From the information I could collect concerning this unfortunate occurrence, it appeared that the Papuas, who were probably unacquainted with the deadly effect of our weapons, attacked our people in great numbers when the latter were off their guard, and probably without arms.[50] Several shots were fired at them from the muskets, and from the one-pounder loaded with grape-shot, which must have done great execution. The courageous Javanese Mandor, who had remained ashore with the jolly-boat for some time after the midshipman had retreated with the tender, in order to bring off the wounded men, had kept up a constant fire at the natives with two muskets, and declared that he had seen three fall, who were carried into the forest by their companions. The unfortunate soldier, Ziengo, had been set upon by a number at once, and had received the most deadly of his numerous wounds from an axe that had been thrown away by some of our party. The natives would not have left him but for the continued fire from the jolly-boat. Notwithstanding the superior numbers of the natives, our people would never have been routed had they been on their guard. Unfortunately, my orders were not followed, and they separated from each other, thinking more of amusing themselves by bathing and walking, than of preparing against attack, which gave the natives an opportunity of falling upon them unawares, and had the latter known how to avail themselves of the confusion they had created, our loss must have been much greater than it was. The conduct of my countrymen grieved me deeply. At the watering-place we could find no traces of people having been there since the previous night. The arms that had been thrown away, and the clothes left by the bathers, remained untouched. The ground, from the beach to the forest, was strewed with arrows and spears, among which were two intended for striking fish; these were provided with iron points, but the others were merely bamboos, the ends of which had been pointed and hardened in the fire. The arrows had wooden points and barbs; the bows, by which they were discharged, being formed merely of a bamboo-stick with a string of rattan. The force with which these arrows were shot was so small, that even from a short distance they scarcely did more than penetrate the clothes of our people, many of whom found the wooden points of the arrows sticking in their garments after the affair was over. As the cocoa-nut trees are not numerous on the coast, while their produce forms an indispensable article of subsistence, I caused those scattered along the coast to be cut down, partly to show that we had not been driven away by fear, and partly to deter them from committing similar misdeeds in future. The interpreters assured me this would be a severe chastisement, and that they were in the habit of killing the relatives of those who injured the cocoa-nut trees.