1958 - Banks, Joseph. Sir Joseph Banks in New Zealand: from his Journal - Account of New Zealand, p 120-156

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Account of New Zealand

AS we intend to leave this Place to morrow Morn, I shall spend a few Sheets in drawing together what I have observed of this Countrey & its Inhabitants, premising in the mean time that in this; & all others of the same kind which may occur in this Journal, I shall give myself liberty of conjecturing & drawing conclusions from what I have observed, in which I may doubtless often be mistaken; In the daily Journal however the observations may be seen & any one who refers to that, may draw his own conclusions from them, attending as little as he pleases to any of mine.

This Countrey was first discovered by Abel Jansen Tasman on the 13th of December 1642 & called by him New Zealand, 1 he however never went ashore upon it, probably for fear of the natives who when he had come to an anchor, set upon one of his Boats & killed 3 or 4 out of 7 People that were in her.

Tasman certainly was an able Navigator; he sail'd into the mouth of Cooks Streights, & finding himself surrounded in all appearance by Land, observed the Tide of flood to come from the SE; from thence he conjectured, that there was in that place a passage thro' the Land, which conjecture we prov'd to be true, & he himself had certainly done, had not the Wind chang'd as he thought in his favor, giving him an opportunity of returning the way he came in which he preferr'd 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 NE, from whence he concluded it to be the northernmost part of the Land, which

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we really found it to be: Lastly to his eternal credit be it spoken; tho he had been 4 months absent from Batavia when he made this Land, & had sail'd both Westward & Eastward his Longitude, (allowing for an Error in that of Batavia as he himself had stated it) differs no more than [] 2 from ours, which is corrected by an innumerable number of Observations of the Moon & Sun &c, as well as a transit of Mercury over the Sun; all calculated & 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 much to be wished however that we had a better account of his Voyage, than that publishd by Dirk Rembranse; 3 which seems to be no more than a short extract; & that other Navigators would imitate him, in mentioning the Latitudes & Longitudes in which they account the Places from whence they take their departure to he situated; which precaution, useful as it is, may almost be said to have been used by Tasman alone.

The face of the Countrey is in general Mountaneous, 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, & certainly very high; some of our Officers, Men of experience, did not scruple to say as much so as The Peak of Teneriff; in that particular however I cannot quite agree with them, tho' that they must be very high, is sufficiently proved by the hill to the Northward of the mouth of Cooks Streights, which was seen, & made no inconsiderable figure, at the distance of 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; & Queen Charlottes Sound or Totara nue, are as good as any Seaman need desire to come into, either for good anchorage, or convenience of Wooding & Watering. The outer ridge of Land, which lies open to the Sea, is (as I believe is the case in most Countries) generally barren, especially to the

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Southward, but within that the hills are covered with thick Woods quite to the Tops, & every valley produces a rivulet of Water.

The Soil is in general light, & consequently admirably adapted to the uses for which the natives cultivate it, whose crops consist intirely of Roots. On the Southern & Western sides it is the most barren, the Sea being there generally bounded with either steep hills, or vast tracts of Sand, which probably is the reason why the People in these parts were so much less numerous, & liv'd almost intirely upon fish: The Northern & Eastern Sides make however some amends for the barreness of the others; on them we very often saw large tracts of Ground which either actually were, or very lately had been cultivated; & an immense quantity of wood land which was yet uncleared, but promised great returns to the People who would take the trouble of clearing it; Of the latter especially in Taoneroa or Poverty Bay, & Tolaga, 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, & more particularly of the Timber Trees, which were the straitest, cleanest, & 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 them, but it was not one, but all these Trees which were enormous, & doubtless had we had time & opportunity to search we might have found much larger ones than any we saw, as we were never but once ashore among them, & that but for a short time on the banks of the River Thames; where we rowed for many miles between Woods of these Trees, to which we could see no bounds. The River Thames is indeed in every respect the properest Place we have yet seen for establishing a Colony; A Ship as large as ours might be carried several miles up the River, where she would be moored to the Trees as safe as along side a wharf in London River, a safe & sure retreat in case of an attack from the Natives, as she might even be laid on the mud & a bridge built to her; The Noble Timber, of which there is such abundance, would furnish plenty of materials; either for the building defences, houses, or Vessels; The River would furnish plenty of Fish, & the Soil make ample returns of any European Vegetables sown in it. I have some reason to think from Observations made upon the Vegetables &c, that the Winters here are extremely mild, much more so than in England: The

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Summers we have found to be scarce at all hotter, tho' more equably Warm.

The South part, which is much more hilly & barren than the North, I firmly believe to abound with Minerals in a very high degree; this however is only conjecture; I had not to my great regret, an opportunity of landing in any place where the signs of them were promising, except the last; nor indeed in any one, where from the Ship the Countrey appeared likely to produce them; which it did to the Southward in a very high degree, as I have mentioned in my daily Journal.

