48 
SURVEY OF THE INTEKTROPICAL 
1818. at the same time loudly vociferating and pointing 
Feb 727. to us to retire. Much unintelligible parley now 
ensued, during which we endeavoured to convince 
them that we only wanted fresh water, and had no 
intention of molesting them ; but although they 
appeared perfectly to understand our meaning, 
they were determined upon resisting our attempt 
to land. A stone thrown at us by one of the fore- 
most, who stood half up to his middle in the 
water, was an earnest of their hostile intentions 
if we persisted, and they were on the point of 
assaulting us with a shower of spears, when we 
pulled out and returned on board, leaving the In- 
dians masters of the field. There was no mis- 
chievous feeling in their conduct towards us, for 
we were in their power, and had they been in- 
clined, they might have speared the whole of our 
party before a musket could have been fired 
by us. Their object seemed to be merely to 
get rid of us, and in this they completely and 
very fairly succeeded, for our party was not nu- 
merous enough to force a landing without resort- 
ing to means, which would have entirely destroyed 
the friendly intercourse we had just held with the 
last tribe, and for which we were perhaps solely 
indebted to the opportune capture that we made 
upon our arrival. 
In consequence of the communication that we 
