198 
A VOYAGE TO 
1778. happy circumftance I did not know till after we had left the 
January, ^ jq an( j. t j lat a q m y me afures were directed as if nothing 
of the kind had happened. Mr. Williapifon told me, that, 
after the man fell, his countrymen took him up, carried 
him off, and then retired from the boat; but ffcill they made 
fignals for our people to land, which he declined. It did 
not appear to Mr. Wifliamfon, that the natives had any de~ 
fign to kill, or even to hurt, any of his party; hut they 
feemed excited by mere curiolity, to get from them what 
they had, being, at the fame time, ready to give, in return, 
any thing of their own. 
After the boats were on board, I difpatched one of them 
to lie in the bell anchoring-ground; and as foon as fhe had 
got to this ftation, I bore down with the fhips, and anchored 
in twenty-five fathoms water; the bottom a fine grey fand. 
The Eaft point of the road, which was the low point be¬ 
fore mentioned, bore South 5 T Eaft; the Weft point, North 
65° Weft; and the village, behind which the water was faid 
to be, North Eaft by Eaft, diftant one mile. But, little more 
than a quarter of a mile from us, there were breakers, which 
I did not fee till after the Refolution was placed. The Dif- 
covery anchored to the Eaftward of us, and farther from 
the land. The fhips being thus ftationed, between three 
and four o’clock, I went afhore with three armed boats, and 
twelve marines, to examine the water, and to try the dif- 
pofition of the inhabitants, feveral hundred of whom were 
affembled on a fandy beach before the village; behind it 
was a narrow valley, the bottom of which was occupied by 
the piece of water. 
The very inftant I leaped on fhore, the collected body of 
the natives all fell flat upon their faces, and remained in 
that very humble pofture, till, by expreflive figns, I prevailed 
3 upon 
