OBLIGED TO FIRE ON THEM. l 265 



hoped we might acquire some sort of information, 

 or open a communication in a more friendly manner 

 with the rest. 



It was now rapidly getting dusk, and the canoes 

 were advancing in a line, the men flourishing their 

 paddles, encouraging each other, and handling and 

 adjusting their bows and arrows. When they were 

 within about 100 yards, Captain Blackwood and 

 myself stood up on the taffrail and waved our hats, 

 shouted " poud, poud," and told them in Erroob we 

 were friends, and invited them to come to us. 

 They ceased their cries and listened ; and I thought 

 once I heard them say to each other, " Errooba." 

 They seemed to understand " toorree," as they 

 answered it with a general cry, but in words we 

 could not understand. We held up hatchets to 

 them, but nothing would induce them to depart 

 from their hostile attitude ; and when about sixty 

 yards from us, two arrows were discharged, which 

 passed over our heads. Captain Blackwood then 

 gave the word to fire ; and there was a general dis- 

 charge, several of the men loading again and firing 

 without orders, and before it could be stopped I 

 dare say thirty muskets had been fired.* The 

 large canoe then seemed quite empty, drifting up 

 with the tide, and pursued by Grant in the cutter. 

 As soon, however, as the firing ceased, several men 



* The men were just at this time becoming exasperated, with 

 the loss of their messmates in the boats, and expressed great 

 hatred against the blacks. 



