On the 14th, in the morning, while the ship’s carpenter was engaged in replacing one of the cat-heads, two composition sheaves fell into the sea; as we had no others on board, the captain proposed to the islanders, who are excellent swimmers, to dive for them, promising a reward; and immediately two offered themselves.  They plunged several times, and each time brought up shells as a proof that they had been to the bottom.  We had the curiosity to hold our watches while they dove, and were astonished to find that they remained four minutes under the water.  That exertion appeared to me, however, to fatigue them a great deal, to such a degree that the blood streamed from their nostrils and ears.  At last one of them brought up the sheaves and received the promised recompense, which consisted of four yards of cotton.

Karaka-koua bay where we lay, may be three quarters of a mile deep, and a mile and a half wide at the entrance:  the latter is formed by two low points of rock which appear to have run down from the mountains in the form of lava, after a volcanic eruption.  On each point is situated a village of moderate size; that is to say, a small group of the low huts of the islanders.  The bottom of the bay terminates in a bold escarpment of rock, some four hundred feet high, on the top of which is seen a solitary cocoa-tree.

On the evening of the 14th, I went ashore with some other passengers, and we landed at the group of cabins on the western point, of those which I have described.  The inhabitants entertained us with a dance executed by nineteen young women and one man, all singing together, and in pretty good time.  An old man showed us the spot where Captain Cook was killed, on the 14th of February, 1779, with the cocoa-nut trees pierced by the balls from the boats which the unfortunate navigator commanded.  This old man, whether it were feigned or real sensibility, seemed extremely affected and even shed tears, in showing us these objects.  As for me, I could not help finding it a little singular to be thus, by mere chance, upon this spot, on the 14th of February, 1811; that is to say, thirty-two years after, on the anniversary of the catastrophe which has rendered it for ever celebrated.  I drew no sinister augury from the coincidence, however, and returned to the ship with my companions as gay as I left it.  When I say with my companions, I ought to except the boatswain, John Anderson, who, having had several altercations with the captain on the passage, now deserted the ship, preferring to live with the natives rather than obey any longer so uncourteous a superior.  A sailor also deserted; but the islanders brought him back, at the request of the captain.  They offered to bring back Anderson, but the captain preferred leaving him behind.