Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks/Chapter 9

by Joseph Banks

 

CHAPTER IX

CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF NEW ZEALAND

Nov. 22, 1769—March 30, 1770

 

Tattowing—Thieving of the natives—Cannibalism—Rapid healing of shot-wounds—Native seines—Paper mulberry—Native accounts of their ancestors' expedition to other countries—Three Kings Islands—Christmas Day—Albatross swimming—Mount Egmont—Murderers' Bay—Queen Charlotte's Sound—Threats of natives—Corpses thrown into the sea—Cannibalism—Singing-birds—Fishing-nets—Human head preserved—Discovery of Cook's Straits—Native names for New Zealand, and traditions—Courteous native family—Leave Queen Charlotte's Sound—Tides—Cape Turnagain—Coast along the southern island—Banks' Peninsula—Appearance of minerals—Mountains along the west coast—Anchor in Admiralty Bay.

 

26th. Two large canoes came from a distance; the people in them were numerous and appeared rich; the canoes were well carved and ornamented, and they had with them many patoo-patoos of stone and whale-bone which they value very much. They had also ribs of whales, of which we had often seen imitations in wood carved and ornamented with tufts of dog's hair. The people themselves were browner than those to the southward, as indeed they have been ever since we came to Opoorage, as this part is called, and they had a much larger quantity of amoca or black stains upon their bodies and faces. They had almost universally a broad spiral on each buttock, and many had their thighs almost entirely black, small lines only being left untouched, so that they looked like striped breeches. In this particular, I mean the use of amoca, almost every tribe seems to have a different custom; we have on some days seen canoes where every man was almost covered with it, and at the same time others where scarcely a man had a spot, except on his lips, which seems to be always essential.

These people would not part with any of their arms, etc., for any price we could offer. At last, however, one produced an axe of talc and offered it for cloth; it was given, and the canoe immediately put off with it; a musket ball was fired over their heads, on which they immediately came back and returned the cloth, but soon after put off and went ashore.

In the afternoon other canoes came off, and through some inattention of the officers were suffered to cheat, unpunished and unfrightened; this put one of the midshipmen who had suffered upon a droll, though rather mischievous, revenge. He got a fishing-line, and when the canoe was close to the ship hove the lead at the man who had cheated him with such good success that he fastened the hook into his back, on which he pulled with all his might; the Indian kept back, so that the hook soon broke in the shank, leaving its beard in the man, no very agreeable legacy.

30th. Several canoes came off to the ship very early, but sold little or nothing; indeed, no merchandise that we can show them seems to take with them. Our island cloth, which used to be so much esteemed, has now entirely lost its value. The natives have for some days past told us that they have some of it ashore, and showed us small pieces in their ears, which they said was of their own manufacture. This accounts for their having been once so fond of it, and now setting so little value upon it. Towards noon, however, they sold us a little dried fish for paper, chiefly, or very white Indian cloth.

In the evening we went ashore upon the continent. The people received us very civilly, and were as tame as we could wish. One general observation I here set down: they always, after one night's consideration, have acknowledged our superiority, but hardly ever before. I have often seen a man, when his nearest companion was wounded or killed by our shot, not give himself the trouble to inquire how or by what means he was hurt. When they attack they work themselves up into a kind of artificial courage, which does not allow them time to think much.

1st December. It is now some time since I mentioned their custom of eating human flesh, as I had been for a long time loth to believe that any human beings could have among them so brutal a custom. I am now, however, convinced, and shall here give a short account of what we have heard from the Indians concerning it.

At Taoneroa, where we first landed, the boys whom we had on board mentioned it of their own accord, asking whether the meat they ate was not human flesh, as they had no idea of any animal so large, except a man, till they saw our sheep. They, however, seemed ashamed of the custom, saying that the tribe to which they belonged did not use it, but that another living very near them did. Since then we have never failed to ask the question, and we have without one exception been answered in the affirmative. Several times, as at Tolago and here, the people have put themselves into a heat by defending the custom, which Tupia, who had never before heard of such a thing, takes every occasion to speak ill of, exhorting them often to leave it off. They, however, universally agree that they eat none but the bodies of those of their enemies who are killed in war; all others are buried.