In all the times that we have landed in this Countrey, we have seen, I had almost said, no Quadrupeds really original natives of it: Dogs & Rats indeed there are; the former, as in other Countries, companions of the Men, & the latter, probably brought hither by the Men, especially as they are so scarce, that I myself have not had an opportunity of seeing even one. Of Seals indeed we have seen a few, & one Sea Lion; but these were in the Sea, & are certainly very scarce, as we have seen no signs of them among the Natives, except a few teeth of the latter, which they make into a kind of bodkin, & value much. It appears not improbable that there really are no other species of Quadrupeds in the Countrey, for the Natives, whose cheif luxury of dress consists in the skins & hair of Dogs, & the Skins of divers Birds; & who ware for ornaments the Bones & beaks of Birds, & teeth of Dogs, would probably have made use of some part of any other animal they were acquainted with; a circumstance which tho' we carefully sought after, we never saw the least signs of.

Of Birds there are not many Species, & none except perhaps Birds the Gannet, the same as those of Europe; 4 there are however Ducks, & Shaggs of several Kinds, sufficiently like the European ones to be called the same by the Seamen, both which we Eat & accounted good food, especially the former, which are not at all inferior to those of Europe; besides these there are Hawks, Owls, & Quails, differing but little at first sight from those of Europe, & several small Birds that sing much more melodiously than any I have heard: The Sea Coast is also frequently visited by many Oceanick Birds, as Albatrosses, Sheerwaters, Pintados &c & has

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also a few of the birds call'd by Sr Jno; Narbourough, Penguins, 5 which are truely what the french call Nuance between Birds & Fishes as their feathers especially on their Wings differ but little from Scales, & their Wings themselves, which they use only in diving, & by no means in attempting to fly or even accelerate their motion on the surface of the Water (as young Birds are observed to do) might thence almost as properly be calld fins.

Neither are Insects in greater plenty than Birds a few Butter-Insects flies, Beetles, flesh flies very like those in Europe, Musquetos, & Sandflies, may be exactly the same as those of North America make up the whole list; 6 of these last however, which are most justly accounted the curse of any Countrey where they abound, we never met with any great abundance; a few indeed there were in almost every place we went into, but never enough to make any occupations ashore troublesome, or to give occasion for using shades for the face which we had brought out to defend ourselves from them.

For this scarcity of Animals upon the Land, the Sea however makes abundant recompence, every creek & corner produces abundance of fish, not only wholesome, but at least as well tasted as our Fish in Europe; the Ship seldom anchored in, or indeed passed over (in light Winds) any place whose bottom was such as fish resort to in general, but as many were caught with hook & line as the People could eat, especially to the Southward, where when we lay at an Anchor, the boats by fishing with hook & line very near the Rocks could take any quantity of Fish, besides that the Seine seldom fail'd of success insomuch that both the times that we anchored to the Southward of Cooks Streights every mess in the Ship that had prudence enough, salted as much Fish as lasted them many Weeks after they went to Sea.

For the sorts, there are Mackarel of several kinds one precisely the same as our English ones, & another much like our horse

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mackrel, besides several more; 7 these came in immense shoals & are taken by the Natives in large Seines, from whom we bought them at very easy rates; besides these were many species, which tho' they did not at all resemble any Fish that I at least have before seen our Seamen contrived to give names to, so that hakes, breams, Cole fish &c were appellations familiar with us, & I must say that those who bear those names in England, need not be ashamed of their namesakes in this Countrey; but above all the luxuries we met with, the Lobsters or Sea Craw fish must not be forgot which are possibly the same, that in Ld Ansons Voyage are mentioned to be found at the Island of Juan Fernandes, & differ from ours in England in having many more prickles on their backs, & being red when taken out of the Water, 8 of them we bought great quantities of the natives every where to the Northward, who catch them by diving near the Shore, feeling first with their feet till they find out where they lie: We had also that Fish describd by Frezier in his Voyage to Spanish South America by the name of Elefant, Pejegallo, or Poisson Coq, 9 which tho' coarse we made shift to Eat: Several species of Skates or Sting rays which were abominably coarse, but to make amends for that we had among several sorts of Dog fish, one that was spotted with a few white spots, whose flavor was similar to, but much more delicate than our skate; we had flat Fish also like soles & flounders, Eels & Congers of several sorts, & many others which any Europeans who may come here after us will not fail to find, the advantage of besides excellent oysters, & many sorts of shell fish & Cockles, Clamms &c.

Tho the Countrey is in general covered with an abundant Plants verdure of grass & Trees, yet I cannot say that it is productive of so great a variety as many Countries I have seen; the intire

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novelty however of the greatest part of what we found recompensed us as natural historians for the want of variety. Sow thistle garden nightshade & perhaps 1 or 2 kinds of Grasses were exactly the same as in England; 3 or 4 kinds of fern, the same as those of the West Indies, & a Plant or two that are common to almost all the World; these were all that had before been described by any botanist out of about 400 species, except 5 or 6 which we ourselves had before seen in Terra del Fuego.

Eatable Vegetables there are very few, we indeed as People who had been long at Sea found great benefit in the article of health by eating plentifully of Wild Celery, & a kind of Cresses which grew every where abundantly near the Sea Side; we also once or twice met with an herb like that which the Countrey People in England call Lambs Quarters or Fat hen 10 which we boiled instead of Greens, & once only a Cabbage tree, 11 the Cabbage of which made us one delicious meal, these with the fern Roots & one other vegetable (Pandanus) 12 totally unknown in Europe, which tho eat by the Natives, no European will probably ever rellish, are the whole of the Vegetables which I know to be eatable, except those which they cultivate, & have probably brought with them from the Countrey from whence they themselves have originally come.

