Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/295

] island. Out of gratitude, perhaps, for the patience with which we allowed them to cheat us, they committed no such act of treachery as General Bougainville, in his voyage round the world, had experienced at their hands.

Four canoes were, all this while, dealing with the Esperance. One of them was manned by natives, of whom sixteen were paddlers, and the rest warriors.

We learned from the people on board the Esperance, that this war-canoe had long kept at a distance; but ventured to come alongside, on seeing the different articles which their countrymen in the little canoes had procured.

The order with which the savages were stationed in the great canoe, indicated a kind of naval tactics. A warrior, armed with a bow and arrows, stood between every two paddlers on each side, and intermediate parties of two or three warriors stood with their faces towards the stern of the canoe, in order to observe the movements in that direction, and to fight while retreating. Those warriors showed no hostile disposition; they seemed very fond of the wine and brandy which was given to them, but did not eat bacon, without a degree of repugnance.

Those savages had excellent teeth, and found no