Enclosure.
Captain Lockhart to His Excellency Governor Hobson.

I have the honour to inform you that having received your Excellency's orders through Ensign Cookson, I embarked a party of twenty men to quell a disturbance between the Natives and some American sailors at Pomare's pa, on the night of the 3rd instant. On arriving there I found the Natives assembled near the chapel with firearms, on which I deemed it advisable to send for a reinforcement. On the appearance of the military the Natives proceeded to the farther part of the pa. I marched the men to that part of the fort where the Natives had, in a row during the course of the day, dragged two whaleboats belonging to American vessels. As I could not induce the Natives to take the boats to the place where they came from, I protected the boats' crew while they did so. On returning to our boats some of the Natives were seen crouching in the scrub above us. An alarm was made by a mob of armed drunken sailors and civilians that the Natives were making an attack. Some of the civilians cried "Fire! fire!" and fired several shots in the direction of the Natives. In the shouting and disturbance which ensued, I am sorry to say three or four muskets were fired by the soldiers without any orders from me. On account of the darkness I could not detect who the particular men were. Luckily no injury was done by the firing.