A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 12: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the; Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea; and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present TimeKerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 12: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the; Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea; and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
the western point of the bay, and many Indians among the trees: That
being alarmed at these appearances, he hastily left the house where
they had been received, and with the men, made the best of his way
towards the boat; but that, before he could get on board, the Indians
attacked as well those that were with him as those that were in the
boat, both from the canoes and the shore. Their number, he said, was
between three and four hundred: Their weapons were bows and arrows, the
bows were six feet five inches long, and the arrows four feet four,
which they discharged in platoons, as regularly as the best disciplined
troops in Europe: That it being necessary to defend himself and his
people when they were thus attacked, they fired among the Indians to
favour their getting into their boat, and did great execution, killing
many and wounding more: That they were not however discouraged, but
continued to press forward, still discharging their arrows by platoons
in almost one continued flight: That the grappling being foul,
occasioned a delay in hauling off the boat, during which time he, and
half of the boat's crew, were desperately wounded: That at last they cut
the rope, and ran off under their foresail, still keeping up their fire
with blunderbusses, each loaded with eight or ten pistol balls, which
the Indians returned with their arrows, those on shore wading after them
breast-high into the sea: When they had got clear of these, the canoes
pursued them with great fortitude and vigour, till one of them was sunk,
and the numbers on board the rest greatly reduced by the fire, and then
they returned to the shore.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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