On Thursday the 1st of June, the Saturday following being the day of the transit, I dispatched Mr. Gore in the long boat to Imao, with Mr. Monkhouse and Mr. Sporing, a gentleman belonging to Mr. Banks, Mr. Green having furnished them with proper instruments. Mr. Banks himself thought fit to go upon this expedition, and several natives, particularly Tubourai Tamaide and Tomio, were also of the party. Very early on the Friday morning, I sent Mr. Hicks with Mr. Clerk and Mr. Petersgill, the master’s mates, and Mr. Saunders, one of the midshipmen, in the pinnace to the eastward, with orders to fix on some convenient spot, at a distance from our principal observatory, where they also might employ the instruments with which they had been furnished for the same purpose. The long-boat not having been got ready till Thursday in the afternoon, though all possible expedition was used to fit her out; the people on board, after having rowed most part of the night, brought her to a grappling just under the land of Imao. Soon after day-break, they saw an Indian canoe, which they hailed, and the people on board shewed them an inlet through the reef into which they pulled, and soon fixed upon a coral rock, which rose out of the water about one hundred and fifty yards from the shore, as a proper situation for their observatory: it was about eighty yards long and twenty broad, and in the middle of it was a bed of white sand, large enough for the tents to stand upon. Mr. Gore and his assistants immediately began to set them up, and make other necessary preparations for the important business of the next day. While this was doing, Mr. Banks, with the Indians of Otaheite, and the people whom they had met in the canoe, went ashore upon the main island, to buy provisions; of which he procured a sufficient supply before night. When he returned to the rock, he found the observatory in order, and the telescopes all fixed and tried. The evening was very fine, yet their solicitude did not permit them to take much rest in the night: one or other of them was up every half hour, who satisfied the impatience of the rest by reporting the changes of the sky, now encouraging their hope, by telling them that it was clear, and now alarming their fears, by an account that it was hazy. At day-break they got up, and had the satisfaction to see the sun rise without a cloud. Mr. Banks then wishing the observers, Mr. Gore and Mr. Monkhouse, success, repaired again to the island, that he might examine its produce, and get a fresh supply of provisions: he began by trading with the natives, for which purpose he took his station under a tree; and to keep them from pressing upon him in a crowd, he drew a circle round him, which he suffered none of them to enter.