Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/345

] above the ground upon stakes, like those of the Papous.

These savages wished us to land upon their island, but observing that we receded farther from it, in consequence of the currents which carried us to the westward, they left us and returned to their coasts.

Two of the canoes were still quite close to the Esperance at half after three o'clock, when we observed three muskets fired from that vessel, upon which the savages fled, rowing with all their might. We soon learnt that the men in one of the canoes had thrown stones at the crew of the ship without the least provocation having been given. None of the sailors, however, had been wounded by this act of treachery; and the muskets had been fired only to terrify them.

Soon after two boats were dispached in order to sound several creeks along the coast; where we hoped to find good anchorage. We found ourselves disappointed; as it was necessary to approach within a hundred yards of the coast, before the bottom could be reached with a line of seventy yards; and at the distance of two hundred yards we could not strike the ground with a line of less than a hundred and sixteen.

Notwithstanding the fright which the muskets fired at their companions might have given them,