1865 - Howitt, W. The History of Discovery in Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand [New Zealand sections] - CHAPTER IV. DISCOVERIES OF CAPTAIN COOK IN AUSTRALIA, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND, AND NEW ZEALAND FROM 1768 TO 1770, p 76-103

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CHAPTER IV.

DISCOVERIES OF CAPTAIN COOK IN AUSTRALIA, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND, AND NEW ZEALAND FROM 1768 TO 1770.

IN May, 1708, Captain James Cook sailed down the Thames from Deptford Yard, in the ship Endeavour, and

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anchored in Plymouth Sound, preparatory to a voyage to Otaheite in the South Seas, in order to observe the transit of Venus, and after that to prosecute discoveries in the southern hemisphere. This voyage was one of a series instituted by George III., and executed under the commands of Commodore Byron, and Captains Wallis, Carteret, and Cook, in the ships Dolphin, Swallow, and Endeavour. As the explorations of the commanders preceding Cook were on the coasts of South America and in the Pacific, not extending to Australia or New Zealand, they concern us no further than as they paved the way for the Australian discoveries.

Captain Cook was now not only to make a more extensive research amongst the islands of the various groups of the South Sea, hut he was directed to follow out the discoveries by Tasman, regarding New Zealand, called by Tasman Staaten Land, and Van Diemen's Land, in order to ascertain whether they constituted portions of the great, and still vaguely known Australian continent.

In order to render effective the discoveries in natural history, Captain Cook was accompanied by Joseph, afterwards Sir Joseph Banks, a gentleman of property in Lincolnshire, but who was zealously devoted to scientific pursuits, especially of botany. Mr. Banks had already made a voyage to Newfoundland and Labrador, in 1763, where he had suffered considerable hardships in pursuit of his favourite science, but this did not deter him from engaging in the then formidable enterprise of a visit to the antipodes. He engaged Dr. Solander, another eminent botanist to accompany him. Solander was a Swede, and educated under Linnaeus himself, from whom he had brought letters of recommendation to England, and in consequence of which he had been appointed to an office in the British Museum. Two draftsmen were also engaged by Mr. Banks, one to draw views and figures, the other to paint the various subjects of natural history that they might discover. On the completion of the voyage, the journals of both Mr. Banks and Captain Cook were put into the hands of Dr. Hawksworth, from

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whom we have the authentic account of this voyage, in two vols. 4to.

Captain Cook sailed from Plymouth on the 26th of August, and proceeded by Rio Janeiro and through the Straits of Le Maire into the Pacific, and arrived at Otaheite in April of the following year, 1769. The transit of Venus was successfully observed on the 4th of June, and having employed themselves in making a familiar acquaintance with the inhabitants of the Society Islands, they sailed from Oterauh to New Zealand, on the 15th of August, taking with them from Otaheite Tupia, a native, and chief priest, and a boy, his servant, of about thirteen years of age. On the 7th of October they fell in with the south-east coast of Eaheinomawe, or what is now called the North Island of New Zealand, at a place which they named Poverty Ray.

Tasman had struck New Zealand in Queen Charlotte's Sound, and came to anchor in the large bay in the mouth of the Straits between the North and Middle Islands without discovering those straits. The natives attacked one of his boats' crew, and killed three of them, whence he named the bay Murderers' Bay, now called after him, Tasman's Bay. Thence he steered along the north-west coast of New Zealand, not venturing again to land; then continued his course as far as the Three Kings' Islands, which he sailed round; and from this point advanced northwards, not having determined whether this land was an island or islands, or part of the great Terra Australis. It now remained for Cook, and formed part of his duty, according to his instructions, to ascertain what the country really was.

Like Tasman, Cook and his companions found the natives bold and aggressive. They were ready to fight any number of the strangers, and even when they saw the effect of their fire-arms did not appear a whit daunted. Cook did not know that he had fallen in with Staaten Land, but says the country was the subject of much eager conversation, and the general opinion was that they had found the Terra Australis incognita.

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They describe the first appearance of the country as very striking, with four or five ranges of hills rising one above another, and a chain of mountains above all, which appeared to be of an enormous height. They sailed into a large bay: the hills round covered with wood, some of the trees in the valley very large. They saw smoke rising from various places, and houses small but neat. They were much struck with the sight of a hippah, or fortification of the natives, and could not conceive what it was. "Upon a small peninsula, at the north-east head, we could plainly perceive a pretty high and regular paling, which enclosed the whole top of a hill, which was the subject of much speculation, some supposing it to be a park of deer, others an enclosure for oxen and sheep." The sides of the bay were of white cliffs of a great height, the middle, low land, with hills rising gradually behind, one towering above another, and terminating in the chain of mountains, which appeared far inland. They discovered a small, clear river, and on landing were soon attacked by the natives with lances, and a sort of war-hatchet, of green talc, capable of splitting the hardest skull at a blow. They saw that these daring natives had their hair drawn up on all sides, and tied on the top of their heads, just as Tasman had described the people of Staaten Land, but they had no feathers stuck in this knot. They found it impossible to come to an amicable understanding with them, although they discovered that Tupia was perfectly understood by them, and assured them no harm was intended them; and they could not effect their retreat without shooting one of them dead. The next day, in again endeavouring to open intercourse with them, they succeeded in approaching them, but then they became as thievish as they had before shown themselves daring; they endeavoured to snatch away their arms, and were only prevented by wounding some of them with small shot.

