fast out of the cove; consequently he was left behind.  As there is no getting into the cove with a boat, from between half-ebb to half-flood, we could get off no water in the afternoon.  However, there is a very good landing-place, without it, near the southern point, where boats can get ashore at all times of the tide.  Here some of the officers landed after dinner, where they found the surgeon, who had been robbed of his gun.  Having come down to the shore some time after the boats had put off, he got a canoe to bring him on board; but, as he was getting into her, a fellow snatched hold of the gun, and ran off with it.  After that no one would carry him to the ship, and they would have stripped him, as he imagined, had he not presented a tooth-pick case, which they, no doubt, thought was a little gun.  As soon as I heard of this, I landed at the place above-mentioned, and the few natives who were there fled at my approach.  After landing I went in search of the officers, whom I found in the cove, where we had been in the morning, with a good many of the natives about them.  No step had been taken to recover the gun, nor did I think proper to take any; but in this I was wrong.  The easy manner of obtaining this gun, which they now, no doubt, thought secure in their possession, encouraged them to proceed in these tricks, as will soon appear.  The alarm the natives had caught being soon over, they carried fruit, etc. to the boats, which got pretty well laden before night, when we all returned on board.

Early in the morning of the 28th, Lieutenant Clerke, with the master and fourteen or fifteen men, went on shore in the launch for water.  I did intend to have followed in another boat myself, but rather unluckily deferred it till after breakfast.  The launch was no sooner landed than the natives gathered about her, behaving in so rude a manner, that the officers were in some doubt if they should land their casks; but, as they expected me on shore soon, they ventured, and with difficulty got them filled, and into the boat again.  In the doing of this Mr Clerke’s gun was snatched from him, and carried off; as were also some of the cooper’s tools; and several of the people were stripped of one thing or another.  All this was done, as it were, by stealth; for they laid hold of nothing by main force.  I landed just as the launch was ready to put off; and the natives, who were pretty numerous on the beach, as soon as they saw me, fled; so that I suspected something had happened.  However, I prevailed on many to stay, and Mr Clerke came, and informed me of all the preceding circumstances.  I quickly came to a resolution to oblige them to make restitution; and, for this purpose, ordered all the marines to be armed and sent on shore.  Mr Forster and his party being gone into the country, I ordered two or three guns to be fired from the ship, in order to alarm him; not knowing how the natives might act on this occasion.  These orders being