Transcription

                              GEORGES ISLAND

July 1769
The petty officer whom I sent in quest of the deserters told me that the Natives wont give him no intelligence where they were nor those that went alone with him, but on the contrary grew very troublesome & as they were returng in the evening they were suddenly seized upon by a number of arm'd men that had hid themselves in the woods for that purpose. This was after Tootaha had been sided upon by us, so that they did this by way of retribution in order to recover their Chief, but their method did not meet with the approbation of them all, a great many Condemned these proceedings & were for having them set at liberty, while others were for keeping them until Tootaha was releas'd the dispute went so far that they came from words to blows & our people were sometimes very near being set at liberty but at last the party for keeping them prevailed but as they has still some friends no insult was offer'd them, a little while after they brought Webb & GIbson the 2 deserters to them as prisoners likewise, but at last they agreed that Webb should be sent to inform us where the other were. When I came to examine these 2 Men touching the reasons that induced them to go awry, it appeared that an acquaintance they had contracted with 2 Girls & to whom they had strongly attached themselves was the sole reason of their attempting to stay behind.
[margin] The Anchor & Hook destroyed by worms [/margin]
Yesterday we weigh'd the small Bower anchor the Hook of which was so much eaten by the worms as to break in heaving up & today we have up the bent Bower & found the Hook in the very same condition this day we got everything off from the shore & tonight everybody lay onboard
  Wednesday 12th The Carpor employ'd Hooking the Anchors & the Seamen in getting the Ship ready for Sea. This morning we found the Staves of the Cask the Natives stole from us sometime ago laying at the watering place but they had been sensible enough to keep the Iron Hoops, & only return what to them was of no use.
  Thursday 13th Winds Easterly light breeze this morning we was visited by Obarea & several others of our acquaintance a thing we did not expect after what had hap'ned but 2 days ago, but this was in some ones [asures] owing to Mr Banks, Dr Solander & myself going to Apparra last night where we so far convinced them of our [?] and ship's position that several of them were in tears at our coming away - between 11& 12 o'clock we got under sail & took our final leave of these people after a stay of just 3 months the most part of which times we have been upon good terms with them some few differences have now & then hap[p]ened owing partly to the want of rightly understanding of each other & partly to their natural knievish disposition, which we could and at all times have with or guard against, but these have been attended with no ill consequences to either side except the first in which one of them was kill'd & those I was very sorry for, because from what had hap[pe]ned to them by the Dolphin I thought it would have been no hard matter to have got & keep a footing with them without bloodshed. For sometime before we left this Isl[an]d several of the Natives were daily offering themselves to go away with us & as it was thought they must be of use to us in our future

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