Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

1835. CONDUCT — CANOES. 561 evening before his death, that the Indians (meaning the natives of the Navigator Islands) were worthier people than ourselves ! " Observing rigidly the orders I have received, I have always treated them with the greatest mildness ; but I confess to you, that if 1 were to undertake another voyage of the same kind, I would demand different orders. " A navigator, on quitting Europe, ought to consider the savages as enemies, very weak indeed, and whom it would be vmgenerous to attack and barbarous to destroy, but whose assaults he has a right to prevent when authorised to do so by well-grounded suspicions."' — Voyage of La Perouse, vol. iii. p. 413. When a vessel approaches the Feejee Islands, numberless canoes put off, and soon surround her so closely, that unless the wind is pretty fresh, she is placed in no slight jeopardy. At such a time the principal chief ought to be invited on board ; and presents should be given to him, while he is made to un- derstand that it is necessary he should order the canoes to keep off. His commands will be implicitly obeyed ; and while he is on board, and well treated, there will be less risk ; but he must not be relied on implicitly. Some of the canoes are very long, from sixty to eighty feet in length : and when two such are fastened together, with a light structure erected upon them, the men who stand on their raised deck are above the level of a small vessel's bulwark.* * Heaps of stones form not only ballast but ammunition for these for- midable canoes. Indeed, among all savage nations, a stone held in the hand, or thrown, perhaps fi'om a sling, is a common, and by no means des- picable weapon. These easily collected missiles, and the manner of using them, recal to mind the victory gained by the English fleet over that of France, oflf Sluys, on the 22d of June 1340 ; in which " though the battle was fought on the sea, it could scarcely be called maritime ; for little depended on the accidents of winds and waves, or on the skill of a com- mander in availing himself of them. Piles of stones on the deck formed a part of the magazines. The archers of both nations used their cross- bows as if they had been on land. They employed grappling irons for boarding, and came to such close quarters as to exhibit a succession of single combats." — Mackintosh, vol. i. p. 294. VOL. II. So