TO THE COAST OF AMERICA. g 



more ; and, in cafe that any of us fhould by chance 

 efcape from death, to diftribute fuch among them as 

 flaves, and then to take porTeffion of our effects ; for 

 our planks, our veffels, and other matters, were of 

 great value to them. Confidering the imminent dan- 

 ger that awaited us, now dreadfully increafed by the 

 artifice of the favages, I determined to prevent their 

 hoftilities, by taking porTeffion of the forementioned 

 rock on which they had fettled themfelves as in a fort, 

 before they could get their reinforcement. In the 

 mean time the favages never ceafed from making va- 

 rious attempts againfh us. Thefe, as well as the dif- 

 proportion between our numbers and their's, efpecially 

 after the augmentation they expected, determined me 

 to rufh, with all my people, upon their fortrefs and 

 drive them from it. We marched under the dis- 

 charge of our fire-arms ; but as this did them no in- 

 jury, they made a violent refiftance with their arrows ; 

 whereupon I found rgyfelf neceffitated to oppofe them 

 with five cannons of two-pound balls that we had 

 brought with us ; • yet leaving the moil of them on the 

 projections of the rock, pointing them at their habi- 

 tations, in order, by doing them forne mifchief, to 

 ftrike thefe people, who were not acquainted with the 

 effects of fuch arms, with the greater terror. And in 

 fact fo new and unufual an appearance v frightened and 

 enraged them more than all the damage they fufFered 

 from it ; they now no longer entertained their former 

 contemptuous opinion of us ; fled from their fortrefs 

 and abandoned it to us, without our lofing one fingfe 

 man ; and hurting only five, who were indeed feverely, 

 though not dangeroufly, wounded. With all the care 



I took 