Failing in his attempts at communication on land, Cook now endeavoured to take some of them that came

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out in boats, carry them on board, and win their confidence by treating them kindly. This, however, was not accomplished without killing four more of them. Cook captured two youths, and carried them aboard, where they soon became reconciled, and eat and drank voraciously, but on being put ashore, no confidence was inspired by them amongst their friends, as had been expected, and Tupia telling Cook that they were still hostile and dangerous, Cook weighed anchor and followed the coast eastward. He named the south-west point of Poverty Bay, Young Nick's Head, from Nicholas Young, the boy who first saw land. They soon saw and named Cape Table, and Portland Island, and then Hawke's Bay. They could see the mountains inland covered with snow; and vast numbers of people watching from different parts of the shore. These still displayed the same hostility, and came off ever and anon in their boats, and menaced them with great bravado. When some of them came near enough, Tupia told them of their folly, for the white men had weapons that like thunder would kill them in a moment, and tear their canoes to atoms; that to show them the effect without hurting them, they would now use them, whereupon a four-pounder loaded with grape shot was fired, which by its flash, its roar, and the effect of the shot far-off on the water, astonished them for a moment, but only for a moment. Being persuaded to come near, and barter being attempted, they took every thing offered, but then refused to give the articles presented for exchange, and ended by seizing Tayeto, Tupia's boy, who was sent down into the boat along side to hand up the articles to be received from them, and carrying him off in a canoe. This compelled Cook to fire on them again, one man was killed, and two others wounded, the boy was let go and sprang into the water, where, however, he was only protected till he reached the ship, by the fire-arms of the crew.

Finding it hopeless to establish any intercourse with these people, Cook named the south-west point of the bay where this occurred, Kidnapper's Point, and sailed

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on eighteen leagues till he reached a high bluff head, with yellowish cliffs, where, seeing no signs of a harbour, he named it Cape Turnagain, and then veered about, and sailed back north-eastward. On passing Portland Island, a chief and his company, five altogether, in a canoe, came aboard, his kindness to the lads having at length produced its effect. They had their canoe hoisted on board, and staid all night without any misgivings. In the morning they were put out at Cape Table, appearing much astonished at finding themselves so far away from home. At twelve leagues from Cape Table, they saw and named Gable-End Foreland, from the likeness of a white cliff at its point to a gable-end. Every day now showed that the natives who came off in their canoes, had heard of what had taken place at Poverty Bay, and were more friendly and more disposed to trade fairly. Kindness and the cannon had done it.

At Tolega Bay, the English gentlemen ventured ashore, taking with them Tupia and Tayeto. Here they had their first close view of the houses and mode of life of the New Zealanders. They entered some of their huts, and saw them at their meals. These huts were very slight, and generally placed ten or fifteen together. They found them generally dining on fish, and eating to it the bruised and roasted roots of fern, the fibres of which some swallowed, but others spit out like quids of tobacco into baskets set beside them for the purpose. This was in October; in the more advanced season, they understood that they had plenty of excellent vegetables, but they saw no animals except dogs, which they understood that they eat like the South Sea Islanders. They visited their gardens, which consisted of from one acre to ten, and altogether in the bay amounted to 150 or 200 acres in extent. They were planted with sweet potatoes, coccos or eddas, such as are used in the East and West Indies, yams and gourds; but few of them were yet above ground. Their plantations were carefully fenced in with reeds.

They found both men and women painted with red

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ochre and oil, but the women much the most so; and like the South Sea Islanders they saluted by touching noses. They wore petticoats of a native cloth made from the New Zealand flax, and a sort of cloak or mantle of a much coarser kind. They found them much more modest in manner, and cleanly in their homes than the Otaheiteans. They had places of retirement, and dung hills to which were carried all offal, remains of fish and the like. They bartered their cloth and war-weapons for European cloth, but nails they set no value on,, having as yet evidently no knowledge of iron and its uses. What astonished the English greatly was to find boys whipping tops exactly like those of Europe. They visited a hippah on a hill in this bay and there learned the use of the enclosures of pallisadoes, namely, for defence from their enemies, in case of invasion. They also found some houses larger and more strongly built than those on the shore. The men had their faces wonderfully tattooed, and their cheeks cut in spiral lines of great regularity: and many of them had their garments bordered with strips of dog and rat skins, which animals, however, they learnt were very scarce. They measured one canoe, made out of the boles of three trees, which was sixty-eight feet and a half long, five wide, and three high. These, as well as their houses, were much adorned with carvings, in which they seemed to prefer spiral lines and distorted faces: but the work was so well done, that they believed they must have much sharper tools than any that they saw.

Dr. Solander and Mr. Banks found various plants and trees unknown to them. The country abounded with excellent celery: the ridges of the hills produced little except fern, but the sides were clothed with luxuriant woods, in which they found above twenty sorts quite new to them. The tree they cut for firing was something like our maple, and yielded a whitish gum: another was of a deep yellow, which they thought would prove a dye wood. There were numbers of cabbage palms; and the forest abounded with birds of great variety, both in

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note and plumage, many very beautiful and very musical. In their walks they came upon a tall cliff, through which was a large opening giving a view of the sea.

In the same manner that they had sailed hither, Cook and his ship's company continued along the south-east coast as far as Mercury Bay, and thence to the Bay of Islands. Everywhere they saw villages along the coast, and everywhere the inhabitants came off in their canoes and uttered defiance to the ship. The New Zealanders displayed the same character that they have done on all occasions, and are doing at this moment in the Maori War, defying any amount of forces, without the least calculation of the relative strength betwixt the two parties--courage without bounds and without reflection. Half a dozen naked men in a crazy canoe would defy a large ship with all its cannon and musketry, even after they had seen their destructive effects. Sometimes they assumed a more friendly aspect, and began to trade; but as soon as they had obtained what they wanted, they refused to give up the equivalent, and laughed at all menace of consequences, till they suffered wounds or death as a punishment, and then the survivors paddled off for the time.

