On the 22d in the morning, the ewe and ram, I had with so much care and trouble brought to this place, were both found dead, occasioned, as was supposed, by eating some poisonous plant.  Thus my hopes of stocking this country with a breed of sheep, were blasted in a moment.  About noon, we were visited, for the first time since I arrived, by some of the natives, who dined with us; and it was not a little they devoured.  In the evening they were dismissed with presents.[1]

Early in the morning of the 24th, I sent Mr Gilbert the master to sound about the rock we had discovered in the entrance of the sound.  Myself, accompanied by Captain Furneaux and Mr Forster, went in a boat to the west bay on a shooting party.  In our way, we met a large canoe in which were fourteen or fifteen people.  One of the first questions they asked was for Tupia, the person I brought from Otaheite on my former voyage; and they seemed to express some concern when we told them he was dead.  These people made the same enquiry of Captain Furneaux when he first arrived; and, on my return to the ship in the evening, I was told that a canoe had been along-side, the people in which seemed to be strangers, and who also enquired for Tupia.[2] Late in the evening Mr Gilbert returned, having sounded all round the rock, which he found to be very small and steep.

Nothing worthy of notice happened till the 29th, when several of the natives made us a visit, and brought with them a quantity of fish, which they exchanged for nails, &c.  One of these people I took over to Motuara, and shewed him some potatoes planted there by Mr Fannen, master of the Adventure.  There seemed to be no doubt of their succeeding; and the man was so well pleased with them, that he, of his own accord, began to hoe the earth up about the plants.  We next took him to the other gardens, and shewed him the turnips, carrots, and parsnips; roots which, together with the potatoes, will be of more real use to them than all the other articles we had planted.  It was easy to give them an idea of these roots, by comparing them with such as they knew.

Two or three families of these people now took up their abode near us, employing themselves daily in fishing, and supplying us with the fruits of their labour; the good effects of which we soon felt.  For we were, by no means, such expert fishers as they are; nor were any of our methods of fishing equal to theirs.

On the 2d of June, the ships being nearly ready to put to sea, I sent on shore on the east side of the sound, two goats, male and female.  The former was something more than a year old; but the latter was much older.  She had two fine kids, some time before we arrived in Dusky Bay, which were killed by cold, as hath been already mentioned.  Captain Furneaux also put on shore, in Cannibal Cove, a boar and two breeding sows; so that we have reason to hope this country will in time be stocked with these animals, if they are not destroyed by the natives before they become wild; for, afterwards, they will be in no danger.  But as the natives knew nothing of their being left behind, it may be some time before they are discovered.