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Early Australian Voyages: Pelsart, Tasman, Dampier by John Pinkerton
page 48 of 145 (33%)
bad weather to stay till May 9th. We purchased there, by way of
exchange, six thousand cocoa-nuts, and a hundred bags of pysanghs or
Indian figs. When we first began to trade with these people, one of our
seamen was wounded by an arrow that one of the natives let fly, either
through malice or inadvertency. We were at that very juncture
endeavouring to bring our ships close to the shore, which so terrified
these islanders, that they brought of their own accord on board us, the
man who had shot the arrow and left him at our mercy. We found them
after this accident much more tractable than before in every respect. Our
sailors, therefore, pulled off the iron hoops from some of the old water-
casks, stuck them into wooden handles, and filing them to an edge, sold
these awkward knives to the inhabitants for their fruits.

In all probability they had not forgot what happened to our people on
July 16th, 1616, in the days of William Schovten: these people, it seems,
treated him very ill; upon which James le Maire brought his ship close to
the shore, and fired a broadside through the woods; the bullets, flying
through the trees, struck the negroes with such a panic, that they fled
in an instant up into the country, and durst not show their heads again
till they had made full satisfaction for what was past, and thereby
secured their safety for the time to come; and he traded with them
afterwards very peaceably, and with mutual satisfaction.

This account of our author's seems to have been taken upon memory, and is
not very exact. Schovten's seamen, or rather the petty officer who
commanded his long boat, insulted the natives grossly before they offered
any injury to his people; and then, notwithstanding they fired upon them
with small arms, the islanders obliged them to retreat; so that they were
forced to bring the great guns to bear upon the island before they could
reduce them. These people do not deserve to be treated as savages,
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