her, to assist us. We called to them not to come too near, telling
them what condition we were in; however, they stood in near to us,
and one of the men taking the end of a tow-line in his hand, and
keeping our boat between him and the enemy, so that they could not
perfectly see him, swam on board us, and made fast the line to the
boat: upon which we slipped out a little cable, and leaving our
anchor behind, they towed us out of reach of the arrows; we all the
while lying close behind the barricade we had made. As soon as we
were got from between the ship and the shore, that we could lay her
side to the shore, she ran along just by them, and poured in a
broadside among them, loaded with pieces of iron and lead, small
bullets, and such stuff, besides the great shot, which made a
terrible havoc among them.
When we were got on board and out of danger, we had time to examine
into the occasion of this fray; and indeed our supercargo, who had
been often in those parts, put me upon it; for he said he was sure
the inhabitants would not have touched us after we had made a
truce, if we had not done something to provoke them to it. At
length it came out that an old woman, who had come to sell us some
milk, had brought it within our poles, and a young woman with her,
who also brought us some roots or herbs; and while the old woman
(whether she was mother to the young woman or no they could not
tell) was selling us the milk, one of our men offered some rudeness
to the girl that was with her, at which the old woman made a great
noise: however, the seaman would not quit his prize, but carried
her out of the old woman’s sight among the trees, it being almost
dark; the old woman went away without her, and, as we may suppose,
made an outcry among the people she came from; who, upon notice,
raised that great army upon us in three or four hours, and it was
great odds but we had all been destroyed.
One of our men was killed with a lance thrown at him just at the
beginning of the attack, as he sallied out of the tent they had
made; the rest came off free, all but the fellow who was the
occasion of all the mischief, who paid dear enough for his
brutality, for we could not hear what became of him for a great
while. We lay upon the shore two days after, though the wind
presented, and made signals for him, and made our boat sail up
shore and down shore several leagues, but in vain; so we were
obliged to give him over; and if he alone had suffered for it, the
loss had been less. I could not satisfy myself, however, without
venturing on shore once more, to try if I could learn anything of
him or them; it was the third night after the action that I had a
great mind to learn, if I could by any means, what mischief we had
done, and how the game stood on the Indians’ side. I was careful
to do it in the dark, lest we should be attacked again: but I
ought indeed to have been sure that the men I went with had been
under my command, before I engaged in a thing so hazardous and
mischievous as I was brought into by it, without design.
We took twenty as stout fellows with us as any in the ship, besides
the supercargo and myself, and we landed two hours before midnight,
at the same place where the Indians stood drawn up in the evening
before. I landed here, because my design, as I have said, was
chiefly to see if they had quitted the field, and if they had left
any marks behind them of the mischief we had done them, and I
thought if we could surprise one or two of them, perhaps we might