In latitude 37° 59', longitude 193° 7, they saw the island Mowtuhora, and on the main land near it, at no great distance from the sea, a high, round mountain, which they named Mount Edgecombe. Soon after they passed a group of islands, which they called the Mayor and Court of Aldermen, when the people sung their song of defiance at the passing vessel. In one place they went ashore, found several new plants, and shot some birds with black plumage and red legs, and saw a battle with lances between two natives, which soon degenerated into a boxing-match. In another place they saw a woman sitting and weeping, and cutting herself on the arms, face, and breast, in lamentation for the death of her husband, who had been killed in an attempt at stealing from the ship. The shores were lined with mangrove trees, and they named a river Mangrove River, and another Oyster River, from the quantity of fine oys-

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ters. In another place, after leaving Mercury Bay, they measured a pine-tree, no doubt the famous kauri pine, which was eighty-nine feet to the first branch, as straight as an arrow, and nineteen feet in the girth at six feet above the ground; having, as they calculated, 360 feet of solid timber in it, exclusive of the branches.

Thus, occasionally landing, and occasionally fighting, they advanced to a large bay, lying betwixt latitudes 34° and 35°, which they named the Bay of Islands. Having along the coast to that place, named a river the River Thames; the north-west point on the river, Point Rodney, and the north-east promontory, Cape Colville: six leagues from Cape Colville, a group of islands, Barrier Islands. After this came Bream Bay, Bream Head, the Hen and Chicken Isles, and finally Cape Brett, being the point on the south at the entrance of the bay, and the north point of it, Cape Pococke. This bay abounded with islands, and the people showed themselves audaciously hostile; the same people, in fact, who, in 1772, massacred Captain Marion du Fresne, and some of his crew. Mr. Banks and Hr. Solander were attacked by them whilst on shore botanizing, and they were obliged to fire on them. They describe the scenery as very beautiful, the land very populous; the people very much addicted to fishing, having enormous nets, and keeping them in heaps, like hay-cocks covered with a thatch, to protect them from the weather. They saw the paper mulberry growing there. The coast abounded with towns and plantations.

From the Bay of Islands, Cook followed the coast to the very northernmost point, or Cape Maria Van Diemen of Tasman, observing and naming on the way, Doubtless Bay, Knuckle Point, Sandy Bay, Mount Carmel, and North Cape. It was now December, 1769, and after sailing to within view of the Three Kang's Islands, Cook put about and proceeded down the north-west coast of New Zealand to Queen Charlotte's Sound. He must long before this have been certain that it was New Zealand off which he was, though he nowhere says so, till

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he remarks, "This must be the Cape Maria Van Diemen of Tasman." On the northern coast of the island Cook seems to have bestowed little attention, naming only Woody Head, in latitude 37° 43', Gamut Island and Albatross Point, in latitude 38° 4' S., till he struck the far-projecting promontory which he named Cape Egmont, with its lofty mountain, Mount Egmont.

On the west side of the bay lying under Cape Egmont, as Cook at that moment supposed it, but which was the strait betwixt the two main islands, Cook now took up his station, in a snug cove, and put down a flag-staff, on which he hoisted the Union Jack, and had inscribed on the staff the name of his ship, and the date of its arrival. This flag-staff was erected near the watering-place, and another was erected on the island lying nearest to the sea, and he named the inlet Queen Charlotte's Sound. Here he staid from January 14th, 1770, till February 5th, when he sailed out to ascertain whether this was a bay or a strait. Here Cook and his company learned more of the character and habits of the natives than had yet been possible to them. They found themselves only fifteen miles south of Tasman's Murderers' Bay, yet no one remembered having seen a ship before, or even heard of such a thing; the tradition of Tasman's visit 126 years before having evidently died out. At first the natives appeared inclined to be hostile, but the effect of firearms made them think better of it. On going on shore the gentlemen very soon saw indubitable evidences of cannibalism. The people did not attempt to conceal or deny the fact, but asserted that they only eat their enemies, which subsequent information has in the main confirmed.

The bay where they were Captain Cook described as of vast extent, and consisting of numberless small harbours and coves in every direction. The water about four leagues to the other side. The country on both sides was thickly wooded, and so full of bush, that the forest was impenetrable: it was also extremely mountainous, the mountains ascending higher and higher into

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the interior. Even near the shore they could find no piece of ground level enough for a potato garden. But the sea abounded with fish, which they caught daily in abundance. The natives had circular nets, held open at the top by hoops; these they baited with sea-ears at the bottom, and after leaving the net in the water some time, they lifted it out with plenty of fish, much after the German fashion. Cook describes the birds as singing early every morning on shore in vast numbers, and with so delightful a melody, that he said he had never heard anything like it. It was like a multitude of small bells most exquisitely tuned. They always began to sing about two hours after midnight, and continued till sunrise, when they became silent for the day.

The people became very friendly, and began to ascertain the value of nails; and the gentlemen purchased, amongst other things, some human bones and human heads, finely tattooed, and preserved by drawing the brains out, as proofs of cannibalism, which many in England were disposed to deny the existence of. They daily collected much wild celery, as an anti-scorbutic. In one place they were astonished to see a wooden cross erected, and adorned with feathers, as a monument of some one deceased. The women also wore tufts of black feathers on their heads. They found that, like the Australians, these people were continually at war with other tribes, and they saw numbers of women sitting on the ground and lamenting, and cutting themselves for their husbands, sons, and brothers, who had been killed and eaten.