Nor does their cultivated Grounds produce many Species of Esculent Plants, three only I have seen, Yamms, Sweet Potatoes, & Cocos, all 3 well known in both East & West Indies & much esteemed of these especially the 2 former they cultivate often pieces of many Acres, & I believe any Ship that was to be to the Northward in the Autumn, about the time of digging them up might purchase any quantity; besides these they cultivate Gourds, the fruits of which serve them to make Bottles, Jugs, &c & a very small quantity of the Chinese paper mulberry tree, the same as the Inhabitants of the S. Sea Islands use to make their Garments of, this they very much value but it is so scarce with them probably having been brought from a hotter Climate & not thriving

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here that tho they likewise beat it out into Cloth, we never saw peices of it larger than what served to put into the holes they bore in their Ears making an Ornament they are very fond of, & this was doubtless the reason why they preferrd the Cloth which we had brought from the S. Sea Islands with us, to any merchandise we could shew them, & next to it white paper.

Fruits they have none, except I should reckon a few kind of insipid berries which had neither sweetness nor flavor to recommend them, & which none but the Boys took the pains to gather; the Woods however abound with excellent Timber trees--fit for any kind of building in size, grain & apparent durability, one which bears a very conspicuous scarlet flower made up [of] many threads & is a large tree as big as an Oak in England, has a very heavy hard wood which seems well adapted for the logs of Mill Wheels &c or any purpose for which hard wood is used; 13 that which I have before mentioned to grow in the swamps, which has a leaf not unlike Yew & bears small bunches of berries, is tall, strait & thick enough to make Masts for Vessels of any size, & seems likewise by the strait direction of the fibres to be tough, but is too heavy; this however I have been told is the case with the Pitch Pine in North America, the timber of which this very much resembles, & that the North Americans know how to lighten by tapping it properly & actually use for Masts.

But of all the Plants we have seen among these People, that which is the most excellent in its kind, & which really excels most if not all that are put to the same uses in other Countries, is the plant which serves them instead of hemp & flax; 14 of this there are 2 sorts the leaves of both much resemble those of flags; the flowers are smaller & grow many more together, in one sort they are Yellowish, in the other of a deep red; of the leaves of these Plants, with very little preparation, all their common wearing apparel are made, & all strings Lines, & Cordage for every purpose, & that of a strength so much superior to hemp as scarce to bear a comparison with it; from the same leaves also, by another preparation a kind of Snow white fibres are drawn, shining almost as silk, & likewise surprizingly strong, of which all their finer Cloaths are made; & of the leaves without any other preparation

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than splitting them into proper breadths & tying those strips together, are made their fishing nets. So usefull a Plant would doubtless be a great acquisition to England especially as one might hope that it would thrive there with little trouble, as it seems hardy & affects no particular Soil being found equally on hills & in Valleys, in dry Soil & the deepest bogs which last Land it seems however rather to prefer, as I have always seen it in such places of a larger size than any where else.

When first we came ashore we imagined the Countrey to be much better peopled than we afterwards found it, concluding from the smoaks that we saw that there were Inhabitants very far inland which indeed in Poverty Bay, & the Bay of Plenty, which are much the best peopled parts of the Countrey that we have seen may yet be the Case in all the other parts we have been in we have however found the Sea Coast only Inhabited, & that but sparingly insomuch that the number of Inhabitants seem to bear no kind of Proportion to the size of the Countrey which they posses & this probably is owing to their frequent wars: besides this the whole Coast from Cape Maria Van Diemen, to Mount Egmont, & seven eights of the southern Island, seems totally without People.

The Men are of the size of the larger Europeans Stout, clean limbd, & active, fleshy but never fat, as the lazy Inhabitants of the S. Sea Islands are; vigorous nimble & at the same time Clever in all their exercises; I have seen 15 paddles of a side in one of their Canoes move with immensely quick strokes, & at the same time as much Justness as if the movers were animated by one Soul, not the fraction of a second could be observed between the dipping & raising any 2 of them the Canoe all the while moving with incredible swiftness; & to see them dance their War dance was an amusement which never fail'd to please every spectator, so much strength, firmness & agility in their motions & at the same time, such excellent time kept, that I have often heard above 100 Padles &c struck against the sides of their Boats as directed by their singing, without a mistake being ever made In Colour they varied a little some being browner than others, but few are browner than Spaniards a little Sun burn'd might be supposed to be. The Woman, without being at all delicate in their outward appearance, are rather smaller than European Woman, but have a

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peculiar softness of Voice which never fails to distinguish them from the Men, tho both are dressed exactly alike; they are like those of the fair sex that I have seen in other Countries more lively, airy, & laughter looking than the Men, & have more volatile Spirits, formed by nature to soften the cares of more serious Man, who takes upon him the laborious, & toilsome part, as War, tilling the ground &c. that disposition appears even in this uncultivated state of nature, shewing in a high degree that as well in uncivilized, as the most polished nations Mans Ultimate happiness must at last be placed in Woman. 15

