PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 47 



multitude, and much less practicable to pursue a 

 thief through the labyrinth of figures that thronged 

 around. The articles stolen were consequently as 

 irretrievably lost here, as they were before in the 

 hands of the divers. It is extremely difficult, on 

 such occasions, to decide which is the best line of 

 conduct to adopt : whether to follow Captain Cook's 

 rigid maxim of never permitting a theft when clearly 

 ascertained to go unpunished ; or to act as Perouse 

 did with the inhabitants of Easter Island, and suffer 

 every thing to be stolen without resistance or re- 

 monstrance. Perhaps the happy medium of shutting 

 the eyes to those it is not necessary to observe, and 

 punishing severely such as it is imperative to notice, 

 will prove the wisest policy. 



Among the foremost of the crowd were two men, 

 crowned with pelican's feathers, who, if they were 

 not chiefs, assumed an authority as such, and with 

 the two demons above mentioned attempted to clear 

 the way by striking at the feet of the mob ; careful, 

 however, so to direct their blows, that they should 

 not take effect. Without their assistance, it would 

 have been almost impossible to land : the mob cared 

 very little for threats: a musket presented at them 

 had no effect beyond the moment it was levelled, 

 and was less efficacious than some water thrown 

 upon the bystanders by those persons who wished 

 to forward the views of our party. 



The gentleman who disembarked first, and from 

 that circumstance probably was considered a person 

 of distinction, was escorted to the top of the bank 

 and seated upon a large block of lava, which was the 

 prescribed limit to the party's advance. An endea- 

 vour was then made to form a ring about him ; but 



Nov. 

 1825. 