3rd. Many canoes visited us in the morning; one very large carrying eighty-two people. Dr. Solander and myself went ashore; we found few plants, and saw but few people, but they were perfectly civil. We went on their invitation to their little town, which was situated at the bottom of a cove, without the least defence. One of the old men here showed us the instrument with which they stain their bodies; it was exactly like that used at Otahite. We saw also here a man who had been shot on the 29th while attempting to steal our buoy. The ball had gone through the fleshy part of his arm and grazed his breast. The wound was open to the air, without the smallest application upon it, yet it had as good an appearance, and seemed to give him as little pain as if it had had the very best dressing possible. We gave him a musket ball, and with a little talking he seemed to be fully sensible of the escape he had had.

In the evening we went ashore on another island where were many more people, who lived in the same peaceable style, and had very large plantations of sweet potatoes, yams, etc., about their village. They received us much as our friends in the morning had done, and, like them, showed much satisfaction at the little presents of necklaces, etc., which were given to them.

4th. We went ashore at a large Indian fort or heppah. A great number of people immediately crowded about us, and sold almost a boat-load of fish in a very short time. They then showed us their plantations, which were very large, of yams, cocos, and sweet potatoes: and after having a little laugh at our seine, a common king's seine, showed us one of theirs, which was five fathoms deep. Its length we could only guess, as it was not stretched out, but it could not from its bulk be less than four or five hundred fathoms. Fishing seems to be the chief business of this part of the country. About all their towns are abundance of nets laid upon small heaps like haycocks, and thatched over, and almost every house you go into has nets in process of making.

After this they showed us a great rarity, six plants of what they called aouta, from whence they make cloth like that of Otahite. The plant proved exactly the same, as the name is the same, Morus papyrifera, Linn. (the Paper Mulberry). The same plant is used by the Chinese to make paper. Whether the climate does not well agree with it I do not know, but they seemed to value it very much; that it was very scarce among them I am inclined to believe, as we have not yet seen among them pieces large enough for any use, but only bits sticking into the holes of their ears.

9th. Many canoes came off, and Tupia inquired about the country: they told him that at the distance of three days' rowing in their canoes, at a place called Moorewhennua, the land would turn to the southward, and from thence extend no more to the west. This place we concluded must be Cape Maria Van Diemen; and finding these people so intelligent, desired Tupia to inquire if they knew of any countries besides this, or ever went to any. They said no, but that their ancestors had told them that to the N.W. by N. or N.N.W. was a large country to which some people had sailed in a very large canoe, which passage took them a month. From the expedition a part only returned, who told their countrymen that they had seen a country where the people eat hogs, for which animal they used the same name (Booah) as is used in the islands. "And have you no hogs among you?" said Tupia.—"No."—"And did your ancestors bring none back with them?"—"No."—"You must be a parcel of liars then," said he, "and your story a great lie, for your ancestors would never have been such fools as to come back without them." Thus much as a specimen of Indian reasoning.

10th. This morning we were near the land, which was quite barren, hills beyond hills, and ridges even far inland were covered with white sand on which no kind of vegetable was to be seen. It was conjectured by some that the land here might be very narrow, and that the westerly wind blew the sand right across it. Some Indian forts or heppahs were seen.

18th. On a rock pretty near us we saw through our glasses an Indian fort, which we all thought was encircled with a mud wall; if so, it is the only one of the kind we have seen.

24th. Land in sight: an island, or rather several small ones, most probably the Three Kings, so that it was conjectured that we had passed the cape, which had so long troubled us. From a boat I killed several gannets or solan geese, so like European ones that they are hardly distinguishable from them. As it was the humour of the ship to keep Christmas in the old-fashioned way, it was resolved to make a goose-pie for to-morrow's dinner.

25th. Christmas Day: our goose-pie was eaten with great approbation; and in the evening all hands were as drunk as our forefathers used to be upon like occasions.