The disposition of both sexes seemed mild, gentle, & very affectionate to each other, but implacable towards their enimies, who after having killed they Eat, probably out of a Principal of revenge, & I believe never give quarter or take Prisoners, they seem innurd to War & in their Attacks work themselves up by their War Dance to a kind of artificial courage, which will not let them think in the least whenever they met with us & thought themselves superior they always attacked us tho seldom seeming to mean more than to provoke us to shew them what we were able to do in this case by many trials we found that good usage & fair Words would not avail the least with them, nor would they be convinced by the noise of our fire arms alone that they were superior to theirs, but as soon as they had felt the Smart of even a load of small Shot & had had time allowed them to recollect themselves from the effects of their artificial courage which commonly took up a Day they were sensible of our generosity in not taking the advantage of our Superiority & became at once our good friends, & upon all occasions placed the most unbounded confidence in us--they are not like the Islanders addicted to stealing, but would sometimes before peace was concluded if they could by offering any thing they had to sell entice us to trust some thing of ours into their hands refuse to return it with all the coolness in the world seeming to look upon it as the plunder of an Enemy.

Both Sexes were much more modest in their Carriage & decent in their conversation than the Islanders which such of our People who had a mind to form any connections with the Women soon found, but they were not impregnable if the consent of their relations was asked, & the Question accompanied with a proper

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present it was seldom refused, but then the strictest decency must be kept up towards the Young Lady or she might baulk the lover after all; upon one of our Gentlemen making his addresses to a family of the better sort the following answer was made him by the mistress of the family "any of these Young Ladies will think themselves honoured by your addresses, but you must first make me a proper present, & must come & sleep with us ashore, for daylight should by no means be a witness of such proceedings."

Neither Sex are quite so cleanly in their persons as the Islanders, not having the advantage of so warm a Climate they do not wash so often, but the most disgustfull thing about them is the Oil with which they daub their hair, this is melted either from the fat of fish or Birds, the better sort indeed have it fresh, & then it is intirely void of smell, but the inferior often use that that is rancid, & consequently smell something like Greenland Dock when they are trying Whale blubber. 16

Both Sexes stain themselves with the Colour of black, in the same manner, & something in the same method as the S. Sea Islanders introducing it under the Skin by a sharp Instrument furnish'd with many teeth, but the Men carry this Custom to much greater lengths, & the Women not so far, they are generally content with having their Lips black'd but sometimes have patches of black on different parts of their bodies, the Men on the contrary seem to add to their quantity every Year of their lives, so that some of the older were almost covered with it, their faces are the most remarkable, on these they by some art unknown to me dig furrows in their faces a line deep at least & as broad the edges of which are often again indented & most perfectly black, this may be done to make them look frightfull in War, indeed it has the effect of making them most enormously ugly the old ones at least whose faces are intirely covered with it; the Young again often have a small patch on one cheek or over an Eye, & those under a certain Age (may be 25 or 26) have no more than their lips black, yet ugly as this certainly looks it is impossible to avoid admiring the immense elegance & Justness of the figures in which it is formed which in the face is always different spirals upon the Body generally different figures resembling something the foliages

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of old Chasing upon Gold or Silver all these finish'd with a masterly taste & execution for of a hundred which at first sight you would judge to be exactly the same on a close examination no 2 will prove alike nor do I remember to have seen any 2 alike, for their wild imaginations scorn to Copy as appears in almost all their Works--In different parts of the Coast they varied very much in the quantity & parts of the Body on which this Amoco as they call it was placed, but in the spirals upon their faces they generally agreed, & I have generally observed that the more populous a Countrey was the greater quantity of this Amoco they had, possibly in populous Countries the emulation of bearing Pain with fortitude may be carried to greater lengths than where there are fewer people, & consequently fewer examples to encourage The Buttocks which in the Islands was the principal Seat of this Ornament in general here escapes untouched, in one place only we saw the Contrary, possibly they might on this account be esteemed as more noble as having transferrd the Seat of their ornament from the dishonorable cheeks of their tail, to the more honorable ones of their heads.

Besides this dying ingrain as it may be called, they are very fond of painting themselves with Red Ocre which they do in two ways, either rubbing it dry upon their skins, which some few do, or daubing their Faces with large patches of it mix'd with Oil, which consequently never drys, this latter is generally practised by the Women, & was most universally condemn'd by us, for if any of us had unthinkingly ravished a kiss from one of these fair savages, our transgressions were wrote in most legible characters on our noses, which our companions could not fail to see on our first interview.

