Accordingly, I set out the next morning with two armed boats, being accompanied by the chief himself.  I proceeded as he directed, without stopping any where, till we came to the middle of the east side of Otaha.  There we put ashore, and Oreo dispatched a man before us, with orders to seize the deserters, and keep them till we should arrive with the boats.  But when we got to the place where we expected to find them, we were told that they had quitted this island, and gone over to Bolabola the day before.  I did not think proper to follow them thither, but returned to the ships, fully determined, however, to have recourse to a measure which, I guessed, would oblige the natives to bring them back.

In the night, Mr Bayly, Mr King, and myself, observed an immersion of Jupiter’s third satellite.  It happened, by the observation of

Mr Bayly, at 2^h 37^m 54^s }
Mr King,  at 2   37   24   } in the morning. 
Myself,   at 2   37   44   }

Mr Bayly and Mr King observed with Dolland’s three-and-a-half inch achromatic telescope, and with the greatest magnifying power.  I observed with a two-feet Gregorian reflector, made by Bird.

Soon after day-break, the chief, his son, daughter, and son-in-law, came on board the Resolution.  The three last I resolved to detain till the two deserters should be brought back.  With this view, Captain Clerke invited them to go on board his ship; and, as soon as they arrived there, confined them in his cabin.  The chief was with me when the news reached him.  He immediately acquainted me with it, supposing that this step had been taken without my knowledge, and, consequently, without my approbation.  I instantly undeceived him; and then he began to have apprehensions as to his own situation, and his looks expressed the utmost perturbation of mind.  But I soon made him easy as to this; by telling him, that he was at liberty to leave the ship whenever he pleased, and to take such measures as he should judge best calculated to get our two men back; that, if he succeeded, his friends on board the Discovery should be delivered up, if not, that I was determined to carry them away with me.  I added, that his own conduct, as well as that of many of his men, in not only assisting these two men to escape, but in being, even at this very time, assiduous in enticing others to follow them, would justify any step I could take to put a stop to such proceedings.

This explanation of the motives upon which I acted, and which we found means to make Oreo and his people, who were present, fully comprehend, seemed to recover them, in a great measure, from that general consternation into which they were at first thrown.  But, if relieved from apprehensions about their own safety, they continued under the deepest concern for those who were prisoners.  Many of them went under the Discovery’s stern in canoes, to bewail their captivity, which they did with long and loud exclamations. Poedooa! for so the chief’s daughter was called, resounded from every quarter; and the women seemed to vie with each other in mourning her fate with more significant expressions of their grief than tears and cries, for there were many bloody heads upon the occasion.