Marion.
1772came with friendly intentions, set fire to the heap without hesitation.
This was no sooner done, than they retired precipitately to a small
hill, and threw a shower of stones, by which captain Marion and the
commander of the Castries were both wounded. Some shots were
then fired; and the French, returning to their boats, coasted along
the beach to an open place in the middle of the bay, where there
was no hill or eminence from whence they could be annoyed. The
savages sent their women and children into the woods, and followed
the boats along shore; and on their putting in to land, one of the
natives set up a hideous cry, and immediately a shower of spears
was discharged. A black servant was hurt in the leg; and a firing
then commenced, by which several of the natives were wounded, and
one killed. They fled to the woods, making a frightful howling,
but carried off such of the wounded as were unable to follow.
Fifteen men, armed with muskets, pursued them; and on entering
amongst the trees, they found a dying savage. This man was a
little more than five feet seven inches high; his breast was marked
like those of the Mozambique Caffres, and his skin appeared as black;
but on washing off the soot and dirt, his natural colour appeared to
be reddish. The spears, which it was feared might have been poisoned,
were proved not to be so by the facility with which the wound
of the black servant was healed.
After the flight of the savages, captain Marion sent two officers with detachments, to search for water, and for trees proper to make a foremast and bowsprit for the Castries; but after traversing two leagues of country without meeting a single inhabitant, they returned unsuccessful in both pursuits; nor could any fresh water be found during the six days which the ships remained in Frederik Hendrik's Bay.
The land here is quite sandy, but covered with brush-wood, and with small trees which the savages had mostly stripped of the bark for cooking their shell fish. The greater part of the trees were
burnt at the foot; but amongst them there was a kind of pine, less