THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
41 
immediately turned out of the Hi ip. As foon as this order 1779. 
was executed, I returned on fhore ; and our former confi- , Fu0r ^ 1} '. 
dence in the natives being now much abated, by the events 
of the day, I polled a double guard on the Moral , with or¬ 
ders to call me, if they faw any men lurking about the 
beach. At about eleven o’clock, five illanders were obferv- 
ed creeping round the bottom of the Moral ; they feemed 
very cautious in approaching us, and, at lall, finding them- 
felves difcovered, retired out of fight. About midnight, one 
of them venturing up clofe to the obfervatorv, the fentinel 
fired over him; on which the men fled, and we pafied the 
remainder of the night without farther difturbance. 
Next morning, at day-light, I went on board the Refolu- Sunday 14. 
tion for the time-keeper, and, in my way, was hailed by 
the Difcovery, and informed, that their cutter had been 
llolen, during the night, from the buoy where it was 
moored. 
When I arrived on board, I found the marines arming, 
and Captain Cook loading his double-barrelled gun. Whilil 
I was relating to him what had happened to us in the night, 
he interrupted me, with fome eagernefs, and acquainted me 
with the lofs of the Difcovery’s cutter, and with the prepa¬ 
rations he was making for its recovery. It had been his 
ufual practice, whenever any thing of confequence was loft, 
at any of the illands in this ocean, to get the king, or fome 
of the principal Erees , on board, and to keep them as hof- 
tages, till it was reftored. This method, which had been 
always attended with fuccefs, he meant to purfue on the 
prefent occafton ; and, at the fame time, had given orders 
to ftop all the canoes that ftiould attempt to leave the bay, 
with an intention of feizing and deftroying them, if he 
could not recover the cutter by peaceable means. Accord- 
Vol. III. G ingly, 
