Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/144

86 must go instantly with her to his house. I went and found him leaning his head against a post. He had vomited, they said, and he told me he should certainly die in consequence of something our people had given him to eat, the remains of which were shown me carefully wrapped up in a leaf. This upon examination I found to be a chew of tobacco which he had begged of some of our people, and trying to imitate them in keeping it in his mouth, as he saw them do, had chewed it almost to powder, swallowing his spittle. I was now master of his disease, for which I prescribed cocoanut milk, which soon restored him to health.

1st May. In walking round the point, I saw a canoe which I supposed to have come from a distance, as she had a quantity of fresh water in her in bamboos. In every other respect she is quite like those we have seen; her people, however, are absolute strangers to us.

2nd. This morning the astronomical quadrant, which had been brought ashore yesterday, was missed, a circumstance which alarmed us all very much. After some time, we ascertained from Tubourai that it was in the hands of an Indian; so we set out together. At every house we passed Tubourai inquired after the thief by name, and the people readily told which way he had gone, and how long ago it was since he passed by, a circumstance which gave us great hopes of coming up with him. The weather was excessively hot, the thermometer before we left the tents was 91°, which made our journey very tiresome. At times we walked, at times we ran, when we imagined (as we sometimes did) that the chase was just before us, till we arrived at the top of a hill about four miles from the tents: from this place Tubourai showed us a point about three miles off, and made us understand that we were not to expect the instrument till we got there. We now considered our situation: no arms among us but a pair of pocket-pistols, which I always carried, going at least seven miles from our fort, where the Indians might not be quite so submissive as at home, going also to take from them a prize for which they had ventured their lives; all this considered, we thought it