders, if it were necessary to fire, 

 to aim at first principally at the canoes, so as to 

 give them some notion what our weapons were ca- 

 pable of, and, if possible, frighten them off without 

 bloodshed. When within about sixty yards, two 

 arrows were shot, as if to prove the distance, one of 

 which flew over us, but the other dropped short. 

 Captain Blackwood raised his rifle and put a bullet 

 into a canoe very near the feet of two of the most for- 

 ward, and they leant down and looked over, as if won- 

 dering what it could possibly be, when, at the sound 

 of several muskets and the whistling of the balls, they 

 jumped overboard, and swam for the woods. The 

 other canoes took to flight up the channel, two or 

 three more balls being sent skimming along the 

 water alongside of them, to shew they were still 

 within our reach. None of the men were struck, but 

 the deep and lofty woods on each side of us lent an 

 echo to the rattling of the musketry, that produced 



