December.  Monday 1.

In the night the rudder of one of the boats was stolen from the tents.  On landing in the morning neither Tinah nor any of his family came near me, being, I was informed, afraid of my displeasure.  As the loss was not great I immediately sent to assure them that I had no anger except against the person who committed the theft.  In consequence of this message Tinah and some of the other chiefs came to the tents and promised that they would exert themselves to discover the thief and get the rudder restored.  This was the first theft of any consequence that had been committed since the tents were on shore, and my suspicions fell chiefly on the people who were here from some of the other islands.  Tinah had just begun to build a house for himself and I promised that our carpenters should assist him.  Whydooah, the youngest brother of Tinah, had lately been one of my constant visitors and seemed to have left off his former custom of getting drunk with the Ava.  He was esteemed one of their best warriors; and I was told that in the quarrel with the people of Eimeo he killed Maheine the chief of that island.

Friday 5.

The weather for some time past had been very unsettled.  This afternoon the wind blew fresh from the north-west, which occasioned the sea to break very high across the Dolphin bank; and in the night such a heavy broken sea came into the bay that we were obliged to batten all the hatchways down, and to keep everybody upon deck all night though the rain came down in torrents.  The ship rolled in a most violent manner.

Saturday 6.

In the morning the wind increasing and, there being no possibility of putting to sea, we struck yards and topmasts and trusted to our anchors.  The river swelled so much with the rain that the point of land on which the tents stood became an island; and to preserve the breadfruit plants from being endangered the people were obliged to cut a passage for the river through a part of the beach at a distance from the tents.  The sea broke very high on the beach; nevertheless a canoe put off and to my surprise Tinah, his wife, and Moannah made their way good through the surf and came on board to see me.  There was no other person in the canoe for the weather did not admit of useless passengers:  each of them had a paddle which they managed with great activity and skill.  These kind people embraced me with many tears and expressed their apprehensions for the safety of the ship.  Towards noon however the sea abated considerably, but the wind continued to blow strong from the north-west.  At sunset Iddeah went on shore but Tinah would remain with me the whole night.

Sunday 7.