Captain Cook ascended a hill, and saw enough to persuade him that they were in the mouth of a strait running between Eaheinomauwe and this part of the country called Tavai-Poenammoo. The rest of the gentlemen did not agree with him, but on the 5th of February he sailed out, after making some inquiries of an old man as to a passage into the eastern seas, which he confirmed. The harbour in which they had lain, he called Ship Cove. They found the tide in this passage rising between seven and eight feet perpendicularly. The narrowest part of the

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CAPES AND BAYS NAMED BY COOK.

strait lying between Cape Tierawitte and Cape Koamaroo, he judged to be between four and five leagues wide, and the ebb of the tide carried them through with dangerous rapidity; this fact being before unknown to them, as were the various islands, rocks and reefs, which they had to pass. The southernmost land which they had in sight was a mountain, stupendously lofty, and covered with snow. This proved to be the south-western boundary of the entrance to the strait, and was named by Cook, Cape Campbell; whilst the north-western point he named Cape Palliser; the distance between them being calculated by him to be between thirteen and fourteen leagues. A bay which they passed before reaching Cape Campbell, he named Cloudy Bay.

On reaching the South Sea Cook put about and sailed north-east by east to make sure that, after all, they had passed the strait; for some of the officers contended that it might be only a vast bay, and the land stretch away south-east from between Cape Palliser and Cape Turn-again. He therefore sailed till he sighted Cape Turnagain, when he called the officers and asked them what they thought then. They confessed that Eaheinomauwe was an island, for they had gone completely round it. They now put about again, and went westward, and in the same manner sailed round the two other islands, supposing them to be one. Banks's Peninsula Cook took for an island, seeing, he says, an opening near the south point, which however was merely a bay, and he named it Banks's Island after Mr. Banks. He next named Cape Sanders, and finally rounded the western point of the south island, calling it South Cape. Here again he did not discover the strait between the South and Middle Island, though he named the island north-west of the Cape, Solander's Island, and was near enough to see what he thought a large bay between it and South Cape, which, in reality, was Foveaux Strait. At the south-west point of Middle Island, or Tavi-Poenammoo, he discovered Dusky Bay, Five Fingers' Point, Cape West, and sailed by Rock's Point, to a Bay near Queen Charlotte's Sound, which he

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named Admiralty Bay, giving the name of Cape Stephens; to the north-west point, and of Cape Jackson to the south-west point.

He had now sailed round the whole of New Zealand, determining its size and general figure, its character and appearance, yet not so minutely as to leave nothing for future explorers. The land everywhere rose at some little distance from the shore into mountains; which appeared totally barren, and they saw no signs of inhabitants. When they had rounded the west end of the islands, the land rose almost perpendicularly from the sea to a stupendous height, the summits of the mountains being covered with snow. About Cape West, on the 17th of March, the valleys as well as the hills were covered with snow. Near the sea were woody hills and valleys, having much appearance of fertility, but further inland a more craggy, rude and desolate coast could not be conceived; for as far inland as the eye could reach there appeared nothing but the summits of rocks, standing so close together, that instead of valleys, there appeared only fissures. On the 31st of March, 1770, Cook sailed from New Zealand in search of Australia, and named the point of land which he last saw, Cape Farewell.

Cook's general opinion of New Zealand was that it was in fact one long chain of mountains, with fertile valleys near the shores, and dense, and in many places, impenetrable woods. The inhabitants he regarded as robust, active, and clever; extremely warlike, but if you once became friendly with them, inclined to be very friendly. Determined cannibals as they were, they had, however, advanced in the arts beyond many other aborigines. Their canoes were often large, well-constructed, and ornamented with open-work carving of considerable excellence. Their war vessels had a high frame-work at the stem of open work, and from it streamed long cords of feathers. Their houses had also much good carving, especially on chests and implements of war, the handles of feather fans and the like. The bodies of both men and women were tattooed, and the faces of chiefs wonderfully scored with

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these markings. They made and wore much cloth from the Phormium tenax, and the Morus papyrifera, both fine and very coarse and shaggy. Of their particular manners, and of the productions of the country, his voyages to these islands furnish ample details, as well as specimens of their language.

Dr. Thomson, in his "Story of New Zealand," says, "Taranga, an inlet on the east coast of the North Island, in the province of Auckland, is still celebrated as the spot were Cook first landed....

"Without measuring the past by the present standard, the savage New Zealanders on several occasions acted as civilized men, and the Christians like savages. For example, Captain Cook left the country without having had one of his men killed or wounded by the natives, while they had to mourn the loss of ten men killed, and many others wounded by the English during this visit.

"Cook's mode of action, and the New Zealanders' style of reasoning are strikingly developed in the following melancholy event. The English part of the story is found in Dr. Hawksworth's 'Narrative of Cook's Voyages;' the native part was furnished by Te Taniwha, a contemporary of Cook, who died in 1853. Lieutenant Gore fired from the ship's deck at a New Zealander in a canoe, who had defrauded him of a piece of calico. In the excitement of paddling to escape, the injury done by the musket was not noticed by the natives in the canoe, although detected by Lieutenant Gore from the ship's deck, as Maru-tu-ahua, the man shot, scarcely altered his position. When the canoe reached the shore the natives found their comrade sitting dead on the stolen calico, which was stained with his life's blood, the ball having entered his back. Several chiefs investigated into the affair, and declared that Maru-tu-ahua deserved his fate; that he stole, and was killed for so doing; and that his life-blood should not he revenged on the strangers. Seeing, however, Maru-tu-ahua had paid for the calico with his life, it was not taken away from him, but was wrapped round his body as a winding-sheet. Sin-

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gular to relate, Captain Cook landed soon after the murder, and traded as if nothing had occurred. Would Cook's ship's crew have acted thus if one of them had been slain?"--Vol. i. p. 231.

This account is somewhat unfair to Cook, as the above narrative shows. That the natives killed none of his men on this visit was more owing to the superiority of his arms, than good will towards him. They attacked him on the first landing, and compelled him by their very intense love of thieving, and by actually attempting to kidnap Tupia's boy, to fire on them. They treated Tasman worse. They massacred a number of his men when he was most kindly disposed towards them.

