49 
appeared in great numbers on the shore. 
They were mostly clothed in skins, armed 
with spears, and accompanied by a vast 
number of dogs. A party of them seized 
the man who had landed, and conducted 
him behind the sand-hills that line the coast, 
and which hid him entirely from our view. 
Twelve of my people now launched them- 
selves on different spars, and whatever pieces 
of timber they could find. They braved all 
difficulties, and at last gained the land. No 
sooner had they reached the beach than the 
natives came down, seized and conducted 
them also behind the sand-hills. As it was 
impossible for us, who remained on board, 
to discover what they were about, and ob- 
serving several parties of the natives appear 
at different times on the shore, but un- 
accompanied by any of my people, we con- 
ceived that all those who had landed were 
massacred, and that a similar calamity 
awaited the whole of us. We, who had 
remained on board the ship, were obliged to 
shelter ourselves in the fore-castle ; as the 
wreck, becoming a fixed object, the sea 
made over her, and there was no other part 