1st January 1770.—The new year began with more moderate weather than the old one ended with, but wind as foul as ever: we ventured to go a little nearer the land, which appeared on this side the cape much as it had done on the other, almost entirely occupied by vast sands. Our surveyors suppose the cape to be shaped like a shoulder of mutton with the knuckle placed inwards, where they say that the land cannot be above two or three miles across, and that most probably in high winds the sea washes quite over the sands, which here are low.

6th. Calm to day. Shot Procellaria longipes, P. velox, and Diomedea exulans (the albatross). I had an opportunity of seeing this last sit upon the water; and as it is commonly said by seamen that they cannot in a calm rise upon the wing, I tried the experiment. There were two of them. One I shot dead: the other, which was near it, swam off nearly as fast as my small boat could row. We gave chase and gained a little; the bird attempted to fly by trying to take off from a falling wave, but did not succeed: I who was so far off that I knew I could not hurt him, fired at him to make his attempts more vigorous, this had the desired result, for at the third effort he got upon the wing, though I believe that had it not been for a little swell upon the water he could not have done it.

10th. The country we passed by appeared fertile, more so, I think, than any part of this country that I have seen; rising in gentle slopes not over well wooded, but what trees there were, were well grown. Few signs of inhabitants were seen: one fire and a very few houses.

About noon we passed between the main and a small island or rock, which seemed almost totally covered with birds, probably gannets. Towards evening a very high hill was in sight, but very distant.

12th. This morning we were abreast of the great hill,^[1] but it was wrapped in clouds, and remained so the whole day; it is probably very high, as a part of its side, which was for a moment seen, was covered with snow. The country beyond it appeared very pleasant and fertile, the sides of the hills sloping gradually. With our glasses we could distinguish many white lumps in companies, fifty or sixty together, which were probably stones or tufts of grass, but bore much resemblance to flocks of sheep:^[2] at night a small fire, which burned about half an hour, made us sure that there were inhabitants, of whom we had seen no signs since the 10th.

13th. This morning, soon after daybreak, we had a momentary view of our great hill, the top of which was thickly covered with snow, though this month answers to July in England. How high it may be I do not take upon me to judge, but it is certainly the noblest hill I have ever seen, and it appears to the utmost advantage, rising from the sea without another hill in its neighbourhood one-fourth of its height.

14th. In a large bay, called in the draughts Murderers' Bay; the appearance of a harbour just ahead made us resolve to anchor in the morning.

15th. In the course of last night we were driven to the eastward more than we had any reason to expect, so much that we found ourselves in the morning past the harbour we intended to go into. Another, however, was in sight, into which we went.^[3] The land on both sides appeared most miserably barren, till we got some way up the harbour, when it began to mend gradually. Here we saw some canoes, which, instead of coming towards us, went to an Indian town or fort built upon an island nearly in the middle of the passage, which appeared crowded with people, as if they had flocked to it from all parts. As the ship approached it they waved to us as if inviting us to come to them, but the moment we had passed, they set up a loud shout, and every man brandished his weapons.

The country about us now was very fertile to appearance, and well wooded, so we came to anchor about a long cannon shot from the fort, from whence four canoes were immediately despatched to reconnoitre, I suppose, and, if might be, to take us, as they were all well armed. The men in these boats were dressed much as they are represented in Tasman's figure, that is, two corners of the cloth they wore were passed over their shoulders and fastened to the rest of it just below their breasts; but few or none had feathers in their hair. They rowed round and round the ship, defying and threatening us as usual, and at last hove some stones aboard, which we all expected to be a prelude of some behaviour which would oblige us to fire upon them; but just at this time a very old man in one of the boats expressed a desire of coming on board, which we immediately encouraged him to do, and threw a rope into his canoe, by which he was immediately hauled up alongside, contrary to the desire of all the other Indians, who went so far as to hold him fast for some time. We received him in as friendly a manner as possible, and gave him many presents, with which he returned to the canoes, who immediately joined in a war dance, whether to show their enmity or friendship it is impossible to say. We have so often seen them do it upon both occasions.