The common dress of these People is certainly to a stranger at first one of the most uncouth & extraordinary sights that can be imagined, it is made of the leaves of the flag described before which are split into 3 or 4 slips each, & these as soon as they are dry are wove into a kind of Stuff between netting & Cloth out of the upper side of which all the ends of 8 or 9 Inches long each are suffered to hang in the same manner as thrums out of a thrum mat 17 of these pieces of cloth 2 serve for a complete dress, one of

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which is tied over the Shoulders & Reaches about their knees, the other about the waist which reaches near the ground but they seldom wear more than one of these, & when they have it on resemble not a little a thatched house, these dresses however ugly as they are are well adapted for their convenience who are often obliged to sleep in the open Air & live sometime without the least shelter, even from Rain, so that they must trust intirely to their Cloaths as the only chance they have of keeping themselves dry, for which they are certainly not ill adapted as every strip of Leaf becomes in that case a kind of Gutter which serves to conduct the Rain down & hinder it from soaking thro' the Cloth beneath, besides this they have several kinds of cloth which is smooth & ingeniously enough work'd, they are cheifly of 2 sorts one Coarse as our coarsest Canvass & ten times Stronger but much like it in the lying of the threads, the other is formed by many threads running lengthwise, & a few only crossing them which tie them together; this last sort is sometimes strip'd & always very pretty, for the threads that compose it are prepared so as to shine almost as much as Silk, to both these they work borders of different colours in fine stitches something like Carpeting or Girls samplers in various patterns with an ingenuity truely surprizing to any one who will reflect that they are without needles; They have also Mats with which they sometimes cover themselves, but the great pride of their dress seems to consist in Dogs fur which they use so sparingly, that to avoid waste they cut it into long strips & sew them at a distance from each other upon their Cloth, varying often the Colours prettily enough; when first we saw these dresses we took them for the skins of Bears or some animal of that kind, but we were soon undeceived, & found upon enquiry that they were acquainted with no animal that had fur or long hair but their own Dogs; some there were who had these dresses ornamented with feathers, & one who had an intire dress of the red feathers of Parrots, but these were not common.

The Men always wore short beards, & tied their hair in a small knot on the top of their heads, sticking into it a kind of comb & at the top 2 or 3 white feathers; about their waists was tied a belt, from which hung a string which was tied round the preputium & in this seemd to consist most or all of their decency in that particular for when that was tied they often exposed by different

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motions every part of their bodies to our view & indeed not seldom threw off all other dress, but shew'd visible reluctance & signs of shame when we desired them to untie it from a curiosity to see the manner in which it was tied--The first man we saw when we went ashore at Poverty Bay, who was killed by one of our People, had his dress tied on exactly in the same manner as is represented in Mr Dalrymples account of Tasmans Voyage in a plat which I believe is copied from Valentines history of the East Indies; 18 It was tied over his Shoulders cross his breast, again under his arm-pits, likewise across his breast, & round his loins; of this dress we saw however but one more instance during our whole stay on the Coast, tho' it seems convenient as it leaves the arms quite at liberty while the body is covered in general indeed when they chose to set their arms at Liberty they at the same time free'd all their other Limbs by casting off their Cloaths intirely.

The Women contrary to the Custom of the Sex in general seemd to affect dress rather less than the Men; their hair, which they wore short, was seldom tied, & if it was it was behind their heads, & never ornamented with feathers; their Cloaths were of the same stuff, & in the same form as those of the Men, but in decently covering themselves they far exceeded them, their lower Garments were at all times bound fast round them, & they never exposed to View any thing even in the neighbourhood of those parts which nature conceals, except when they gathered Lobsters & shell fish, in which occupation they were frequently obliged to dive, but then they never meant to be seen by Men, & when once or twice accidentally met by us shewd most evident signs of confusion, veiling as well as they could their naked beauties with Seaweed the only covering their situation afforded round their waists instead of a belt, they constantly wore a girdle of many platted strings made of the leaves of a very fragrant grass, into which were tucked the leaves of some sweet scented plant fresh gathered which like the fig-leaf of our first Mother served as the ultimate guard of their modesty.

Both sexes bored their Ears & wore in them a great variety of ornaments; the holes by stretching were generally large enough to admit a finger at least, these generally (as if to keep them upon

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the Stretch) were filled up with a plug of some sort or other, either Cloth, feathers, Bones of large Birds, or sometimes only a stick of Wood; into this hole they often also put nails or any we gave them which could be put there; the Women also often wore bunches of the down of the Albatross which is Snow white, near as large as a fist, which tho' very odd made by no means an unelegant appearance. Besides these they hung to them by strings many very different things, often chissels or Bodkins made of a kind of Green talk which they value much, the nails & teeth also of their deceased relations, Dogs teeth, & in short every thing they could get which was either valuable or ornamental. Besides these the Women wore sometimes bracelets & anclets made of the Bones of Birds, Shells &c & the Men often had the figure of a distorted Man made of the before mentioned green talk, or the tooth of a whale cut slantwise, so as something to resemble a tongue, & furnish'd with 2 Eyes; these they wore about their necks & seemd to value almost above every thing else. 19 I saw one instance also of a very extraordinary ornament, which was a feather stuck thro' the bridge of the nose, & projecting on each side of it over the cheeks; but this I only mention as a singular thing, having met with it only once among the many People I have seen & never observed in any other even the marks of a hole which might occasionally serve for such a purpose.

