Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/319

] shewing their cocoa-nuts, bananas, and several other fruits; at length some of them swam off with those productions of their island in exchange for such pieces of cloth of different colours as were intended for them.

Our boats on their return, at the entrance into the channel, and near a small village on the coast of New Jersey, were just leaving these savages, when one of them was seen to stand up in the middle of his canoe, and prepare to shoot an arrow at a man belonging to the boat of the Esperance. Every one seized his arms, but nevertheless the islander recommenced his signs of hostility, whereupon one of our men presented his musket, but the savage, without being terrified with this menace, bent his bow very deliberately and let fly an arrow, which struck one of the rowers on the forehead, although at the distance of about eighty yards. This attack was instantly returned by the discharge of a musket and blunderbuss, the latter of which having sent a shower of bullets into the canoe, from which the arrow had been discharged, the three islanders who were in it immediately jumped overboard. Soon after they returned to their canoe and paddled hastily towards the shore, but a ball at length reaching the aggressor, all three again jumped into the water, leaving their