After this they retired to their town, and we went ashore abreast of the ship, where we found good wood and water, and caught more fish in the seine than all our people could possibly consume, besides shooting a multitude of shags. The country, however, did not answer so well to Dr. Solander and myself as to the ship, as we found only two new plants in the whole evening.

16th. The women and some of the men wore an article of dress which we had not before seen, a round bunch of black feathers tied upon the tops of their heads, which it entirely covered, making them look twice as large as they really were. On seeing this, my judgment paid an involuntary compliment to my fair English countrywomen, for, led astray by the head-dress, which in some measure resembles the high foretops in England, I was forward to declare it as my opinion that these were much the handsomest women we had seen upon the coast; but upon their near approach I was convinced that nothing but the head-dress had misled me, as I saw not one who was even tolerably handsome.

After dinner we went in the boat towards a cove about two miles from the ship. As we rowed along, something was seen floating upon the water, which we took to be a dead seal. It proved, to our great surprise, to be the body of a woman, who seemed to have been dead some time. We left it, and proceeded to our cove, where we found a small family of Indians, who were a little afraid of us, as they all ran away but one. They soon, however, returned except an old man and a child, who stayed in the woods, but not out of sight of us. Of these people we inquired about the body we had seen. They told Tupia that the woman was a relation of theirs, and that instead of burying their dead, their custom was to tie a stone to them, and throw them into the sea, which stone they suppose to have been unloosened by some accident.

The family were employed, when we came ashore, in dressing their provisions, which were a dog, at that time buried in their oven. Near by were many provision baskets. Looking carelessly upon one of these, we by accident observed two bones pretty cleanly picked, which, as appeared upon examination, were undoubtedly human bones.

Though we had from the beginning constantly heard the Indians acknowledge the custom of eating their enemies, we had never before had a proof of it, but this amounted almost to demonstration. The bones were clearly human; upon them were evident marks of their having been dressed on the fire; the meat was not entirely picked off them, and on the gristly ends, which were gnawed, were evident marks of teeth; and they were accidentally found in a provision basket. On asking the people what bones they were, they answered: "The bones of a man."—"And have you eaten the flesh?"—"Yes."—"Have you none of it left?"—"No."—"Why did you not eat the woman whom we saw to-day in the water?"—"She was our relation."—"Whom, then, do you eat?"—"Those who are killed in war."—"And who was the man whose bones these are?"—"Five days ago a boat of our enemies came into this bay, and of them we killed seven, of whom the owner of these bones was one." The horror that appeared in the countenances of the seamen on hearing this discourse, which was immediately translated for the good of the company, is better conceived than described. For ourselves, and myself in particular, we were too well convinced of the existence of such a custom to be surprised, though we were pleased at having so strong a proof of a custom which human nature holds in too great abhorrence to give easy credit to.

17th. I was awakened by the singing of the birds ashore, from whence we are distant not a quarter of a mile. Their numbers were certainly very great. They seemed to strain their throats with emulation, and made, perhaps, the most melodious wild music I have ever heard, almost imitating small bells, but with the most tunable silver sound imaginable, to which, maybe, the distance was no small addition. On inquiring of our people, I was told that they had observed them ever since we had been here, and that they begin to sing about one or two in the morning, and continue till sunrise, after which they are silent all day, like our nightingales.

18th. Among other things that the Indians told us yesterday, one was that they expected their enemies to come and revenge the death of the seven men, and some of our people thought that they had intelligence of their coming to-day, which made us observe the Indian town, where the people seemed more quiet than usual, not attending to their usual occupations of fishing, etc. No canoe attempted to come near the ship.

After breakfast we went in the pinnace to explore some parts of the bay, which we had not seen, as it was immensely large, or, rather, consisted of numberless small harbours, coves, etc. We found the country on our side of the bay very well wooded everywhere, but on the opposite side very bare. In turning a point, we saw a man in a small canoe fishing, who, to our surprise, showed not the least fear of us. We went to him, and at our request he took up his nets, and showed us his implement, which was a circular net about seven or eight feet in diameter, extended by two hoops. The top of this was open, and to the bottom were tied sea-ears, etc., as bait: this he let down upon the ground, and when he thought that fish enough were assembled over it, he lifted it up by a very gentle and even motion, so that the fish were hardly sensible of being lifted till they were almost out of the water. By this simple method he had caught abundance of fish, and I believe it is the general way of fishing all over this coast, as many such nets have been seen at almost every place we have been in. In this bay, indeed, fish were so plentiful that it is hardly possible not to catch abundance by whatever method is adopted.

