Lieutenant Cook having anchored, on the 8th, in a bay, at the entrance of a small river, went on shore in the evening, with the pinnace and yawl, accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, and attended with a party of men. Being desirous of conversing with some natives, whom he had observed on the opposite side of the river from that on which he had landed, he ordered the yawl in, to carry himself and his companions over, and left the pinnace at the entrance. When they came near the place where the Indians were assembled, the latter all ran away; and the gentlemen having left four boys to take care of the yawl, walked up to several huts, which were about two or three hundred yards from the water-side. They had not gone very far, when four men, armed with long lances, rushed out of the woods, and, running up to attack the boat, would certainly have cut her off, if they had not been discovered by the people in the pinnace, who called to the boys to drop down the stream. The boys instantly obeyed; but being closely pursued by the natives, the cockswain of the pinnace, to whom the charge of the boats was committed, fired a musket over their heads. At this they stopped and looked around them; but their alarm speedily subsiding, they brandished their lances in a threatening manner, and in a few minutes renewed the pursuit. The firing of a second musket over their heads did not draw from them any kind of notice. At last one of them having lifted up his spear to dart it at the boat, another piece was fired, by which he was shot dead. At the fall of their associate, the three remaining Indians stood for awhile motionless, and seemed petrified with astonishment. No sooner had they recovered themselves, than they went back, dragging after them the dead body, which, however, they were obliged to leave, that it might not retard their flight. Lieutenant Cook and his friends, who had straggled to a little distance from each other, were drawn together upon the report of the first musket, and returned speedily to the boat, in which having crossed the river, they soon beheld the Indian lying dead upon the ground. After their return to the ship, they could hear the people on shore talking with great earnestness, and in a very loud tone of voice.
Inequality Report
Narrative of the Voyages Round the World, Performed by Captain James Cook: with an Account of His Life During the Previo — Part 33
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