November ®n t^le '5®* the moft part of our bread being in calks, P
1 ordered fome to be opened, when, to our mortification, we
found a good deal of it damaged. To repair this lofs in the
beft manner we could, all the calks were opened; the bread
was picked, and the copper oven fet up, to bake fuch parcels
of it, as, by that means, could be recovered. Some time this
morning, the natives Hole, out of one of the tents, a bag of
eloaths belonging to one of the feamen. As foon as I was informed
of it, I went to them in an adjoining cove, demanded
the eloaths again, and, after fome time fpent in friendly application,
recovered them. Since we were among thieves,
and had come off fo well, I was not forry for what had happened,
as it taught our people to keep a better look-out for
the future.
With thefe people-1 faw the youngeft of the two foWs Captain
Furneaux had put on Ihore in Cannibal Cove, when we-
werelaft here : it was lame-of one of its hind legs ; other-
wife in good cafe, and very tame. If we underftood thefe
people right, the boar and other fow were alfo taken away
and feparated, but not killed. We were likewife told that,
the two goats I had put on Ihore up the Sound, had been-
killed by that old rafeal Goubiah. Thus all our endeavours,
to Hock this country with ufeful animals were likely to-be
fruftrated by the very people we meant to ferve.. Our gardens
had fared fomewhat better. Every thing in them, except
the potatoes,, they had left entirely to Nature, who had
acted her part fo well,'that we found moft articles in a flouriih-
ingftate; a-proof that the winter mult have.been mild. The
potatoes had moft of them been dug up; fome, however,
ftill remained, and were growing, though I think it is probable
they will never be got out of the ground.
Next
Next morning I fent over to the cove, where the natives >773.
refide, to haul the feine; and took with me a boar, and a ,N~tve^ fr',
young fow, two cocks and two hens, we had brought from Saturday 6l
the files. Thefe I gave to the natives, being perfuaded
they would take proper care of them,' by their keeping
Captain Furneaux’s fow near five months; for I am
to fuppofe it was caught foon after we failed. We had
no better fuccefs with the feine than before; neverthe-
lefs we did not return on board quite empty, having
purchafed a large quantity from the natives. When we
were upon this traffic, they fhewed a great inclination to
pick my pockets', and to take away the fiffi with one hand,
which .they had juft given me with the other. This evil
one of the chiefs undertook to remove, and with fury in his
eyes made a ffiew of keeping the people at a proper diftance-
I applauded his conduct, but at the fame time kept fo good
a look-out, as to detect him in picking my pocket of an
handkerchief; which I fuffered him to put in hi's bofom before
1 feemed to know any thing of the matter, and then
told him what I had loft. He feemed quite- ignorant and
innocent, till I took it from him and then he put it off
with a laugh, adting his part with fix much addrefs, that it
was hardly poffible for me to be angry with him; fo that
we remained good friends, and he accompanied me on
board to dinner. About that time, we were vifited by feveral
ftrangers, in four or five canoes, who brought with them
ffih, and other articles, which they exchanged for cloth, &c. '
Thefe new-comers took up their quarters in a cove near us ;
but very early the next morning moved off with fix of our Sonda -■
fmall water calks ; and with them all the people we found
here on our arrival. This precipitate retreat of thefe laft,
we fuppofed, was owing to the theft the others had commit
tsffi.