20th. Our old man came this morning with the heads of four people, which were preserved with the flesh and hair on, and kept I suppose as trophies, as possibly scalps were by the North Americans before the Europeans came among them. The brains were, however, taken out; maybe they are a delicacy here. The flesh and skin upon these heads were soft; but they were somehow preserved so as not to stink at all.

The bay, wherever we have yet been, is very hilly; we have hardly seen a flat large enough for a potato garden. Our friends here do not seem to feel the want of such places; as we have not seen the least appearance of cultivation, I suppose they live entirely upon fish, dogs, and enemies.

22nd. Made an excursion to-day in the pinnace, in order to see more of the bay. While Dr. Solander and I were botanising, the captain went to the top of a hill, and in about an hour returned in high spirits, having seen the eastern sea, and satisfied himself of the existence of a strait communicating with it, the idea of which has occurred to us all, from Tasman's as well as our own observations.

23rd. Mr. Monkhouse told me that on the 21st he had been ashore at a spot where were many deserted Indian houses: here he had seen several things tied up to the branches of trees, particularly human hair, which he brought away with him, enough to have made a sizable wig. This induced him to think that the place was consecrated to religious purposes; possibly it was, as they certainly have such places among them, though I have not yet been lucky enough to meet with them.

24th. Went to-day to the heppah or town, to see our friends the Indians, who received us with much confidence and civility, and showed us every part of their habitations, which were neat enough. The town was situated upon a small island or rock separated from the main by a breach in the rock, so small that a man might almost jump over it; the sides were everywhere so steep as to render fortifications, even in their fashion, almost totally unnecessary; accordingly there was nothing but a slight palisade, and one small fighting stage at one end where the rock was most accessible. The people brought us several bones of men, the flesh of which they had eaten. These are now become a kind of article of trade among our people, who constantly ask for and purchase them for whatever trifles they have. In one part we observed a kind of wooden cross ornamented with feathers, made exactly in the form of a crucifix. This engaged our attention, and we were told that it was a monument to a dead man; maybe a cenotaph, as the body was not there. This much they told us, but would not let us know where the body was.

25th. Dr. Solander and I (who have now nearly exhausted all the plants in our neighbourhood) went to-day to search for mosses and small things, in which we had great success, gathering several very remarkable ones. In the evening we went out in the pinnace, and fell in with a large family of Indians, who have now begun to disperse themselves, as is, I believe, their custom, into the different creeks and coves where fish are most plentiful. A few only remain in the heppah, to which they all fly in times of danger. These people came a good way to meet us at a place where we were shooting shags, and invited us to join the rest of them, twenty or thirty in number, men, women, and children, dogs, etc. We went, and were received with all possible demonstrations of friendship, if the numberless hugs and kisses we got from both sexes, old and young, in return for our ribbons and beads may be accounted such.

26th. Went to-day to take another view of our new straits,^[4] as the captain was not quite sure of the westernmost end. We found a hill in a tolerably convenient situation, and climbing it, saw the strait quite open, and four or five leagues wide. We then erected a small monument of stone, such as five stout men could do in half an hour, and laid in it musket balls, beads, shot, etc., so that if perchance any Europeans should find and pull it down, they will be sure it is not of Indian workmanship.

5th February. Our old man, Topaa, was on board, and Tupia asked him many questions concerning the land, etc. His answers were nearly as follows: "That the straits we had seen from the hills were a passage into the eastern sea; that the land to the south consisted of two or several islands round which their canoes might sail in three or four days; that he knew of no other great land than that we had been upon (Aehie no Mauwe), of which Tera Whitte was the southern part; that he believed his ancestors were not born there, but came originally from Heawije"^[5] (from whence Tupia and the islanders also derive their origin), "which lay to the northwards where were many lands; that neither himself, his father, nor his grandfather had ever heard of ships as large as this being here before, but that they have a tradition of two large vessels, much larger than theirs, which some time or other came here, and were totally destroyed by the inhabitants, and all the people belonging to them killed."

