Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/264

216 not sustained any damage. I saw two human bones, each suspended by a cord to a long pole stuck in the ground; the one was a tibia, the other a thigh bone.

I observed, on the hills which I crossed to return to our landing place, the tree called commersonia echinata, which is very common in the Moluccas. Amongst the different sorts of shrubs which I gathered was a jessamine remarkable for the plainness of its leaves and its flowers, which have no smell, and are of the colour of marigolds.

Several fires lighted near the summit of the neighbouring mountain convinced us that it served as a retreat for the natives.

On arriving at our landing place we found a great number of savages who had assembled there since our departure. They informed us that several of the inhabitants had been wounded in the affair of the preceding evening, and that one had already expired of his wounds. They did not manifest any hostile dispositions towards us; but a boat belonging to the Esperance being at a considerable distance from thence towards the east, had been attacked by another party of savages, who thought they were in force sufficient to make themselves matters of it, but fortunately they failed in the attempt.

We were told on arriving on board that not