Page:Narrative of a survey of the intertropical and western coasts of Australia, Volume 1.djvu/102

 48 - SURVEY OF THE INTERTROPICAL Isis. at the same time loudly vociferating and pointing Feb. 7. tO U,S to retire. Much unintelligible parley now ensued, during which we endeavoured to convince them that we only wanted fresh water, and had no intention of molesting them; but although they appeared perfectly to understand our meaning, they were determined upon resisting our attempt to land. A stone thrown at us by one of the fore- most, who stood half uP to' his middle in the water, was an earnest of their hostile intentions if we persistS, and they were on the. point of assaulting ds with a shower of spears, when we pulled out and returned on board, leaving the In- dians masters of the field. There was no mis. chievous feeling in their conduct towards us, for �we were in their power, and had they been in. clined, they might have speared the whole of our party before a musket could have been fired by us. Their object seemed to be merely to get rid of us, and in this they completely and very fairly succeeded, for our party was not nu- merous enough to force a landing without resort- ing to means, which would have entirely destroyed the friendly intercourse we had just held with the last tribe, and for which we were perhaps solely indebted to the opportune capture that we made upon our arrival. In consequence of the communication that we

