ould not be able to get off again. This really happened to
our people who had landed with Mr Gore, the communication between them
and the ships, by our own boats, being stopped. In the evening, they
made a signal for the boats, which were sent accordingly; and, not
long after, they returned with a few yams and some salt. A tolerable
quantity of both had been procured in the course of the day; but the
surf was so great, that the greatest part of both these articles had
been lost in conveying them to the boats. The officer and twenty men,
deterred by the danger of coming off, were left ashore all night; and,
by this unfortunate circumstance, the very thing happened, which, as
I have already mentioned, I wished so heartily to prevent, and vainly
imagined I had effectually guarded against. The violence of the surf,
which our own boats could not act against, did not hinder the
natives from coming off to the ships in their canoes. They brought
refreshments with them, which were purchased in exchange for nails,
and pieces of iron-hoops; and I distributed a good many pieces of
ribbon, and some buttons, as bracelets, amongst the women in the
canoes. One of the men had the figure of a lizard punctured upon
his breast, and upon those of others were the figures of men badly
imitated. These visitors informed us, that there was no chief, or
_Hairee_, of this island; but that it was subject to Teneooneoo, a
chief of Atooi; which island, they said, was not governed by a single
chief, but that there were many to whom they paid the honour of
_moe_, or prostration; and, amongst others, they named, Otaeaio and
Terarotoa. Among other things, which these people now brought off, was
a small drum, almost like those of Otaheite.

About ten or eleven o'clock at night, the wind veered to the S., and
the sky seemed to forebode a storm. With such appearances, thinking
that we were rather too near the shore, I ordered the anchors to be
taken up, and having carried the ships into forty-two fathoms, came
to again in that safer station. The precaution, however, proved to
be unnecessary; for the wind, soon after, veered to N.E., from which
quarter it blew a fresh gale, with squalls, attended with very heavy
showers of rain.

This weather continued all the next day; and the sea ran so high, that
we had no manner of communication with our party on shore; and even
the natives themselves durst not venture out to the ships in their
canoes. In the evening,