Transcription

                          GEORGES ISLAND
April 1769.

without delay resolved to Pitch upon some spot upon the NEt point of the Bay properly situated for observing the Transit of Venus & at the same time be under the command of the ships Guns, & these to throw up a small fort for our  defence, accordingly I went ashore with a Party of Men accompanied by Mr Banks, Dr.Solander, & Mr Green, we took along with us one of Mr Banks's Tents, & after we had fix'd upon a place fit for out purpose we set up the Tent & marked 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 appeared to be a chief & old Owhoa-to these 2 Men we endeavour'd to explain as well as we could that we wanted that ground to Sleep upon such a number of nights & then we should go away, whether they understood us or no is uncertain, but no one appeared the least displeased at what we was about, indeed the Ground we had fixed upon was of no use to them being part of the sandy Beach upon the shore of the Bay & not near to any of their Habitations it being too late in the day to do any thing more a..... with a petty officer was left to guard the Tent  while we with another Party took a Walk into the woods & with us most of the natives, we had but just crossed the River when Mr Banks shott three Ducks at one shott which surprised them so much that the 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 long from the Tent before the natives again began to gather about, & one of them more daring than the rest pushed one of the Centinels down, snatched the Musket out of his hand & made a Push at him & then made off & with him all the rest, immediately upon this the Officer order'd the Party to fire & the Man who took the Musket was shot Dead before he had got far from the Tent, but the Musquet was carried quite off, when this happened. I & Mr Banks with the other party were about half a Mile off returning out of the woods, upon hearing the firing of Muskets & the-Natives leaving us at the same time, we Suspected that something was the matter & hastened out March but before we arrived the whole was over & every one of the Natives fled except old Owhaa-who stuck by us the whole time & I believe from the First either knew or had some suspicion that the People would attempt something at the Tent as he was very much againstour going into the Woods out of sight of the Tent however he might have other reasons for Mr Hicks being ashore the day before the natives would not permit him to go into the Woods this made me resolve to go to see whither they mean to proscribe bounds to us or no, Old Owhaa as I have said before was the only one of the Natives that stayd by us & by his means we prevaild on about 20 of them to come to the Tent & their sit down with us & Endeavourd by every means in our Power to Convince them that the Man was kill'd for taking away the Musket & that we still would be friends with them at sunset they left us seemingly satisfied & we struck our Tent & went onboard-
left side note-Moor'd the Ship in a proper situation-end left side note-
SUNDAY 16th. This day warped the Ship nearer the shore & I moored her in such a manner as to command all the shore of the NEt. part of the Bay but more Particularly the Place where we intended to Erect a .....Punished Richd Hutchins, Seaman with 12 Lashes for disobeying command. several of the Natives came down to ..shore of the Bay

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