86 OTAHITE CHAP. V 
must go instantly with her to his house. I went and found 
him leaning his head against a post. He had vomited, they 
said, and he told me he should certainly die in consequence 
of something our people had given him to eat, the remains 
of which were shown me carefully wrapped up in a leaf. 
This upon examination I found to be a chew of tobacco 
which he had begged of some of our people, and trying to 
imitate them in keeping it in his mouth, as he saw them 
do, had chewed it almost to powder, swallowing his spittle. 
I was now master of his disease, for which I prescribed 
cocoanut milk, which soon restored him to health. 
1st May. In walking round the point, I saw a canoe 
which I supposed to have come from a distance, as she had 
a quantity of fresh water in her in bamboos. In every 
other respect’ she is quite like those we have seen; her 
people, however, are absolute strangers to us. 
2nd. This morning the astronomical quadrant, which had 
been brought ashore yesterday, was missed, a circumstance 
which alarmed us all very much. After some time, we ascer- 
tained from Tubourai that it was in the hands of an Indian ; 
so we set out together. At every house we passed Tubourai 
inquired after the thief by name, and the people readily 
told which way he had gone, and how long ago it was since 
he passed by, a circumstance which gave us great hopes 
of coming up with him. The weather was excessively 
hot, the thermometer before we left the tents was 91°, 
which made our journey very tiresome. At times we walked, 
at times we ran, when we imagined (as we sometimes did) 
that the chase was just before us, till we arrived at the top 
of a hill about four miles from the tents: from this place 
Tubourai showed us a point about three miles off, and 
made us understand that we were not to expect the instru- 
ment till we got there. We now considered our situation: 
no arms among us but a pair of pocket-pistols, which I 
always carried, going at least seven miles from our fort, 
where the Indians might not be quite so submissive as at 
home, going also to take from them a prize for which they 
had ventured their lives; all this considered, we thought it 
