on
shore to see the wooding place. I found a variety of sizable trees but
the kind which I principally pitched upon was the Barringtonia of
Forster. I acquainted Tepa with my intention of sending people to cut
wood, which meeting with his approbation, we parted.

Saturday 25.

On the 25th at daylight the wooding and watering parties went on shore. I
had directed them not to cut the kind of tree* which, when Captain Cook
wooded here in 1777, blinded for a time many of the woodcutters. They had
not been an hour on shore before one man had an axe stolen from him and
another an adze. Tepa was applied to, who got the axe restored but the
adze was not recovered. In the evening we completed wooding.

(*Footnote. Excoecaria agallocha Linn. Sp. Pl. Called in the Malay
language caju mata boota, which signifies the the tree that wounds the
eyes.)

Sunday 26.

In the morning Nelson went on shore to get a few plants but, no principal
chief being among the people, he was insulted, and a spade taken from
him. A boat's grapnel was likewise stolen from the watering party. Tepa
recovered the spade for us, but the crowd of natives was become so great,
by the number of canoes that had arrived from different islands, that it
was impossible to do anything where there was such a multitude of people
without a chief of sufficient authority to command the whole. I therefore
ordered the watering party to go on board and determined to sail, for I
could not discover that any canoe had been sent to acquaint the chiefs of
Tongataboo of our being here. For some time after the thefts were
committed the chiefs kept away, but before noon they came on board.

At noon we unmoored, and at one o'clock got under sail. The two Tubows,
Kunocappo, Latoomy-lange, and another chief, were on board, and I
acquainted them that unless the grapnel was returned they must remain in
the ship. They were surprised and not a little alarmed. Canoes were
immediately despatched after the grapnel, which I was informed could not
possibly be brought to the ship before the next day, as those who had
stolen it immediately sailed with their prize to another island.
Nevertheless I detained them till sunset, when their uneasiness and
impatience increased to such a degree that they began to beat themselves
about the face and eyes and some of them cried bitterly. As this distress
was more than the grapnel was worth, and I had no reason to imagine that
they were privy to or in any