says the disturbance commenced by a native stealing
a pair of carpenter’s tongs, jumping overboard
with them, and placing them in a canoe which at once
paddled off. The thief was caught, flogged, and
put in irons till the tongs were returned from the
shore. The same tongs were again stolen in the
afternoon, and the thief got away with them, pursued
by Edgar, the Master, in the ship’s cutter,
and joined by the Resolution’s pinnace.
The thief reaching shore first, put the tongs, the
lid of a harness cask, and a chisel in a second canoe
which went out, and handed them over to Edgar.
Edgar, seeing Cook and King running along the shore,
thought it right to detain the second canoe, which
unfortunately belonged to Parea, who at the time of
the theft was in Clerke’s cabin and, promising
to obtain the tongs, had immediately left for the
shore. He tried to regain possession of his canoe,
but was knocked down by a sailor, and then some of
the natives, who before this had been quietly looking
on, began to throw stones, and so roughly handled
the sailors in the pinnace that, being unarmed, they
beat a retreat, swimming to some rocks out of reach
of the missiles. Edgar and Vancouver remained
ashore and fared badly, till Parea, who had recovered
from his blow and apparently forgotten it, ordered
his countrymen to stay their hands, and managed to
save the pinnace from being broken up. He wanted
the boats to go back to the ships, but as the oars
had been taken away this was impossible. He then
started to find them, and as soon as his back was turned
the throwing began again. Edgar wished to go
to the camp to find Cook, but some of the natives
advised him to follow them and they would take him
to Parea. He soon met him carrying one oar, followed
by a man with a broken one, so they were able to make
shift in the boats to the camp, being overtaken on
the way by Parea in his canoe bringing Vancouver’s
cap, which had been lost in the scuffle.
Owing to his pursuit of the thief Cook did not hear
of all this trouble till after dark, too late to take
any further steps, but King says he appeared very
disturbed by the news, and remarked: “I
am afraid these people will oblige me to use some
violent measures, for they must not be left to imagine
that they have gained an advantage over us.”
He then went on board his ship and ordered all natives
ashore, whilst King returned to the camp, and doubling
his sentries, gave orders he was to be called if any
natives were seen about. At eleven, five were
seen hovering near, but when they found they were
observed they made off, and later one got close to
the observatory, but ran when the sentry fired over
his head. When on his way to the ship the next
morning for the chronometer, King was informed that
the Discovery’s cutter had been stolen; it had
been moored to the anchor buoy. On board the
Resolution he found Cook busy loading his double-barreled
gun and a landing party of marines being prepared.
Cook said he was going ashore to try to gain possession