pth of water in which it was let go,
that there were rocks at the bottom. These had done some considerable
damage to the cable; and the hawsers that were carried out to warp the
ship into the cove also got foul of rocks, from which it appeared
that the whole bottom was strewed with them. The ship being again very
leaky in her upper works, I ordered the carpenters to go to work to
caulk her, and to repair such other defects as, on examination, we
might discover.

The fame of our arrival brought a great concourse of the natives to
our ships in the course of this day. We counted above a hundred canoes
at one time, which might be supposed to contain, at an average, five
persons each; for few of them had less than three on board; great
numbers had seven, eight, or nine, and one was manned with no less
than seventeen. Amongst these visitors, many now favoured us with
their company for the first time, which we could guess, from their
approaching the ships with their orations and other ceremonies. If
they had any distrust or fear of us at first, they now appeared to
have laid it aside; for they came on board the ships, and mixed with
our people with the greatest freedom. We soon discovered, by this
nearer intercourse, that they were as light-fingered as any of our
friends in the islands we had visited in the course of the voyage.
And they were far more dangerous thieves; for, possessing sharp
iron-instruments, they could cut a hook from a tackle, or any other
piece of iron from a rope, the instant that our backs were turned. A
large hook, weighing between twenty and thirty pounds, several smaller
ones, and other articles of iron, were lost in this manner. And, as
to our boats, they stripped them of every bit of iron that was worth
carrying away, though we had always men left in them as a guard. They
were dexterous enough in effecting their purposes; for one fellow
would contrive to amuse the boat-keeper, at one end of a boat, while
another was pulling out the iron-work at the other. If we missed a
thing immediately after it had been stolen, we found little difficulty
in detecting the thief, as they were ready enough to impeach one
another. But the guilty person generally relinquished his prize with
reluctance, and sometimes we found it necessary to have recourse to
force.

The ships being securely moored, we began our other necessary business
the next day. The observatories were carried ashore, and placed upon
an elevated ro