MAY 1769 A QUADRANT STOLEN 87 



proper that while Mr. Green and myself proceeded, the 

 midshipman should return, and desire Captain Cook to send 

 a party of men after us, telling him at the same time that 

 it was impossible that we could return till night. This 

 done we proceeded, and at the very spot Tubourai had 

 mentioned, were met by one of his people bringing part of 

 the quadrant in his hand: we now stopped, and many 

 Indians gathered about us rather rudely ; the sight of one of 

 my pistols, however, instantly checked them, and they 

 behaved with all the order imaginable, though we quickly 

 had some hundreds surrounding a ring we had marked out 

 on the grass. The box was now brought to us, and some of 

 the small matters such as reading glasses, etc., which in 

 their hurry they had put into a pistol-case. This I knew 

 belonged to me ; it had been stolen from the tents with a 

 horse-pistol in it, which I immediately demanded, and had 

 immediately restored. Mr. Green began to overlook the 

 instrument to see if any part, or parts, were wanting ; several 

 small things were, and people were sent out in search of 

 them, some of whom returned, and others did not : the stand 

 was not there, but that, we were informed, had been left 

 behind by the thief, and we should have it on our return, an 

 answer which, coming from Tubourai, satisfied us. Nothing 

 else was wanting but what could easily be repaired, so we 

 packed up all in grass as well as we could, and proceeded 

 homewards. After walking about two miles we met Captain 

 Cook with a party of marines coming after us, all not a 

 little pleased at the event of our excursion. 



The captain on leaving the tents left orders, both for 

 the ship and shore, that no canoes should be suffered to go 

 out of the bay, but that nobody's person should be seized or 

 detained, as we rightly guessed that none of our friends had 

 any hand in the theft. These orders were obeyed by the 

 first lieutenant, who was ashore ; but the second aboard, 

 seeing some canoes going along shore, sent a boat to fetch 

 them back. The boatswain commanding it did so, and with 

 them brought Dootahah ; the rest of the crew leaped over- 

 board. Dootahah was sent ashore prisoner ; the first 