This last Tupia says is a very old tradition, much older than his great-grandfather, and relates to two large canoes which came from Olimaroa, one of the islands he has mentioned. Whether he is right, or whether this is a tradition of Tasman's ships (which they could not well compare with their own by tradition, and which their warlike ancestors had told them they had destroyed), is difficult to say. Tupia has all along warned us not to put too much faith in anything these people tell us, "for," says he, "they are given to lying; they told you that one of their people was killed by a musket and buried, which was absolutely false."

The doctor and I went ashore to-day, and fell in by accident with the most agreeable Indian family we had seen upon the coast, indeed the only one in which we have observed any order or subordination. It consisted of seventeen people; the head of it was a pretty boy of about ten years old, who, they told us, was the owner of the land about where we wooded. This is the only instance of property we have met with among these people. He and his mother (who mourned for her husband with tears of blood, according to their custom) sat upon mats, the rest sat round them: houses they had none, nor did they attempt to make for themselves any shelter against the inclemencies of the weather, which I suppose they by custom very easily endure. Their whole behaviour was so affable, obliging, and unsuspicious, that I should certainly have accepted their invitation to stay the night with them, were not the ship to sail in the morning. Most unlucky shall I always esteem it that we did not sooner make acquaintance with these people, from whom we might have learnt more in a day of their manners and dispositions than from all we have yet seen.

6th. Foul wind continued, but we contrived to get into the straits, which are to be called Cook's Straits. Here we were becalmed, and almost imperceptibly drawn by the tide near the land. The lead was dropped, and gave seventy fathoms; soon after we saw an appearance like breakers, towards which we drove fast. It was now sunset, and night came on apace; the ship drove into the rough water, which proved to be a strong tide, and which set her directly upon a rock. We had approached very near to this when the anchor was dropped, and she was brought up about a cable's length from it. We were now sensible of the force of the tide, which roared like a mill-stream, and ran at four knots at least when it flowed the fastest, for the rate varied much. It ran in this manner till twelve o'clock, when, with the slack water, we got up the anchor with great difficulty, and a light breeze from the northward soon cleared us from our dangers.

8th. As some of the officers declared last night that they thought it probable that the land we have been round might communicate by an isthmus situated somewhere between where we now are and Cape Turnagain (though the whole distance is estimated at no more than ninety miles), the captain resolved to stand to the northward till he should see that cape, which was accordingly done.

Three canoes put off from the shore, and with very little invitation came on board. The people appeared richer and more cleanly than any we have seen since we were in the Bay of Islands; their canoes also were ornamented in the same manner as those we had formerly seen in the north of the island. They were always more civil in their behaviour, and on having presents made them, immediately made presents to us in return (an instance we have not before met with in this island). All these things inclined me to believe that we were again come to the dominions of Teratu, but on asking they said that he was not their king.

9th. By eleven o'clock Cape Turnagain was in sight, which convinced everybody that the land was really an island, on which we once more turned the ship's head to the southward.

14th. I had two or three opportunities this evening of seeing albatrosses rise from the water, which they did with great ease; maybe they are not able to do so (as I have seen) when they are gorged with food.

17th. This morning we were close to a new island^[6] which made in ridges not unlike the South Sea Islands (between the tropics); the tops of these were bare, but in the valleys was plenty of wood.

23rd. As we have now been four days upon nearly the same part of the coast without seeing any signs of inhabitants, I think there is no doubt that this part at least is without inhabitants.

In the evening the land^[7] inclined a good deal to the west. We on board were now of two parties, one who wished that the land in sight might, the other that it might not, be a continent. I myself have always been most firm in the former wish, though sorry I am to say that my party is so small, that I firmly believe that there are none more heartily of it than myself and one poor midshipman: the rest begin to sigh for roast beef.

