3$ L 2 cook's second voyage may, 



had pursued the thief and taken them from him. I 

 know not, if thev took this trouble of their own 

 accord, or by order of Otoo. I rewarded them, and 

 made no farther inquiry about it. These men, as 

 well as some others present, assured me that it was 

 one of Maritata's people who had committed this 

 theft ; which vexed me that I had let his canoes so 

 easily slip through my ringers. Here, I believe, both 

 Tee and Oedidee designedly deceived me. 



When the musket and other things were brought 

 in, every one then present, or who came after, pre- 

 tended to have had some hand in recovering them, 

 and claimed a reward accordingly. But there was 

 no one who acted this farce so well as Nuno, a man 

 of some note, and well known to us when I was here 

 in I769. This man came, with all the savage fury 

 imaginable in his countenance, and a large club in 

 his hand, with which he beat about him, in order to 

 show us how he alone had killed the thief; when, 

 at the same time, we all knew that he had not been 

 out of his house the whole time. 



Thus ended this troublesome day ; and next morn- 

 ing early, Tee, Otoo's faithful ambassador, came 

 again on board, to acquaint me that Otoo was gone 

 to Oparree, and desired I would send a person (one 

 of the natives, as I understood) to tell him that I was 

 still his Tiyo. I asked him why he did not do this 

 himself, as I had desired. He made some excuse ; 

 but I believe the truth was, he had not seen him. In 

 short, I found it was necessary for me to go myself; 

 for while we thus spent our time in messages, we 

 remained without fruit, a stop being put to all ex- 

 changes of this nature ; that is, the natives brought 

 nothing to market. Accordingly, a party of us set 

 out, with Tee in our company, and proceeded to the 

 very utmost limits of Oparree, where, after waiting 

 some considerable time, and several messages having 

 passed, the king at last made his appearance. After 

 we were seated under the shade of some trees as 