On the 19th of April sighted the south coast of Australia in latitude 38°, and longitude 148° 50', at a point of land which he named. Point Hicks, after the first lieutenant who discovered it. Four leagues more eastward he named another point Ram Head; both of these are well-known localities on the coast of the present Gippsland, in the colony of Victoria. Thence he ran eastward to a point where the coast tended north, and named this Cape Howe. He thought on this, his first view of the great Australian land, "that it had a very pleasing appearance. It is of a moderate height, diversified by hills and valleys, ridges, and plains, interspersed with a few lawns of no great extent, but in general covered with wood. The ascent of the hills and ridges is gentle, and the summits are not high." They saw smoke in several places, and so knew that the country was inhabited.

Cook was the first to give us a chart of the eastern coast of Australia, from Hicks's Point to Torres Straits. It has required considerable correction and completion, the respective latitudes and longitudes more exactly determining, and the whole line of coast more minutely examining, but as a whole it was a great work, and a fine basis for the succeeding labours of Flinders and other navigators and hydrographers.

Between Cape Howe and Sydney Cove he examined

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and named Mount and Cape Dromedary, Bateman Bay, Point Upright, Pigeon House, Cape St. George, Long Nose, Bed Point, and Botany Bay. He made and noted many soundings, and gave the latitude and longitude, the latitude being generally more correct than the longitude. The distances were all laid down in his chart in leagues, and the variation of the needle recorded.

The first place at which they got an opportunity of landing was at Botany Bay, so called from the variety of new plants and trees that Messrs. Banks and Solander found there. It was in April, an autumnal month of the Australian year; the botanists must have been enchanted at the profusion of flowers, and flowering shrubs, and trees, had it been September. The Banksias, named after Sir Joseph, with their golden bottle bushes and of numerous species, must have struck them with surprise, and they would have found the whole of the sandy heaths around carpeted with bloom, and the shrubs resplendent with blossoms, befitting the most select conservatory. They saw at a distance many trees, which they took for palms, and particularly cabbage palms. Several natives made their appearance, and brandished their weapons in defiance, these weapons being spears and a crooked something like a cimeter--the boomerang. The men were painted with streaks of white, and had their faces dusted with a white powder. These natives came boldly and threw their lances at them by means of their womeras, or throwing sticks, and refused all acquaintance. Notwithstanding, Captain Cook landed with Messrs. Banks, and Solander, and Tupia, but were again attacked by the natives, who were only taught to keep their distance by a discharge or two of small shot; as to all invitations to intercourse, they stoutly rejected them. On one occasion, a midshipman came suddenly in the woods on an old man and woman and some little children, and offered them a parrot that he had shot, but they refused it. Others they saw on the shore striking fish with the spear.

Unlike the Australian natives in general, these had

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huts made by bending long poles down at each end into the ground, thus forming a globular abode open at one side for entrance. These were thatched with evergreen leaves, but were so small that only two or three people could lie down in them with their legs close drawn up. At these huts they more than once left presents, but they found them there on the next visit unregarded. They saw the footmarks of what afterwards proved to be the kangaroo, the wild dog, and the wild cat. They found trees cut down by some blunt instrument, and others barked. Of this bark, they found a canoe made by tying up the two ends, and smearing the joints with gum. The middle of the boat was propped open by a stick, and they pronounced it the most wretched thing in the shape of a boat that they had ever seen amongst any aborigines.

The country round was level, low, and sandy, abounding with woods, the trees of which appeared of two kinds, a eucalyptus and a pine, with several kinds of palm. Beneath the trees, there was no brush-wood, but frequently fine turf, and in others tall and huge tufts of grass. They found a fruit something like a cherry, but not possessing much flavour. Farther inland, they discovered open country interspersed with marshes, in some directions shewing fine meadows, in others wild extents of dry moorland. The head of the bay was lined with mangroves, and the birds were very numerous, and of exquisite beauty, especially those of the parrot kind. One they describe, black and white, much larger than a swan, and in shape resembling a pelican. Quails were in thousands. Fish of various kinds was abundant. The natives were quite naked. Such was the first acquaintance of Cook and Banks with Australia.

In proceeding northwards, Cook passed the heads of Port Jackson without entering to explore the interior. Thereby he lost the honour of opening up that splendid bay. He says only that he came abreast of a bay, or harbour, in which there appeared to be good anchorage, and which he name a Port Jackson. Proceeding onwards, he named Broken Bay, Cape Three Points, Point and

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Port Stephens, Cape Hawke, the Three Brothers, and Smoky Cape, with no remarks of particular interest. Arriving in latitude 30° 22', he says that the land gradually increased in height; that between that latitude and Botany Bay the land exhibited pleasing features, hills, vallies, plains, all clothed with wood. The shores low and sandy; more backward, rocky hills, looking like islands. In that latitude, they had also small rocky islands. They saw smoke in many places, and occasionally natives. At Cape Byron, they found themselves earned insensibly hack by a current, and Mount Warning and Point Danger they named on account of shoals and breakers. They next came to Point Look-out, so named also from breakers ahead, and on approaching it saw a wide open bay, which they named Moreton's Bay, in the bottom of which the land was so low that Cook could but just see it from the top-mast; the north point of the bay he named Cape Moreton. The wind did not permit him to enter the bay. He next named Glasshouse Bay, and the Glasshouses, hills shaped like glasshouses, Double Island Point, Indian Head, Wide Bay, and Sandy Cape. The islands here, including Great Sandy Island, Cook, in sailing past, took for points of land. Sandy Cape he placed in latitude 24° 45', and says it is high enough to be seen at the distance of twelve leagues in clear weather.