Their houses are certainly the most inartificially made of any thing among them, scarce equal to an European Dog kennel & resembling one in the door at least which is barely high & wide enough to admit a Man crawling upon all fours; they are seldom more than 16 or 18 feet long, 8 or 10 broad, & 5 or 6 high from the ridge pole to the ground, & built with a sloping roof like our European houses the materials of both Walls & Roof is dry grass or hay, & very tightly it is put together, so that necessarily they must be very warm, some are lined with bark of Trees on the inside, & many have either over the door, or fixed somewhere in the house a piece of Plank covered with their carving, which they seem to value much as we do a Picture, placing it always as conspicuously as possible, all these houses have the door at one end, & near it is generally a square hole which serves for a Window or probably in Winter time more for a chimney, for then they light a fire in

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the middle of the house at the same end where this door & Window are placed; the side walls & roof project generally 18 Inches or 2 feet beyond the End wall making a kind of Porch in which are benches where the People of the house often sit; within is a square place fencd off with either boards or Stones from the rest, in the middle of which they can make a fire round this, the sides of the house are thick layed with straw on which they sleep; as for furniture they are not much troubled with it, one Chest commonly contains all their Riches consisting of tools, Cloaths, Arms, & a few feathers to stick into their hair; their gourds or Baskets made of Bark which serve them to keep fresh Water, Provision Baskets, & the hammers with which they beat their fern roots, are generally left without the Door.

Mean & low as these houses are, they most perfectly resist all inclemencies of the Weather, & answer consequently the purposes of mere shelter as well as larger would do; the People I believe spend little of the Day in them (except may be in Winter) the porch seems to be the Place for Work, & those who have not room there must set upon a Stone or the Ground in its neighbourhood.

Some few of the better sort have kind of Court Yards, the Walls of which are made of Poles & hay 10 or 12 feet high which, as their families are large, incloses 3 or 4 houses; but I must not forget the ruins or rather frame of a house (for it had never been finishd) which I saw at Tolaga, as it was so much superior in size to any thing of the kind we have met with in any other part of the Land, it was 30 feet in length [] in breadth & [] hight, 20 the sides of it were ornamented with many broad carved Planks of a workmanship superior to any we saw upon the Land, but for what purpose this was built or why deserted we could not find out.

Tho these People when at home defend themselves so well from the inclemencies of the Weather, yet when abroad upon their excursions, which they often make in search of fern Roots Fish &c, they seem totally indifferent of Shelter, sometimes they make a small shade to Windward of them, but oft'ner omit that precaution during our stay at Opoorage or Mercury Bay such a party of Indians were there consisting of 40 or 50 who during

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all that time never erected the least covering, tho' it twice rained almost without ceasing for 24 hours together.

Their food in the use of which they seem to be moderate consists of Dogs, Birds, especially Sea fowl as Penguins, Albatrosses &c, Fish, Sweet Potatoes, Yamms, Coccos, some few wild plants as sowthistles, Palm Cabbage &c, but above all & which seems to be to them what bread is to us the roots of a species of Fern very common upon the hills, & which very nearly resembles that which grows on our hilly Commons in England, & is call'd indifferently Fern, Bracken, or Brakes. As for the flesh of Men, although they certainly do eat it I cannot in my opinion debase human nature so much as to imagine that they relish as a dainty, or even look upon it as a part of common food, tho thirst of revenge may drive Men to great lengths when their passions are allowed to take their full swing Yet nature thro' all the superior part of the Creation shews how much she recoils at the thought of any species preying upon itself, Dogs & Cats shew visible signs of Disgust at the very sight of a dead Carcass of their species, even Wolves or Bears were never said to eat one another, except in cases of absolute necessity when the stings of hunger have overcome the precepts of nature, in which case the same has been done by the inhabitants of the most civilized nations.

Among Fish & Insects indeed there are many instances which prove that those who live by prey regard little whether what they take is of their own or any other Species, but any one who considers the admirable chain of nature, in which Man, alone endowed with reason, justly claims the highest rank, & next to him are placed the half reasoning Elephant, the sagacious Dog, the architect Beaver, &c in whom instinct so nearly resembles reason as to have been mistaken for it by Men, of no mean capacities from these decending thro' the less informed Quadrupeds & Birds to the Fish & Insects who seem besides the instinct of fear which is given them for self preservation to be moved only by the stings of hunger to Eat & those of lust to propagate their species, which when born are left intirely to their own Care & at last by the medium of the Oyster &c &c which not being able to move but as tost about by the Waves must in themselves be furnished with both sexes that the species may be continued shading itself away into the Vegetable Kingdom for the preservation of whom neither

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sensation nor instinct is wanting Whoever considers this I say will easily see that no conclusion in favor of such a practise can be drawn from the actions of a race of beings placed so infinitely below in the order of Nature. 21

But to return to my Subject, simple as their food is their cookery as far as I saw is as simple, a few stones heated hot & laid in a hole, their meat laid upon them & covered with hay, seems to be the most difficult part of it; Fish & Birds they generally Broil, or rather toast, spitting them upon a long skewer, the bottom of which is fix'd under a stone, & another Stone being put under the fore part of the Skewer, it is raisd or lowered by moving that stone as the circumstances may require; the fern roots are laid upon the open fire, until they are thoroughly hot, & the bark of them burned to a Coal, they are then beat with a wooden hammer over a stone which causes all the bark to fly off & leaves the inside consisting of a small proportion of a glutinous pulp, mixd with many fibres which they generally spit out after have suck'd each mouthfull a long time; strange & unheard of as it must appear to an European to draw nourishment from a class of Plant, which in Europe no Animal, hardly even Insects will taste, I am much inclined to think that it affords a nourishing & wholesome diet these People eat but little, & this is the foundation of their meals all Summer at least from the time that their roots are planted, till the season for digging them up among them have seen many very healthy Old Men & in general the whole of them are as vigourous a race as can be imagined.

