Having repaired our ships and taken every thing belonging to them on board, we put to sea, and sailed seven days with the wind at E.N.E. beating to windward, after which we fell in with several islands, some of which were inhabited and others not, near one of which we came to anchor, called Ity[11] by the natives, on which we saw a great crowd of people.  Arming our boats with a good number of picked men and three pieces of ordnance, we approached the shore at a place where there were at least 400 men and many women.  All of these, as noticed in formerly visited places, went entirely naked, of strong bodies, and warlike appearance, and were all armed with bows, arrows, and lances, many of them having round or square shields for their defence, which did not at all impede them in discharging their arrows.  All of them had their bodies painted of many colours, and were adorned with the feather’s of various birds; and the friendly Indians who had accompanied us from the continent assured us that their painting and adornment were sure indications that they were prepared for battle.  Accordingly, when we had reached to within an arrow-flight of the beach, they all advanced into the sea towards us, and began to let fly a vast number of arrows, using their utmost efforts to prevent our landing, insomuch that we were constrained to make several discharges from our artillery against them.  Oh hearing the reports of our guns, and seeing a good many of their companions slain, all the rest retreated to the shore.  Having called a council of war, it was resolved, that forty-two of us should land and attack them boldly.  We accordingly leaped from the boats with our arms in our hands, and were so manfully opposed, that the battle lasted almost two hours, till at length we gained a complete victory, killing a considerable number of the natives, and taking some prisoners.  The enemy then fled into the woods, several of them being slain in their flight by our hand-guns[12], but we did not pursue far, as we were already much fatigued.  We returned therefore to our ships, the seven friendly natives being greatly rejoiced at our victory.

Next day we saw an immense number of the islanders collecting on the shore, sounding horns and other instruments used by them in war, all painted and adorned with feathers, so that it was wonderful to behold them.  It was again determined in council that we should go on shore in force, and should treat the natives as enemies if they rejected our friendship.  We accordingly landed in a body, unopposed by the islanders, who seemed afraid of our cannon.  Our force consisted on this occasion of four bodies of fifty-seven men, each under its proper commander, and we had a long and severe engagement with the natives hand to hand.  After many of them were slain, they at length took to flight, and we pursued them to one of their villages, where we took twenty-five prisoners, and burned the village; and we killed and wounded a great many more