About noon, a chief, who had dined with me a few days before, accompanied by some of his women, came on board alone: I had observed that he was fed by his women, but I made no doubt that upon occasion he would condescend to feed himself: in this, however, I found myself mistaken. When my noble guest was seated, and the dinner upon the table, I helped him to some victuals: as I observed that he did not immediately begin his meal, I pressed him to eat; but he still continued to sit motionless like a statue, without attempting to put a single morsel into his mouth, and would certainly have gone without his dinner, if one of the servants had not fed him. CHAP. XI. THE OBSERVATORY SET UP; THE QUADRANT STOLEN, AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE THEFT: A VISIT TO TOOTAHAH: DESCRIPTION OF A WRESTLING-MATCH: EUROPEAN SEEDS SOWN: NAMES GIVEN TO OUR PEOPLE BY THE INDIANS. IN the afternoon of Monday the first of May, we set up the observatory, and took the astronomical quadrant, with some other instruments, on shore, for the first time. The next morning, about nine o’clock, I went on shore with Mr. Green to fix the quadrant in a situation for use, when to our inexpressible surprise and concern it was not to be found. It had been deposited in the tent which was reserved for my use, where, as I passed the night on board, nobody slept: it had never been taken out of the packing-case, which was eighteen inches square, and the whole was of considerable weight; a sentinel had been posted the whole night within five yards of the tent door, and none of the other instruments were missing. We at first suspected that it might have been stolen by some of our own people, who seeing a deal box, and not knowing the contents, might think it contained nails, or some other subjects of traffic with the natives. A large reward was therefore offered to any one who could find it, as, without this, we could not perform the service for which our voyage was principally undertaken. Our search in the mean time was not confined to the fort and places adjacent, but as the case might possibly have been carried back to the ship, if any of our own people had been the thieves, the most diligent search was made for it on board; all the parties, however, returned without any news of the quadrant. Mr. Banks, therefore, who upon such occasions declined neither labour nor risk, and who had more influence over the Indians than any of us, determined to go in search of it into the woods; he hoped, that if it had been stolen by the natives, he should find it wherever they had opened the box, as they would immediately discover that to them it would be wholly useless: or, if in this expectation he should be disappointed, that he might recover it by the ascendancy he had acquired over the chiefs. He set out, accompanied by a midshipman and Mr. Green, and as he was crossing the river he was met by Tubourai Tamaide, who immediately made the figure of