n a
sudden interruption to the harmonious meeting was caused by the
discovery that some of the savages had acquired the art of picking
pockets. A snuff-box belonging to Mr Monkhouse disappeared, and an
opera-glass in a shagreen case, the property of Dr Solander, vanished.
To pass over a first act of this kind lightly would have led to
interminable pilferings and quarrellings. Mr Banks therefore started
up angrily and struck the butt of his musket violently on the ground.
Whereupon the most of the natives were panic-stricken, and darted out of
the hut with the utmost precipitation. The chief endeavoured to appease
the wrath of his guests by offering them gifts of cloth; but they were
not thus to be silenced. They insisted on the restoration of the stolen
articles, so the chief went out and shortly after returned with a
beaming countenance--he had found them both; but his countenance fell
when, on opening the case of the opera-glass, the glass itself was not
there. With immense energy he resumed his detective duties, and was so
fortunate as to recover the glass in a short time. Thus peace was
restored, and the natives were taught to feel that their propensity to
steal would prove a source of great annoyance and some danger to them,
should they venture to give way to it in future.

Soon after this Cook selected a spot on the beach, not far from the
ship, and, pitching his tent there, began to arrange for making the
astronomical observations which had brought him to the South Seas. They
had not remained long, however, before they found that the islanders
were all addicted to stealing. Cook tells us that men and women of all
ranks were the "arrantest thieves upon the face of the earth," yet they
seemed to feel that the act of theft was wrong, for if charged with
being guilty when they were in reality innocent, they were often moved
to passionate indignation.

One day, when a large number of natives visited the ship, the chiefs
employed themselves in stealing what they could in the cabin, while
their dependants were no less industrious in other parts of the ship.
They snatched up everything that it was possible for them to secrete
till they got on shore. Two knives had been lost on shore, one of them
belonging to Mr Banks, who taxed a man named Tubourai Tamaide, whom he
suspected, with the theft. The man denied it stoutly, but upon Mr
Banks saying firmly that, no matter who had taken it, he was determined
to have