BAY OF AMPHILA. 
175 
I have been induced to dwell more particularly on tliis occur- 
rence on account of the many fatal accidents which have ensued 
from the misconduct of individuals on similar occasions, in pal- 
liation of which it has been too much the practice to cast hasty 
imputations of barbarity upon the natives of different countries, 
whose conduct, were the facts impartially examined, might not 
only prove justifiable, but possibly meritorious, from the due 
chastisement they had inflicted on the rude invaders of their 
rights. A captain of a ship ought never to permit a boat to go 
ashore on a strange coast, without sending, if possible, an in- 
terpreter with the party, and even then he should be particularly 
cautious in selecting for the service a steady officer, of mild 
conduct and conciliating manners, who would consider that, in 
seeking water merely, he was asking for an indulgence which, 
though apparently trifling in his estimation, might be of infinite 
importance to those with whom he had to communicate, while 
the men should at the same time be strictly enjoined not to stir 
from the side of their officer, nor to attempt laying their hands on 
the slightest article until some agreement should have been entered 
into with the natives or some interchange of presents should have 
taken place. Were these circumstances more minutely attended 
to, and the peculiar prejudices and customs of the people more 
generally respected, I feel convinced, that the inhabitants of 
most countries would, in the first instance, be naturally inclined 
to treat strangers with hospitality; and accidents like those 
alluded to would prove of much rarer occurrence. These senti- 
ments I have imbibed from frequent observation on the thought- 
less and unguarded conduct of our seamen^ and from remarking 
