I sent a man to shear the ewe, by which a remedy could more easily be applied to cure the disease with which it was infected. The garden made near the tents was not in a prosperous condition: most of the melons and cucumbers were destroyed by insects; and the soil being sandy was not favourable to the other seeds. I therefore chose another spot of ground farther from the seaside and had an assortment of seeds sown. December. Monday 1. In the night the rudder of one of the boats was stolen from the tents. On landing in the morning neither Tinah nor any of his family came near me, being, I was informed, afraid of my displeasure. As the loss was not great I immediately sent to assure them that I had no anger except against the person who committed the theft. In consequence of this message Tinah and some of the other chiefs came to the tents and promised that they would exert themselves to discover the thief and get the rudder restored. This was the first theft of any consequence that had been committed since the tents were on shore, and my suspicions fell chiefly on the people who were here from some of the other islands. Tinah had just begun to build a house for himself and I promised that our carpenters should assist him. Whydooah, the youngest brother of Tinah, had lately been one of my constant visitors and seemed to have left off his former custom of getting drunk with the Ava. He was esteemed one of their best warriors; and I was told that in the quarrel with the people of Eimeo he killed Maheine the chief of that island. Friday 5. The weather for some time past had been very unsettled. This afternoon the wind blew fresh from the north-west, which occasioned the sea to break very high across the Dolphin bank; and in the night such a heavy broken sea came into the bay that we were obliged to batten all the hatchways down, and to keep everybody upon deck all night though the rain came down in torrents. The ship rolled in a most violent manner. Saturday 6.