MARCH 1770 APPEARANCE OF MINERALS 219 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.1 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, 1 Tin abounds in Stewart Island, but Banks's observations are no evidence of its presence. 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,' and stood into the mouth of the straits. 26th. At night came to an anchor in a bay, 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 Cape Farewell. 2 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. CHAPTER X GENERAL ACCOUNT OF NEW ZEALAND Its discovery by Tasman-Mountains-Harbours-Cultivation-Trees-Suitability of Thames River for colonisation-Climate-Absence of native quadrupeds - Birds - Insects - Fish- Plants - Native and introduced vegetables-Absence of fruits-New Zealand flax-Population-Qualities of the natives-Tattowing and painting-Dress-Head-dresses-Ear- and nose-ornaments-Houses-Food-Cannibalism amongst men-Freedom from disease-Canoes-Carving-Tools-Cloth fabrics-Nets-TillageWeapons-Spontoons-War and other songs-Human trophies-Heppahs -Chiefs-Religion-Burial-Language. As we intend to leave this place to-morrow, I shall spend a few sheets in drawing together what I have observed of the country and of its inhabitants, premising that in this, and in all other descriptions of the same kind which may occur in this journal, I shall give myself liberty to conjecture, and draw conclusions from what I have observed. In these I may doubtless be mistaken; in the daily Journal, however, the observations may be seen, and any one who refers to that may draw his own conclusions from them, attending as little as he pleases to any of mine. This country was first discovered by Abel Jansen Tasman on the 13th of December 1642, and called by him New Zealand. He, however, never went ashore on it, probably from fear of the natives, who, when he had come to an anchor, set upon one of his boats and killed three or four out of the seven people in her. Tasman certainly was an able navigator; he sailed into the mouth of Cook's Straits, and finding himself surrounded, to all appearance, by land, observed the flood tide to come from the south-east; from thence he conjectured that there was in that place a passage through the land, which conjecture we proved to be true, as he himself had certainly done, had not the wind changed as he thought in his favour, giving him an opportunity of returning the way he came in, which he preferred to standing into a bay with an on-shore wind, upon the strength of conjecture only. Again, when he came the length of Cape Maria Van Diemen he observed hollow waves to come from the north-east, from whence he concluded it to be the northernmost part of the land, which we really found it to be. Lastly, to his eternal credit be it spoken, although he had been four months absent from Batavia when he made this land, and had sailed both west and east, his longitude (allowing for an error in that of Batavia, as he has himself stated it) differs no more than 1 from ours, which is corrected by an innumerable number of observations of the moon and sun, etc., as well as of a transit of Mercury over the sun, all calculated and observed by Mr. Green, a mathematician of well-known abilities, who was sent out in this ship by the Royal Society to observe the transit of Venus. Thus much for Tasman; it were too much to be wished, however, that we had a fuller account of his voyage than that published by Dirk Rembrantz, which seems to be no more than a short extract, and that other navigators would imitate him in mentioning the supposed latitudes and longitudes of the places from whence they take their departures; which precaution, useful as it is, may almost be said to have been used by Tasman alone. The face of the country is in general mountainous, especially inland, where probably runs a chain of very high hills, parts of which we saw at several times. They were generally covered with snow, and certainly very high; some of our officers, men of experience, did not scruple to say as 1 Left blank in Banks's Journal. The following note was appended by Banks at the end of the chapter : Though Tasman's longitude of Cape Maria Van Diemen comes near the truth, our seamen affirm, and seem to make it appear, that he erred no less than 4° 49' in running from the first land he made to Cape Maria Van Diemen ; if so, his exactness must be attributed more to chance than skill. 1770 MOUNTAINS AND SOIL 223 much as the Peak of Teneriffe: in that particular, however, I cannot quite agree with them, though that they must be very high is proved by the hill to the northward of Cook's Straits, which was seen, and made no inconsiderable figure, at the distance of many leagues. The sea coast, should it ever be examined, will probably be found to abound in good harbours. We saw several, of which the Bay of Islands, or Motuaro, and Queen Charlotte's Sound, or Totarra-nue, are as good as any which seamen need desire to come into, either for good anchorage or for convenience of wooding and watering. The outer ridge of land which is open to the sea is (as I believe is the case of most countries) generally barren, especially to the southward, but within that the hills are covered with thick woods quite to the top, and every valley produces a rivulet of water. The soil is in general light, and consequently admirably adapted to the uses for which the natives cultivate it, their crops consisting entirely of roots. On the southern and western sides it is the most barren, the sea being generally bounded either by steep hills or vast tracts of sand, which is probably the reason why the people in these parts were so much less numerous, and lived almost entirely upon fish. The northern and eastern shores make, however, some amends for the barrenness of the others; on them we often. saw very large tracts of ground, which either actually were, or very lately had been, cultivated, and immense areas of woodland which were yet uncleared, but promised great returns to the people who would take the trouble of clearing them. Taoneroa, or Poverty Bay, and Tolago especially, besides swamps which might doubtless easily be drained, sufficiently evinced the richness of their soil by the great size of all the plants that grew upon them, and more especially of the timber trees, which were the straightest, cleanest, and I may say the largest I have ever seen, at least speaking of them in the gross. I may have seen several times single trees larger than any I observed among these; but it was not one, but all these trees, which were enormous, and doubtless had we had time and opportunity to search, we might have |