This morning several of the Chiefs we had seen yesterday came on board and brought with them Hogs, Bread fruit &C^a and for these we gave them Hatchets, Linnen and such things as they Valued- Having not met with yesterday a more convenienter situation for every purpose we wanted than the place we now are,  I therefore without delay resolved to pitch upon some spot upon the NE point of the Bay properly situated for observing the Transit of Venus and at the same time le under the command of the Ships Guns, and there to throw up a small fort for our defence, accordingly I went a Shore with a party of men accompanie'd by M^r Banks, D^r Solander, and M^r Green, We took along with us one of M^r Bank's Tents, and after we had fix'd upon a place fit for our purpose we set up the Tent and Mark'd out the ground we intended to occupy-  by this time a great number of the Natives had got collected together about us, seemingly only to look on as not one of them had any Weapon either offensive or defensive - I would suffer none to come within the lines I had marked out excepting one who appear'd to be a Chief and old Owha_^^amo  to these two men we endeavour'd to explain as well as we could that we wanted that ground to sleep upon such a number of nights and than we should go away-  whether they understood us or no is uncertain, but no one appear'd the least displeased at what we was about - Indeed the ground we had fix'd upon was of no use to them being part of the Sandy beach upon the shore of the Bay and not near to any of their habitations. It being too late in the Day to do any thing more a party with a Petty officer was left to guard the _^ ^Tent While we with a nother party took a walk into the woods and with us most of the natives,   we had but just cross'd the River when M^r Banks shott three Ducks at one shott which surprise'd _^ ^them so much that most of them fell down as tho they had been shott likewise. I was in hopes this would have had some good effect, but the event did not prove it, for we had not been gone long from the Tent before the natives again began to gather about _^ ^it and one of them more daring than the rest push'd one of the Centinals down, snatched the Musquet out of his hand and made a push at him and then made off and with him all the rest, emmidiatly upon this the officer order'd the party to fire and the Man who took the Musquet was shott dead before he had got far from the Tent but the Musquet was carried quite off; when this happen'd I and M^r Banks with the other party was were _^ ^{about half a Mile off} returning out of the Woods, upon hearing the fireing of musquets and the natives leaving us at the same time we susspected that some thing was the Matter and hasten'd our march, but before we arrive'd the whole was over and every one of the Natives fled except old Owha_^^amo who stuck by us the whole time and I beleive from the first either knew - or had some suspicion that the People would attempt something at the Tent as he was very much agai[n]st our going into the woods out of sight of _^ ^the Tent.  however he might have other reasons for M^r Hicks being a shore the Day before the natives would not permit him to go into the woods.  this made me resolved to go and see whether they mea[n]t to proscribe bounds to us or no.  Old Owha_^^amo as I have said before was the only one of the Natives that stay'd by us, and by his means we prevail'd on about 20 of them to come to the Tent and their sit down with us and endeavour'd by every means in our power to convence them that the man was kill'd for taking away the Musquet and that we still would be friends with them   at sunset they left us seemingly satisfied and we struck our Tent and went on board —

Voyaging Accounts