36 
A VOYAGE TO 
1779. ta ^e up feveral days, Mr. Bayly and myfelf got the affro- 
nomical apparatus on fhore, and pitched our tents on the 
Moral ; having with us a guard of a corporal and fix ma¬ 
rines. We renewed our friendly correfpondence with the 
priefts, who, for the greater fecurity of the workmen, and 
their tools, tabooed the place where the mall lay, flicking 
their wands round it, as before. The failmakers were al'fo 
fent on fhore, to repair the damages which had taken place 
in their department, during the late gales. They were 
lodged in a houfe adjoining to the Moral , that was lent us 
by the priefts. Such were our arrangements on fhore. I 
lhall now proceed to the account of thofe other tranfa&ions 
with the natives, which led, by degrees, to the fatal cata- 
ftrophe of the 14th. 
Upon coming to anchor, we were furprized to find our 
reception very different from what it had been on our firft 
arrival; no lhouts, no buftle, no confufion ; but a folitary 
bay, with only here and there a canoe Healing clofe along 
the fhore. The impulfe of curiofity, which had before ope¬ 
rated to fo great a degree, might now indeed be fuppofed to 
have ceafed ; but the hofpitable treatment we had invariably 
met with, and the friendly footing on which we parted, gave 
us fome reafon to expeCt, that they would again have flock¬ 
ed about us with great joy, on our return. 
We were forming various conjectures, upon the occafion 
of this extraordinary appearance, when our anxiety was at 
length relieved by the return of a boat, which had been 
fent on fhore, and brought us word, that Terreeoboo was 
abfent, and had left the bay under the taboo. Though this 
account appeared very fatisfaClory to moft of us ; yet others 
were of opinion, or rather, perhaps, have been led, by fub- 
fequent events, to imagine that there was fomething, at 
this 
