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 
