and whatever may be said in favour of a savage life among people who live in luxurious idleness upon the bounty of nature, civilization would certainly be a blessing to those whom her parsimony scarcely furnishes with the bread of life, and who are perpetually destroying each other by violence as the only alternative of perishing by hunger.

But these people, from whatever cause, being inured to war, and by habit considering every stranger as an enemy, were always disposed to attack us when they were not intimidated by our manifest superiority. At first, they had no notion of any superiority but numbers; and when this was on their side, they considered all our expressions of kindness as the artifices of fear and cunning, to circumvent them and preserve ourselves; but when they were once convinced of our power, after having provoked us to the use of our firearms, though loaded only with small-shot, and of our clemency, by our forbearing to make use of weapons so dreadful except in our defence, they became at once friendly, and even affectionate, placing in us the most unbounded confidence, and doing everything which could incite us to put equal confidence in them. It is also remarkable, that when an intercourse was once established between us, they were very rarely detected in any act of dishonesty. Before, indeed, and while they considered us as enemies, who came upon their coast only to make an advantage of them, they did not scruple by any means to make any advantage of us; and would, therefore, when they had received the price of anything they had offered to sell, pack up both the purchase and the purchase-money with all possible composure, as so much lawful plunder from people who had no view but to plunder them.

The bodies of both sexes are marked with the black stains

called Amoco, by the same method that is used at Otaheite, and called Tattowing; but the men are more marked, and the women less. The women in general stain no part of their bodies but the lips, though sometimes they are marked with small black patches on other parts: the men, on the contrary, seem to add something every year to the ornaments of the last, so that some of them, who appeared to be of an advanced age, were almost covered from head to foot. Besides the Amoco, they have marks impressed by a method unknown to us, of a very extraordinary kind: they are furrows of about a line deep, and a line broad, such as appear upon the bark of a tree which has been cut through after a year's growth; the edges of these furrows are afterwards indented by the same method, and being perfectly black, they make a most frightful appearance. But though we could not but be disgusted with the horrid deformity which these stains and furrows produced in the "human face divine," we could not but admire the dexterity and art with which they were impressed.

New Zealand Chief.

Water is their universal and only liquor, as far as we could discover; and if they have really no means of intoxication, they are, in this particular, happy beyond any other people that we have yet seen or heard of.

As there is, perhaps, no source of disease, either critical or

chronic, but intemperance and inactivity, it cannot be thought strange that these people enjoy perfect and uninterrupted health.

A proof of this is the great number of old men that we saw, many of whom, by the loss of their hair and teeth, appeared to be very ancient, yet none of them were decrepit; and though not equal to the young in muscular strength, were not a whit behind them in cheerfulness and vivacity.

I think it appears to demonstration that the language of New Zealand and Otaheite is radically the same. The language of the northern and southern parts of New Zealand differs chiefly in the pronunciation, as the same English word is pronounced gate in Middlesex, and geäte in Yorkshire. I must also observe, that it is the genius of the language, especially in the southern parts, to put some article before a noun, as we do the or a; the articles used here were generally ke or ko; it is also common here to add the word öeia after another word as an iteration, especially if it is an answer to a question; as we say, yes, indeed, to be sure, really, certainly: this sometimes led our gentlemen into the formation of words of an enormous length, judging by the ear only, without being able to refer each sound into its signification. An example will make this perfectly understood.

In the Bay of Islands there is a remarkable one, called by the natives Matuaro. One of our gentlemen having asked a native the name of it, he answered, with the particle, Kematuaro; the gentleman hearing the sound imperfectly, repeated his question, and the Indian repeating his answer, added öeia, which made the word Kematuaroöeia; and thus it happened that in the log-book I found Matuaro transformed into Cumettiwarrowöia: and the same transformation by the same means might happen to an English word. Suppose a native of New

Zealand at Hackney church, to inquire, "What village is this?" the answer would be, "It is Hackney;" suppose the question to be repeated with an air of doubt and uncertainty, the answer might be, "It is Hackney indeed;" and the New Zealander, if he had the use of letters, would probably record, for the informa tion of his countrymen, that during his residence among us he had visited a village called "Ityshakneeindede."

But supposing these islands, and those in the South Seas, to have been peopled originally from the same country, it will perhaps for ever remain a doubt what country that is: we were, however, unanimously of opinion that the people did not come from America, which lies to the eastward; and except there should appear to be a continent to the southward, in a moderate latitude, it will follow that they came from the westward.

Thus far our navigation has certainly been unfavourable to the notion of a southern continent, for it has swept away at least three-fourths of the positions upon which it has been founded. The principal navigators whose authority has been urged on this occasion, are Tasman, Juan Fernandez, Hermite, the commander of a Dutch squadron, Quiros, and Roggewein; and the track of the " Endeavour" has demonstrated that the land seen by these persons, and supposed to be part of a continent, is not so; it has also totally subverted the theoretical arguments which have been brought to prove that the existence of a southern continent is necessary to preserve an equilibrium between the two hemispheres; for upon this principle what we have already proved to be water, would render the southern hemisphere too light.

CHAPTER III.

Discovery of New South Wales.

HAVING sailed from Cape Farewell-New Zealand-on the 31st of March 1770, we steered westward, with a fresh gale.

On the 15th of April we saw an egg-bird and a gannet, and as these are birds that never go far from the land, we continued to sound all night, but had no ground with 130 fathom. At noon, on the 16th, a small land-bird perched upon the rigging, but we had no ground with 120 fathom. At eight we wore, and stood to the southward till twelve at night, and then wore and stood to the N.W. till four in the morning, when we again stood to the southward, having a fresh gale, with squalls and dark weather till nine, when the weather became clear, and there being little wind, we had an opportunity to take several observations of the sun and moon. We had now a hard gale from the southward, and a great sea from the same quarter, which obliged us to run under our fore-sail and mizen all night, during which we sounded every two hours, but had no ground with 120 fathom.

In the morning of the 18th, we saw two Port Egmont hens, and a pintado bird, which are certain signs of approaching land, and, indeed, by our reckoning, we could not be far from it, for our longitude was now one degree to the westward of the east