TROUBLE COMMENCES.

Everything went smoothly till the afternoon of the 13th, when the officer in charge of the watering party complained to King that the conduct of some of the natives was suspicious, and some of the chiefs were driving away men he had engaged to help in rolling the casks to the boats. King sent a marine with side arms to help to restore order, but shortly after was informed the natives were arming with stones and getting very noisy, so he went down himself, with a marine armed with his musket, and succeeded in setting matters right. Just at this time Cook came ashore, and King reported what had occurred, receiving orders to fire with ball if he received any insolence or stones were thrown. Soon afterwards shots were heard from the Discovery, and a canoe was seen making for the shore, closely pursued by one of the ship's boats. Cook, King, and a marine ran to intercept them, but were too late, as the occupants of the canoe landed before they could reach the spot. Burney says the disturbance commenced by a native stealing a pair of carpenter's tongs, jumping overboard with them, and placing them in a canoe which at once paddled off. The thief was caught, flogged, and put in irons till the tongs were returned from the shore. The same tongs were again stolen in the afternoon, and the thief got away with them, pursued by Edgar, the Master, in the ship's cutter, and joined by the Resolution's pinnace. The thief reaching shore first, put the tongs, the lid of a harness cask, and a chisel in a second canoe which went out, and handed them over to Edgar. Edgar, seeing Cook and King running along the shore, thought it right to detain the second canoe, which unfortunately belonged to Parea, who at the time of the theft was in Clerke's cabin and, promising to obtain the tongs, had immediately left for the shore. He tried to regain possession of his canoe, but was knocked down by a sailor, and then some of the natives, who before this had been quietly looking on, began to throw stones, and so roughly handled the sailors in the pinnace that, being unarmed, they beat a retreat, swimming to some rocks out of reach of the missiles. Edgar and Vancouver remained ashore and fared badly, till Parea, who had recovered from his blow and apparently forgotten it, ordered his countrymen to stay their hands, and managed to save the pinnace from being broken up. He wanted the boats to go back to the ships, but as the oars had been taken away this was impossible. He then started to find them, and as soon as his back was turned the throwing began again. Edgar wished to go to the camp to find Cook, but some of the natives advised him to follow them and they would take him to Parea. He soon met him carrying one oar, followed by a man with a broken one, so they were able to make shift in the boats to the camp, being overtaken on the way by Parea in his canoe bringing Vancouver's cap, which had been lost in the scuffle.

Owing to his pursuit of the thief Cook did not hear of all this trouble till after dark, too late to take any further steps, but King says he appeared very disturbed by the news, and remarked: "I am afraid these people will oblige me to use some violent measures, for they must not be left to imagine that they have gained an advantage over us." He then went on board his ship and ordered all natives ashore, whilst King returned to the camp, and doubling his sentries, gave orders he was to be called if any natives were seen about. At eleven, five were seen hovering near, but when they found they were observed they made off, and later one got close to the observatory, but ran when the sentry fired over his head. When on his way to the ship the next morning for the chronometer, King was informed that the Discovery's cutter had been stolen; it had been moored to the anchor buoy. On board the Resolution he found Cook busy loading his double-barreled gun and a landing party of marines being prepared. Cook said he was going ashore to try to gain possession of some of the principal chiefs in order to keep them prisoners till the boat was returned, and that he had already sent out boats to prevent any one leaving the bay, with the intention of destroying their canoes if he could not recover the cutter by more peaceable means. The Resolution's great cutter was sent after a large sailing canoe that was making off, the small cutter was guarding the western point of the bay, and Cook, with the pinnace and launch, were going to Kowrowa to try and get Terreeoboo on board the ship. He, and in fact every one else, were confident the natives would offer no resistance if they heard the sound of but one musket.

A little before eight o'clock Captain Cook, Lieutenant Phillips, a sergeant, corporal, and seven marines left the ship for Kowrowa, and King returned to his camp after being ordered to try and assure the natives near the observatory that they would not be hurt, to keep his men together, and to be prepared to meet any outbreak. Having seen his men were on the alert, King visited the priests and satisfied them that Terreeoboo would receive neither injury nor insult.