Here they found the land rapidly trending westward. A great shoal ran far out from Sandy Cape, which they named Break Sea Spit. Cook crossed the shoal at eight leagues from Sandy Cape. Passing a large bay, which they named Hervey's Bay, they came to anchor in another bay, in latitude 24° 19', which they named Bustard Bay, from killing a fine bustard there, commonly known in Australia as the wild turkey. Hear the sea the land was low, but showing lofty hills further inland covered with woods. Captain Cook landed with Messrs. Banks and Solander, the other gentlemen, and Tupia. They soon found themselves amongst bogs and salt-water lagoons, where grew the true mangroves, the first Cook

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had seen since he was in the West Indies. On the branches of these mangroves, there were numbers of the nests of the same green ants that Leichhardt afterwards noticed, which, if you stirred the trees, dropped down in legions, and stung you unmercifully. Also on the mangrove leaves, were small green caterpillars, ranged close side by side, and the hairs of which stung like nettles. They observed new kinds of eucalyptus, one with leaves which drooped like those of weeping willows, and different acacias yielding gum. They saw the same birds larger than swans, which they had seen at Botany Bay, probably native companions. Natives were seen about who avoided them, and they came upon a native camp, where they saw several rude vessels of bark, and pieces of bark lying on the ground, the length of a man, which they imagined that they slept on; on the wind side of the fires, a small screen of green houghs, about a foot and a half high, and that was all their dwelling-place. Even Tupia shook his head with an air of superiority, and said, "Poor wretches!"

They now followed the shore without much adventure, past various bays and capes, all rapidly trending westward, and along shores studded with islands. These they named Cape Capricorn, Keppel Bay, Keppel's Islands, Cape Manifold, and Cape Townshend. On rounding Cape Townshend, they came into a vast bay abounding with islands, which they named Northumberland Isles. The bay they called the Bay of Inlets, and another extensive group of islands on its northern extremity the Cumberland Islands. Into the depth of this bay they steered, and lay to in an inlet betwixt islands, which they called Thirsty Sound, because they could find no fresh water. The northern point of this bay they named Cape Palmerston.

Penetrating into the land here, they found deep swamps and farther off hills; but they also made acquaintance with various Australian things. They found their clothes penetrated by the sharp grass seeds so familiar to Australians; they found on the branches of gum trees

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ants' nests of clay, as large as bushels, the abode of white ants, very different to the white ants of the Indies; for these were sluggish and not much more active than maggots. Besides these were myriads of small black ants, which eat into the centre of young trees, and devouring the pith, ascend into their topmost twigs, leaving all hollow. There were also myriads of butterflies, and a species of fish hopping about on land. It was about the size of a minnow, having two strong breast fins with which it leapt along. They put some of them into the water, but there they preferred to hop from projecting stone to stone, to immersing themselves in the water. They also found the needle of the compass performing variations very strange, even differing from itself as they went from place to place. They picked up different stones to observe whether they affected the needle, but they did not, and they concluded that the influence was collectively in the hills.

From this place to Trinity Bay, they named Cape Hillsborough, Repulse Bay, Cape Conway, Whitsunday Passage, Cape Gloucester, Edgcombe Bay and Holborn Isle, Mount Upstart, Cape and Bay of Cleveland, Halifax Bay, with the Palm and Magnetical Islands at its mouth, Point Hillock and Cape Sandwich, Rockingham Bay, Double Point and Cape Grafton, with various islands. "Hitherto," says Cook, "we had navigated this dangerous coast, where the sea in all parts contains shoals, that suddenly project from the shore, and rocks that rise abruptly like pyramids from the bottom, for an extent of two-and-twenty degrees of latitude, more than a thousand three hundred miles, and therefore hitherto none of the names given by us are memorials of distress; but here we became acquainted with misfortune, and though we named the bay discovered on Trinity Sunday Trinity Bay, we called the northern point of it Cape Tribulation."

Here, indeed, they ran the ship on a coral reef, and she did not float off till ten o'clock on Monday night. Her bottom was so much damaged that they must have speedily sunk, in spite of all that the pumps could do,

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had they not managed to haul under the ship a studding sail charged with oakum, wool, and other things, which did wonders, and enabled them to reach a river, which they thence named the Endeavour River, a few leagues to the north, where they ran her high enough to lay her on her side, having first taken down her fore-yard, foretop-masts, and booms. They then got out her stores, and made an enclosure for their preservation from the weather; then got out her coals and ballast, erected their tents on shore, and the carpenters went to work on her. All were amazed when they saw the hole that had been cut into her, and that they had only been saved by a mass of the rock having given way, and remained stuck fast in the opening.

From this time, June 21st to July 5th, was required lor the repair of the ship; and what with getting her reloaded and then by reason of contrary winds, it was not till the 4th of August that they were able to resume their voyage--a delay of upwards of six weeks. They were lying all this time in the latitude of Quiros's land of Experito Santo, which he fancied was part of Australia, but which, the New Hebrides, lay more than a thousand miles eastward of them.

