With the bow, alone, they were able to show how expert they were.
Indeed, the Spaniards were, in no slight degree, astonished by the extraordinary power and accuracy of their shooting.

This Ned accounted for, to them, by the long practice that he had had among the Indians; declaring that, among the tribes beyond the mountains, he was by no means an exceptionally good shot--which, indeed, was true enough at short distances, for at these the Indians could shoot with marvellous dexterity.
"By San Josef!" exclaimed one of the Spanish officers, after watching the boys shooting at a target, two hundred yards distant, with their powerful bows; "it reminds me of the way that those accursed English archers draw their bows, and send their arrows singing through the air.

In faith, too, these men, with their blue eyes and their light hair, remind one of these heretic dogs." "Who are these English ?" Ned asked, carelessly.

"I have heard of no such tribe.

Do they live near the seacoast, or among the mountains ?" "They are no tribe, but a white people, like ourselves," the captain said.