[ RELATIVE TO NEW-ZEALAND; COMPRISING DESPATCHES AND JOURNALS OF THE COMPANY'S OFFICERS OF THE FIRST EXPEDITION, AND THE FIRST REPORT OF THE DIRECTORS. LONDON: JOHN W. PARKER, WEST STRAND. M.DCCC.XL. CONTENTS. I. Extract of a Despatch from Colonel Wakefield, the Principal Agent in New Zealand, dated Teawaiti, II. Extract of a Letter from Mr. E. M. Chaffers, R.N., Commander of the Tory, September 1, 1839 III. Despatch from Colonel Wakefield, with Journal, dated Cloudy Bay, October 10, 1839 IV. Sailing Directions, by Mr. E. M. Chaffers, R.N. V. Report on the Physical Condition and Natural History of Queen Charlotte's Sound, Cloudy Bay, Tory Channel, Port Nicholson, and the surround- ing Country. By Ernst Dieffenbach, M.D., Na- VI. Colonel Wakefield's Third Despatch, forming a Journal from October 13 to December 13, 1839 SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION. No. I. Extract of a Despatch from Colonel Wakefield, the Company's Principal Agent in New Zealand, dated on board the Tory, Teawaiti, Queen Charlotte's Sound, Cook's Strails, September 1, 1839. My last letter, and the only one I have had an opportunity of sending since we left England, was dated June the 3rd, and was shortly to inform the Company of the safe progress of the expedition, nearly to the Equator. The hope I expressed therein of reaching New Zealand within a hundred days from England has been realised, and I have now the pleasure to inform you, for the information of the Governor and Directors of the Company, that having first sighted the land near Cape Farewell yesterday (16th August) at noon, being the 96th day from Plymouth, we anchored this evening in this harbour, (Ship Cove, Queen Charlotte's Sound.) Our passage has been made without touching anywhere, and, indeed, (if I except a very distant glimpse of the mountains in the Island of Palma, one of the Canaries), without our having seen land since the Lizard. Having had the benefit of the opinions and experience of an excellent navigator in Captain Chaffers, I venture in this place to offer briefly the result of my observation on the voyage, with the hope that, should the suggestions founded on it be thought likely to be useful to emigrants, the commanders of the Company's ships may be instructed to give their attention to them; and for so invading the province of the navigator, I would plead, that although the voyage across the North Atlantic nowadays may have, as Humboldt observes, fewer dangers than the passage Swiss lake, still it may be doubted whether the published accounts have laid down the course best calculated to ensure the least delay in accomplishing it; still more is it allowable to offer some practical remarks on the navigation of B of a |