4th March. A large smoke was seen, and proved to be an immense fire on the side of a hill which we supposed to have been set on fire by the natives, for though this is the only sign of people we have seen, yet I think it must be an indisputable proof that there are inhabitants, though probably very thinly scattered over the face of this very large country.

9th. The land^[8] appeared barren, and seemed to end in a point to which the hills gradually declined, much to the regret of us continent-mongers, who could not help thinking that the great swell from the south-west and the broken ground without it were a pretty sure mark of some remarkable cape being here. By noon we were near the land, which was uncommonly barren; the few flat places we saw seemingly produced little or nothing, and the rest was all bare rocks which were amazingly full of large veins, and patches of some mineral that shone as if it had been polished, or rather looked as if the rocks were really paved with glass; what it was I could not at all guess, but it was certainly some mineral, and seemed to argue by its immense abundance a country abounding in minerals, where, if one may judge from the corresponding latitudes of South America, in all human probability something very valuable might be found.

10th. Blew fresh all day: we were carried round the point, to the total destruction of our aerial fabric called continent.

13th. The rocks were very large, and had veins in them filled with a whitish appearance different from what we saw on the 9th. The sides of the hills appeared well wooded, and the country in general as fertile as in so hilly a country could be expected, but without the least signs of inhabitants.

14th. Stood along shore with a fine breeze, and passed three or four places which had much the appearance of harbours, much to my regret, as I wished to examine the mineral appearance from which I had formed great hopes.^[9] The country rose immediately from the sea-side in steep hills, tolerably covered with wood; behind these was another ridge covered in many places with snow, which, from its pure whiteness and smoothness in the morning, and the many cracks and intervals that appeared among it at night, we conjectured to be newly fallen.

15th. The country to-day appeared covered with steep hills, whose sides were but ill wooded, but on their tops were large quantities of snow, especially on the sides looking towards the south. We imagined that about noon we passed by some considerable river; the sea was almost covered with leaves, small twigs, and blades of grass.

16th. Much snow on the ridges of the high hills; two were, however, seen on which was little or none, whatever the cause of it might be I could not guess. They were quite bare of trees or any kind of vegetables, and seemed to consist of a mouldering soft stone of the colour of brick or light red ochre. About noon the country near the sea changed much for the better, appearing in broad valleys clothed with prodigious fine woods, out of which came many fine streams of water; but, notwithstanding the beauty of the country, there was not the smallest sign of inhabitants, nor, indeed, have we seen any since we made this land, except the fire on the 4th.

18th. Immense quantities of snow newly fallen on the hills were by noon plainly seen to begin to melt.

21st. At night saw a phenomenon which I have but seldom seen; at sunset the flying clouds were of almost all colours, among which green was very conspicuous, though rather faint.

24th. Just turned the most westerly point,^[10] and stood into the mouth of the straits.

26th. At night came to an anchor in a bay,^[11] in some part of which it is probable that Tasman anchored.

30th. I examined the stones which lay on the beach: they showed evident signs of mineral tendency, being full of veins, but I had not the fortune to discover any ore of metal (at least that I know to be so) in them. As the place we lay in had no bare rocks in its neighbourhood, this was the only method I had of even conjecturing.

1. Mount Egmont.
2. Clumps of the remarkable Composite plant Raoulia mammillaris, Hook.f., or an allied species, called "vegetable sheep" in New Zealand.
3. Ship's Cove, Queen Charlotte's Sound.
4. Cook's Straits.
5. The Maoris are by some authorities supposed to have originally come from Hawaii, the direction of which agrees very fairly with that given by the natives to Banks. The Sandwich Islands really lie N.N.E. from New Zealand.
6. Banks' Peninsula: it is not an island.
7. Near Otago Harbour.
8. Stewart Island, which was supposed to be a peninsula.
9. Tin abounds in Stewart Island, but Banks's observations are no evidence of its presence.
10. Cape Farewell.
11. Admiralty Bay: Tasman anchored in Blind or Tasman's Bay, and the massacre of three of his crew is supposed to have taken place in a small bay on its north-west side.—Wharton's Cook, p. 214, note.