"Then retire at once, Mr. Hardy. We will follow you."
As they issued from under the trees, the arrows again fell fast.
"Don't fire," the captain said; "perhaps they may issue out, and then we will give them a lesson--that it is better not to interfere with men who are doing them no harm."
This proved to be the case. No one had been hit by the fire from the boats and, now that the shooting had ceased, the natives, with shouts of triumph, ran out from the forest. There were some hundreds of them.
The captain hailed the boat in front.
"Stop rowing, Mr. Hardy, and open fire on them.
"Now, lads," he went on, to his own crew, "fire steadily, and don't throw away a shot."
As the rattle of musketry broke out again from both boats, many of the natives dropped. The others stopped, at once. A shower of arrows was discharged; and then, as the fire was kept up, they fled back into the woods; and the men, again taking to their oars, rowed out without further molestation to the brig. None of the crew had been killed, but four were wounded by the arrows.