During this long sojourn here, the gentlemen of the ship made many excursions into the country, and became possessed of several new experiences. The country around was a pleasant one of hills, valleys, and woods. They obtained from the sea abundance of fish, and from the shore admirable green turtle. In the country they gathered a kind of wild spinage, which was excellent when boiled. They saw three kinds of palm-trees, gathered the cabbages of the cabbage-palm, of two kinds and also the fruit of one that was poisonous. This last they found only in the northern parts. It was seldom more than ten feet high, with small pinnated leaves resembling some kind of fern. It bore no cabbage, but a plentiful crop of nuts, about the size of a large chesnut, but rounder. As they found the shells of these nuts around the fire-places of the natives, they took it for

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granted that they eat them; but those who partook of them amongst their company found them violently emetic and cathartic; and pigs to which they were given, though not immediately affected, were so in about a week, and two of them died. They supposed the natives had some means of getting rid of the poison, as is done by the cassava of the West Indies by washing and drying. They found the fruit of a wild plantain, but too full of stones to he very eatable; and also a fruit of the size of a golden pippin, of a deep purple colour, hard when gathered, but becoming in a few days soft, and in taste like an indifferent damson. They saw straw-coloured wild dogs, and at last shot some of the tall, jumping animals which they found the natives called kangaroos. The flesh proved delicious. Mr. Banks endeavoured to catch them with his greyhounds, but these were quickly left behind. They saw bats as large as partridges; killed an opossum; and the botanists discovered some new plants, amongst them the Hibiscus tiliaceus. Amongst the birds were cockatoos, black ones and white ones, numbers of crows, parrots, whistling ducks that sate on trees, curlews, and wild geese. They also made a more familiar acquaintance with the natives, who went quite nude, and did not knock out any of their front teeth, and still despised their presents of nails, beads, and clothes. On offending them they also were taught a characteristic practice of the natives, for they seized firebrands and set fire to the grass, to the windward of their ship and stores, by which they were in danger of having all destroyed. Having failed to burn the ship stores and tackle, they set the woods on fire all round, and were only driven off by firing at them.

From Endeavour River Cooks voyage to Torres Straits was made in a crazy vessel, for, after all its repairs, the ship was found leaky, and the pumps were rotten. Once out of the entangling shoals and reefs, they proceeded cautiously, noting the direction of the coast, the islands, and the soundings. It is not, therefore, necessary, to do more than name the bays, capes,

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and islands to which they gave appellations. Passing Cape Flattery, they steered amongst some islands, which Cook named the Islands of Direction, the largest of which they called Lizard Island. On another they found one of those enormous nests on the ground mentioned by Dampier and Flinders, though no one ever saw the birds which built them. This was six-and-twenty feet in circumference, and two feet eight inches high, built with sticks. Amongst subsequent speculations regarding these enormous nests, it was suggested by Professor Hitchcock whether they might not belong to the Dinornis, or Moa, the bones of which have been found both in Victoria and in New Zealand, but Mr. Ronald Gunn, the able naturalist of Tasmania, has ascribed them to the Australian sea eagle, Ichthyoetus leucogaster.

Once clear of Lizard Island, Cook managed to get across an enormous coral reef, which runs at some little distance from the coast for several hundred miles, but the heavy seas from the east made him, in his crazy ship, glad to get once more inside of it. He effected this recrossing at an opening in the reef, which he named Providential Channel, about twenty leagues south of Cape Weymouth. This part of the voyage was performed at such a distance that Cook could make no accurate survey of the coast, and had merely traced there a dotted line. He had now constantly to steer his way amongst isles and shoals. Amongst these the chief were Forbes's, Hardy's, and Cockburn's Isles, lying at various distances off the coast opposite to Bolt Head, Temple Bay, and Cape Grenville, as named by him. Off Cape Grenville he named the islands the Bird Islands. Going onward he named Shelburne Bay, Orford Ness, and Newcastle Bay, and now in latitude 10° 47', as calculated by him; he reached the northernmost point of Australia, and named it Cape York. This is a fact of such great importance in the history of Australian discovery, that I shall give it in Cook's own words:--

"We saw that the northernmost land, which we had

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COOK'S DESCRIPTION.

taken for the main, was detached from it, and that we might pass between them by running to leeward of the shoals on our larboard bow. * * * We had a strong flood, which carried us on east very fast. * * * The point of the main, which forms the side of the channel through which we passed, opposite to the island, is the northern promontory of the country, and I called it York Cape. Its longitude is 218° 24' west; the latitude of the north point is 10° 37', and of the east point 10° 41', south. The land over the east point, and to the southward of it, is rather low, and as far as the eye can reach, very flat, and of a barren appearance. To the southward of the cape the shore forms a large open bay, which I call Newcastle Bay, and in which are some low islands and shoals; the land adjacent is also very low, flat, and sandy. The land of the northern part of the cape is more hilly, the vallies seem to be well clothed with wood, and the shore forms some small bays, in which there appeared to be good anchorage. Close to the eastern point of the cape are three small islands, from one of which a small ledge of rocks runs out into the sea; there is also an island close to the northern point. The island that forms the strait or channel through which we had passed, lies about four miles without these, which, except two, are very small; the southernmost is the largest, and much higher than any part of the main land. On the north-west side of this island there appeared to be good anchorage, and on shore valleys, that promised both wood and water. These islands are distinguished in the chart by the name of York Isles. To the southward and south-east, and even to the eastward and northward of them, there are several other low islands, rocks, and shoals; our depth of water in sailing between them and the main was twelve, thirteen, and fourteen fathoms."

After proceeding about four miles, they found it necessary to leave the channel by the main land, and take one between the islands, the next channel to the northwards. At five o'clock they anchored at about two miles within

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the channel, off the island which lies to the south-east point of the channel. On this island Cook landed with Banks and Solander, and a party of men. They saw ten natives on a hill, nine armed with lances, and the tenth with a bow and arrows, the last being weapons which they had never seen in the hands of Australian natives before. Like the natives of the north-west, mentioned by Tasman, they had no doubt borrowed them from the natives of New Guinea.

