A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 15: 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 15: 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
"As we drew near, some of the Indians came down on the rocks, and waved
for us to be gone, but seeing we disregarded them, they altered their
notes. Here we found six large canoes hauled up on the beach, most of
them double ones, and a great many people; though not so many as one
might expect from the number of houses and size of the canoes. Leaving
the boat's crew to guard the boat, I stepped ashore with the marines
(the corporal and five men), and searched a good many of their houses,
but found nothing to give me any suspicion. Three or four well-beaten
paths led farther into the woods, where were many more houses; but the
people continuing friendly, I thought it unnecessary to continue our
search. Coming down to the beach, one of the Indians had brought a
bundle of _Hepatoos_ (long spears), but seeing I looked very earnestly
at him, he put them on the ground, and walked about with seeming
unconcern. Some of the people appearing to be frightened, I gave a
looking-glass to one, and a large nail to another. From this place the
bay ran, as nearly as I could guess, N.N.W. a good mile, where it ended
in a long sandy beach. I looked all around with the glass, but saw no
boat, canoe, or sign of inhabitant. I therefore contented myself with
firing some guns, which I had done in every cove as I went along."
"I now kept close to the east shore, and came to another settlement,
where the Indians invited us ashore. I enquired of them about the boat,
but they pretended ignorance. They appeared very friendly here, and sold
us some fish. Within an hour after we left this place, in a small beach
adjoining to Grass Cove, we saw a very large double canoe just hauled
up, with two men and a dog. The men, on seeing us, left their canoe, and
ran up into the woods. This gave me reason to suspect I should here get
tidings of the cutter. We went ashore, and searched the canoe, where we
found one of the rullock-ports of the cutter, and some shoes, one of
which was known to belong to Mr Woodhouse, one of our midshipmen. One of
the people, at the same time, brought me a piece of meat, which he took
to be some of the salt meat belonging to the cutter's crew. On examining
this, and smelling to it, I found it was fresh. Mr Fannin (the master)
who was with me, supposed it was dog's flesh, and I was of the same
opinion; for I still doubted their being cannibals. But we were soon
convinced by most horrid and undeniable proof."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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