Page 183
An. 1685
Agreement of the English with the Darien Indians.
and they might all expect a very kind Reception. Upon these assurances 20 or 30 of them went off pre- sently, in 2 or 3 Canoas laden with Plantains, Bona- noes, Fowls, &c. and Captain Wright having treated them on board, went ashore with them, and was en- tertained by them, and Presents were made on each fide. Captain Wright gave the Boy to his Father in a very handsom English Dress, which he had caused to be made purposely for him ; and an Agreement was immediately struck up between the English and these Indians, who invited the English through their Coun- try into the South Seas.
Puisuant to this Agreement, the English, when they came upon any such design, or for Traffick with them, were to give a certain signal which they pitcht upon, whereby they might be known. But it hap- pen'd that Mr. La Sound, the French Captain spoken of a little before, being then one of Captain Wright's Men, learnt this Signal, and staying ashore at Petit- Guavres, upon Captain Wright's going thither soon after, who had his Commission from thence, he gave the other French there, such an account of the Agreement before mentioned, and the business of entring the South Seas thereupon, that he got at the head of about 120 of them, who made that unsuc- cessful attempt upon Cheapo, as I faid ; making use of the signal they had learnt for passing the Indians Country, who at that time could not distinguish so well between the several Nations of the Europeans, as they can since.
From such small beginnings arose those great stirs that have been since made all over the South Seas, viz. from the Letters we took, and from the Friendship contracted with these Indians by means of John Gret. Yet this Friendship had like to have been stifled in its Infancy ; for within a few months after an English trading Sloop came on this Coast from Jamaica, and John Gret, who by this time had advanced himself te be