"We climbed," says Cook, "the highest hill, which was not more than three times as high as the mast head, and the most barren of any we had seen. From this hill no land could he seen between the south-west and the west-south-west, so that I had no doubt of finding a channel through. The land to the north-west of it consisted of a great number of islands of various extent, and different heights, ranged one behind another, as far to the northward and westward as I could see, which could not be less than thirteen leagues. As I now was about to quit the eastern coast of New Holland, which I had coasted from latitude 38° to this place, and which I am confident no European had ever been before, I once more hoisted English colours, and though I had already taken possession of several particular parts, I now took possession of the whole eastern coast, from latitude 38° to this place, latitude 10 1/2° S., in right of His Majesty King George III., by the name of New South Wales, with all the bays, rivers, and islands situated upon it. We then fired three vollies of small arms, which were answered by the same number from the ship. Having performed this ceremony upon the island, which we called Possession Island, we re-embarked in our boat, but a rapid ebb setting N. E., made our return to the vessel very difficult."-Cook's First Voyage round the World' by Hawksworth, vol. iii. p. 616.

There are two things in this statement worthy of remark. The number of islands crowding Torres Straits, one behind another, sufficiently explains how the captain of Tasman's yacht, the Limmen, came to suppose these to be continuous land, and that there was no passage.

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But still more important is the assertion of Cook, that he is confident that no European had ever been on this eastern coast before. We have seen that in an old map in the British Museum, which was presented to the museum by Sir Joseph Banks, and supposed to be of the date of Francis I., of France; there was a general, though very inaccurate tracing of this coast, and various names having a similarity to those imposed by Cook. On this plea Dalrymple, the well-known hydrographist to the Admiralty, and author of various voyages and travels, charged Cook with being acquainted with this map before his own voyage. The assertion of Cook, that he confidently believed that no person had ever before him been on this coast, will, with every candid mind, be a sufficient assurance, that whoever had ever been on this coast before, Cook neither knew of that fact, nor of the existence of this map. Proceeding westward, Cook sailed along the channel, thence named Endeavour Straits, between the main land on the left, and the islands which he named the Prince of Wales's Islands, the most southwesterly point of which he named Cape Cornwall. Some low islands off the north-western point of Cape York, he named Wallis's Islands. On one of the smallest of these, which he called Booby Island, because it was a great haunt of those birds, he and Mr. Banks landed, and from the open sea westward now felt assured that they had passed the straits on the northernmost point of Australia. The length of these-Endeavour Straits he calculated at ten leagues, and their breadth five leagues, except at the north-east entrance where, contracted by the islands, it is only about two miles.

From this point Cook abandoned further exploration of the coast of Australia. He held north-eastward along the shores of New Guinea, intending to make his way to Batavia, and thence home by the Cape of Good Hope. At about sixty-five leagues north-east of Cape Walsh, where, like all other navigators, they found the natives prepared to repel them, they were at first inclined to believe that they had fire-arms, as they saw them make

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sudden flashes of light in their ranks; but they discovered that these lights were flung from short pieces of cane. With Cook s exit from the Australian shores, however, ceases our present concern with him. He had done a magnificent work in his careful delineation of the great eastern coast, with all its capes, bays, islands, shoals, reefs, currents, winds, and depths of water, which are left recorded in his narrative, or marked on his chart. These have since been tested, and many of them corrected by a closer and more leisurely examination than Cook could give, by Captain Flinders; but our great circumnavigator had done a great work, and made the path of future navigators in that track comparatively easy. He had for the first time made the passage of Torres Straits, knowing that he was doing so. Torres, and perhaps others before him, made that passage, unaware of what they had accomplished. Cook knew what he had done, that he had put the separation between New Guinea and Australia beyond question, and so clearly recorded the fact, that the knowledge of it could not be lost again. Before quitting the shores of his New South Wales, he made a summary of his observations on the country. Most of these we have anticipated, but there are a few of his remarks that yet require to be added.

"To the southward of 33° and 34°, the land in general is low and level; farther northward it is hilly, but in no part can be called mountainous; and the hills and mountains taken together, make but a small part of the surface, in comparison with the valleys and plains. It is upon the whole rather barren than fertile, yet the rising ground is chequered by woods and lawns, and the plains and valleys are in many places covered with herbage; the soil, however, is frequently sandy, and many of the lawns or savannahs are rocky and barren, especially to the northward, where in the best spots, vegetation was less vigorous than in the southern part of the country; the trees were not so tall, nor was the herbage so rich. The grass in general is high, but thin, and the trees, where they are largest, are seldom less than forty feet

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asunder; nor is the country inland, as far as we could examine it, better clothed than the sea coast. * * * The soil in some parts seemed to be capable of improvement, but the far greater part is such as can admit of no cultivation. The coast, at least that part which lies to the northward of 25° S., abounds with fine bays and harbours, where vessels may lie in perfect security from all winds."

He adds, that the country appeared well watered, for though it was the dry season, he found innumerable small brooks and springs, but no great rivers, and he naturally supposed that these brooks became large in the rainy season.

Most of these observations are strikingly just; such of them as are not, subsequent and fuller knowledge of the country has corrected. He noticed several kinds of serpents, some noxious, some harmless; scorpions, centipedes, and lizards. The sea round the country he found far more liberal of food than the country; but he did not, and, indeed, in his hasty, coast view, could not perceive how prolific of all the elements of life it would become under the hand of civilized man. He saw but a very scanty sprinkling of population anywhere, and inferred that the same would prove the case in the interior. Whilst the canoes of the natives in the south were the miserable vehicles of bark already described, in the north he found them made of hollowed trunks of trees, about fourteen feet long, and fitted with an out-rigger, to prevent them upsetting. Cook and his friends were greatly puzzled to imagine how, with a wretched stone adze, a wooden mallet, and some shells and fragments of coral, they could fashion these boats. He inferred, from the almost total absence of the mechanic art on the coast, that there could be little civilization in the island, and time has shown that his inferences were sound.