On the margin of the river, where there was a natural clearing of an acre or so, another party gathered, including also several women. They were talking and gesticulating, and it would be interesting could we know what they said to one another. When the _Sarah Constant_, which was leading, and a hundred yards in advance of the smaller boats, came opposite this group, two of the warriors were seen to fit arrows to their bowstrings, aim carefully, and let them fly. The feathered missiles could be easily traced as they curved upward in a beautiful parabola, and then darted, head downward, into the clear current, not having traversed half the distance between the land and the ship. The men crowding the decks could well afford to smile at such efforts. Captain Newport suggested that it would be a good thing to fire a volley into the party, as they had done some days before near the mouth of the river when greeted by a shower of arrows.