ur ships are to
return at certain periods; and while they continue to be impressed
with such a notion, which I thought it a fair stratagem to confirm,
Omai has some prospect of being permitted to thrive upon his new
plantation.

While we lay in this harbour, we carried ashore the bread remaining in
the bread-room, to clear it of vermin. The number of cock-roaches that
infested the ship, at this time, is incredible. The damage they did us
was very considerable; and every method devised by us to destroy them
proved ineffectual. These animals which, at first, were a nuisance,
like all other insects, had now become a real pest, and so
destructive, that few things were free from, their ravages. If food
of any kind was exposed, only for a few minutes, it was covered with
them, and they soon pierced it full of holes, resembling a honey-comb.
They were particularly destructive to birds which had been stuffed and
preserved as curiosities, and what was worse, were uncommonly fond of
ink, so that the writing on the labels fastened to different articles
were quite eaten out; and the only thing that preserved books from
them was the closeness of the binding, which prevented these devourers
getting between the leaves. According to Mr Anderson's observations,
they were of two sorts, the _blatta orientalis_ and _germanica_.
The first of these had been carried home in the ship from her former
voyage, where they withstood the severity of the hard winter in 1776,
though she was in dock all the time. The others had only made their
appearance since our leaving New Zealand, but had increased so fast,
that they now not only did all the mischief mentioned above, but
had even got amongst the rigging, so that when a sail was loosened,
thousands of them fell upon the decks. The orientates, though in
infinite numbers, scarcely came out but in the night, when they made
every thing in the cabins seem as if in motion, from the particular
noise in crawling about. And, besides their disagreeable appearance,
they did great mischief to our bread, which was so bespattered with
their excrement, that it would have been badly relished by delicate
feeders.

The intercourse of trade and friendly offices was carried on between
us and the natives, without being disturbed by any one accident, till
the evening of the 22d, when a man found means to get into Mr Bayly's
observatory, and to carry off a sextant unobserved. As soon as I was
made acquainted with the t