not keep it.  I therefore applied to the two old men who had been instrumental in getting back the first.  They told me that this had been carried to Watea, a district on the south side of the island, by Hamoa, the chief of that place; but that if I would send any body for it, it would be delivered up.  They offered to conduct some of my people cross the island; but, on my learning from them that a boat might go and return the same day, I sent one, with two petty officers, Mr Roberts and Mr Shuttleworth; one to remain with the boat, in case she could not get to the place, while the other should go with the guides, and one or two of our people.

Late in the evening the boat returned; and the officers informed me, that, after proceeding as far in the boat as rocks and shoals would permit, Mr Shuttleworth, with two marines, and one of the guides, landed and travelled to Watea, to the house of Hamoa, where the people of the place amused them for some time, by telling that the goat would soon be brought, and pretended they had sent for it.  It however never came; and the approach of night obliged Mr Shuttleworth to return to the boat without it.

I was now very sorry that I had proceeded so far, as I could not retreat with any tolerable credit, and without giving encouragement to the people of the other islands we had yet to visit, to rob us with impunity.  I asked Omai and the two old men what methods I should next take; and they, without hesitation, advised me to go with a party of men into the country, and shoot every soul I should meet with.  This bloody counsel I could not follow; but I resolved to march a party of men cross the island; and at day-break the next morning, set out with thirty-five of my people, accompanied by one of the old men, by Omai, and three or four of his attendants.  At the same time I ordered Lieutenant Williamson, with three armed boats, round the western part of the island, to meet us.

I had no sooner landed with my party, than the few natives, who still remained in the neighbourhood, fled before us.  The first man that we met with upon our march run some risk of his life; for Omai, the moment he saw him, asked me if he should shoot him; so fully was he persuaded that I was going to carry his advice into execution.  I immediately ordered both him and our guide to make it known that I did not intend to hurt, much less to kill, a single native.  These glad tidings flew before us like lightning, and stopped the flight of the inhabitants; so that no one quitted his house, or employment, afterward.

As we began to ascend the ridge of hills over which lay our road, we got intelligence that the goat had been carried that way before us; and, as we understood, could not as yet have passed the hills; so that we marched up in great silence, in hopes of surprising the party who were bearing off the prize.  But when we had got to the uppermost plantation on the side of the ridge, the people there told us, that