and the other by an useless dog belonging to one of the officers.  These two accidents put it out of my power to leave a pair here; and, at the same time, to carry the breed to Otaheite, for which island they were originally intended.  I was sorry, afterward, that I did not give the preference to Tongataboo, as the present would have been of more value there than at Otaheite; for the natives of the former island, I am persuaded, would have taken more pains to multiply the breed.

The next day we took up our anchor, and moved the ships behind Pangimodoo, that we might be ready to take the advantage of the first favourable wind, to get through the narrows.  The king, who was one of our company this day at dinner, I observed, took particular notice of the plates.  This occasioned me to make him an offer of one, either of pewter, or of earthenware.  He chose the first; and then began to tell us the several uses to which he intended to apply it.  Two of them are so extraordinary, that I cannot omit mentioning them.  He said, that, whenever he should have occasion to visit any of the other islands, he would leave this plate behind him at Tongataboo, as a sort of representative, in his absence, that the people might pay it the same obeisance they do to himself in person.  He was asked, what had been usually employed for this purpose before he got this plate? and we had the satisfaction of learning from him, that this singular honour had hitherto been conferred on a wooden bowl in which he washed his hands.  The other extraordinary use to which he meant to apply it, in the room of his wooden bowl, was to discover a thief.  He said, that, when any thing was stolen, and the thief could not be found out, the people were all assembled together before him, when he washed his hands in water in this vessel; after which it was cleaned, and then the whole multitude advanced, one after another, and touched it in the same manner as they touch his foot, when they pay him obeisance.  If the guilty person touched it, he died immediately upon the spot, not by violence, but by the hand of Providence; and if any one refused to touch it, his refusal was a clear proof that he was the man.

In the morning of the 5th, the day of the eclipse, the weather was dark and cloudy, with showers of rain, so that we had little hopes of an observation.  About nine o’clock, the sun broke out at intervals for about half an hour; after which it was totally obscured, till within a minute or two of the beginning of the eclipse.  We were all at our telescopes, viz.  Mr Bayly, Mr King, Captain Clerke, Mr Bligh, and myself.  I lost the observation, by not having a dark glass at hand, suitable to the clouds that were continually passing over the sun; and Mr Bligh had not got the sun into the field of his telescope; so that the commencement of the eclipse was only observed by the other three gentlemen; and by them, with an uncertainty of several seconds, as follows:—­