To the Southward were little or nothing is planted, Fern Roots & Fish must serve them all the Year; here therefore we saw that they had made vast piles of both, especially the latter which were dryed in the Sun very well I suppose meant for Winter stock when possibly Fish is not so plentifull, or the trouble of catching it greater than in Summer.

Water is their universal Drink, nor did I see any signs of any other liquor being at all known to them, or any method of intoxication, if they really have not, happy they must be allowed to be above all other nations that I at least have heard of.

So simple a diet accompanied with moderation must be pro-

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ductive of sound health, which indeed these people are blessd with in a very high degree; tho we were in several of their Towns, were Young & Old crowded to see us actuated by the same curiosity as made us desirous of seeing them, I do not remember a single instance of a Person distempered in any degree that came under my inspection, & among the numbers of them that I have seen naked, I have never seen an eruption on the Skin or any signs of one by soars or otherwise; their Skins indeed when they came off to us in their Canoes were often marked in patches with a white flowery appearance which at first deceived us, but we afterwards found that that was owing to their having been in their Passage wetted with a spray of the Sea, which when it was dry left the Salt behind it in a fine white Powder.

Such health drawn from such sound principles must make Phisicians almost useless, indeed I am inclined to think that their knowledge of Physic is but small from the state of their surgery which more than once came under my inspection, of this art they seemed totally ignorant, I saw several who were wounded by our shot without the smallest application upon their wounds, one in particular who had a Musquet Ball shot thro' the fleshy part of his arm, he came out of his house & shew'd himself to us, making a little use of the wounded arm, the wound which was then of several Days standing was totally void of inflammation, seem'd well digested, in short appeared to me to be in so good a state, that had any application been made use of I should not have faild to enquire carefully what it had been which had had so good an Effect.

A farther proof, & not a weak one; of the sound health that these People enjoy may be taken from the number of Old People, we saw hardly a Canoe came off to us, that did not bring one or more & every Town had several whom if we may judge by grey hairs & worn out teeth were of a very advanced age; of these, few or none were decripid, indeed the greatest number of them seem'd in vivacity & cheerfulness to equal the Young, indeed to be inferior to them in nothing but the want of equal strength & agility.

That these People have a larger share of ingenuity than usually falls to the lot of nations who have had so little or indeed no commerce with any others, appears at first sight; their Boats, the better sort of them at least, shew it most evidently, they are

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built of very thin Planks sew'd together, their sides rounding up like ours, but very narrow for their length; some are immensely long, one I saw which the People laid alongside the Ship as if to measure how much longer she was than the Canoe, which fairly reached from the Anchor that hung at the Bows quite aft & consequently could not be less than [] feet long, but indeed we saw few so large as that all except a few that we saw at Opoorage or Mercury Bay which were merely trunks of Trees hollowed out by fire were more or less ornamented by carving the common fishing Canoes had nothing but the face of a Man with a monstrous tongue, & whose Eyes were generally inlayed with a kind of Shell like Mother of Pearl in the fore part of them but the larger sort which seemed to be intended for War were really magnificently adorned, their heads were formed by a Plank projecting about 3 feet before the Canoe & on their sterns stood up another proportioned to the size of the Canoe from 10 to 18 feet high; both these were richly carved with open Work, & covered with loose fringes of Black feathers that had a most gracefull effect; the gunnel boards were also often carved in a grotesque taste & ornamented with white feathers in bunches placed upon a black ground at certain Intervals; they sometimes joined 2 small Canoes together, & now & then made use of an Outrigger as is practised in the Islands seldom towards the North rather oft'ner to the Southward.

In managing these Canoes they are very expert in the padling of them at least in one I counted 16 paddles of a side, & never did men I believe keep better time with their strokes driving on the Boat with immense velocity; their Paddles are often ornamented with Carving their blade is of an Oval Shape pointed towards the bottom, broadest in the middle, & again sloping towards the handle which is about 4 feet long, the whole being generally near 6 feet long more or less; but in sailing they are not so expert, we very seldom saw them make use of Sails, & indeed never unless they were to go right before the Wind; they were made of Mat, & instead of a mast were hoisted upon 2 sticks which were fast'ned one to each side, so that they required 2 ropes which answered the purpose of Sheets & were fast'ned to the tops of these sticks in this clumsy manner they saild with a good deal of swiftness, & were steered by 2 Men who sat in the

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stern with each a Paddle in his hand; I shall set down the dimensions of one that we measured that was of the largest size, it was in length 68 1/2 feet, breadth 5, depth 3 1/2, this was the only one that we measured, or indeed had an opportunity of measuring.

