378 CAPTAIN COOK'S VOYAGES 



supposed to have ceased ; but the hospitable treatment we 

 had invariably met with, and the friendly footing on which 

 we parted,- gave us some reason to expect that they would 

 again have flocked about us with great joy on our 

 return. 



" We were forming various conjectures upon the occasion 

 of this extraordinary appearance, when our anxiety was at 

 length relieved by the return of a boat which had been 

 sent on shore, and brought us word that Terreeoboo was 

 absent, and had left the bay under the taboo. Though this 

 account appeared very satisfactory to most of us, yet 

 others were of opinion that the interdiction of all intercourse 

 with us, on pretence of the king's absence, was only to give 

 him time to consult the chiefs in what manner it might be 

 proper to treat us. Whether these suspicions were well 

 founded, or the account given by the natives was the truth, 

 we were never able to ascertain. For though it is not 

 improbable that our sudden return, for which they could 

 see no apparent cause, and the necessity of which we after- 

 wards found it very difficult to make them comprehend, 

 might occasion some alarm ; yet the unsuspicious conduct 

 of Terreeoboo, who, on his supposed arrival the next morn- 

 ing, came immediately to visit Captain Cook, and the 

 consequent return of the natives to their former friendly 

 intercourse with us, are strong proofs that they neither 

 meant nor apprehended any change of conduct 



" Toward the evening of the 13th, however, the officer 

 who commanded the watering party of the Discovery came 

 to inform me that several chiefs had assembled at the well 

 near the beach, driving away the natives, whom we had 

 hired to assist the sailors in rolling down the casks to the 

 shore. He told me at the same time that he thought their 

 behaviour extremely suspicious, and that they meant to give 

 him some farther disturbance. At his request, therefore, I 

 sent a marine along with him, but suffered him to take only 

 his side-arms. In a short time the officer returned, and on 

 his acquainting me that the islanders had armed themselves 

 with stones, and were grown very tumultuous, I went myself 

 to the spot, attended by a marine, with his musket. Seeing 

 us approach, they threw away their stones, and on my 

 speaking to some of the chiefs, the mob were driven away, 

 and those who chose it were suffered to assist in filling the 

 casks. 



" Soon after our return to the tents, we were alarmed by 

 a continued fire of muskets from the Discovery, which we 

 observed to be directed at a canoe that we saw paddling 

 toward the shore in great haste, pursued by one of our 

 small boats. We immediately concluded that the firing 