For the beauty of their carving in general I fain would say something more about it, but find myself much inferior to the task, I shall therefore content myself with saying that their taste varied into two materially different stiles I will call them one was intirely formed of a number of spirals differently connected, the other was in a much more Wild taste, & I may truely say was like nothing but itself; of the former the truth with which the Lines were drawn was surprizing, but above all their method of connecting several Spirals into one peice which they did inimitably well, intermingling the Ends of them in so dextrous a manner, that it was next to impossible for the eye to trace their connections; for the other I shall say nothing but refer intirely to the few drawings which I had an Opportunity of getting made of them premising however that the beauty of all their Carvings depended intirely on the design, for the execution was so rough that when you came near it was difficult to find any beauties in the things which struck you most at a distance. 22

After having said so much of their Workmanship it will be necessary to say something of their Tools as they have no metal among them; these are made of Stone of different Kinds, their hatchets especially of any hard stone they can get but cheifly of a kind of Green Talk which is very hard & at the same time tough with axes of this Stone they cut so clean that it would often puzzle a man to say if the Wood they have shaped was or was not cut with an Iron hatchet; these Axes they value above all their riches & would seldom part with them for any thing we could offer but their nicer work which requires nicer edge tools they do with fragments of Jasper 23 which they break & use the Edges of it that are sharp like flints till they are blunt. after which they are thrown away as useless for it is impossible ever

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again to sharpen them, with these fragments of Jasper I suppose it was that at Tolaga they bored a hole thro' a piece of Glass that we had given to them just large enought to admit a thread in order to convert it into an Ornament but what method they make use of to cut & polish their weapons called by them patoo patoo which are made of very hard Stone I must confess I am quite Ignorant.

For their Cloths they are made exactly in the same manner as is used by the Inhabitants of South America some of whose workmanship procured at Rio de Janeiro I have on board, the Warp or long threads are laid very close together, & each crossing of the Woof is distant from another an Inch at least; but they have besides this several other kinds of Cloth & work borders to them all which I have before mentioned, but as to their manner of doing I must confess myself totally Ignorant, I never but once saw any of this Work going forwards, that was done in a kind of frame of the breadth of the Cloth across which it was spread, & the cross threads worked in by hand which must be very tedious but however they may be made, the workmanship sufficiently proves the workmen to be dextrous in their Way; one piece of notability in them I must not forget, which is that to every Garment of the better kind is fix'd a Bodkin as if to remind the wearer that if it should be torn by any accident, no time should be lost before it is mended.

Nets for fishing they make in the same manner as ours of an amazing size, A Seine seems to be the joint work of a Whole Town & I suppose the joint property of these I think I have seen as large as ever I saw in Europe, besides this they have fish Pots & Baskets worked with twiggs & another kind of Net which they most generally make use of that I have never seen in any Countrey but this they are circular & about 7 or 8 feet in Diameter & 2 or 3 deep, they are stretched by 2 or 3 hoops & open at the top for near but not quite their whole extent on the bottom is fastened the bait a little basket containing the Gutts &c of Fish & Sea Ears which are tied to different parts of the net, this, is let down to the bottom where fish are & when enough are supposed to be gathered together, are drawn up with a very gentle motion by which means the fish are insensibly lifted from the bottom, in this manner I have seen them take vast numbers of Fish & indeed

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it is a most general way of fishing all over the Coast. their hooks are but ill made. generally of bone or shell fastened to a piece of Wood, indeed they seem to have little occasion for them, for With their Nets they take fish much easier than they could do with them.

In tillage they excell as People who are themselves to Eat the fruit of their industry & have little else to do but to cultivate necessarily must, when we first came to Tegadu their Crops were just covered & had not yet began to sprout, the mould was as smooth as in a Garden & every Root had its small hillock rang'd in a regular Quincunx by Lines which with the pegs still remained in the field, we had not an opportunity of seeing them work, but once saw their tool which is a long & narrow stake flatted a little & sharpened, across this is fixed a piece of stick for the convenience of pressing it down with the foot, with this simple tool industry teaches them to turn up pieces of Ground of 6 or 7 Acres in extent, indeed the Soil is generally sandy, is therefore easily turned up & the narrowness of the tool, the blade of which is not more than 3 inches broad makes it meet with the less resistance.

Tillage, Weaving & the rest of the arts of peace are best known & most practised in the Northeastern parts, indeed in the Southern there is little to be seen of any of them But War seems to be equally known to all tho' most practised in the South West parts, the mind of Man ever ingenious in inventing instruments of Destruction, has not been idle here, their Weapons tho' few are well calculated for bloody fights & the destruction of numbers; defensive Weapons they have none, & no missive ones except Stones & Darts, which are cheifly used in defending their forts, so that if 2 bodies should meet either in Boats, or upon the plain Ground, they must fight hand to hand & the slaughter consequently be immense. Their Weapons are Spears 24 made of hard wood & pointed at both Ends, sometimes headed with human bones', of these some are 14 or 15 feet long they are grasped by the middle, so that the end which hangs behind serving as a balance to keep steady that which is before makes it much more difficult to parry a push from one of them than it

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would be from one of a Spear only half as long which was held by the End, Battle Axes 25 made likewise of a very hard Wood about 6 feet long, the bottom of the handle pointed, & the blade which is perfectly like the blade of an Axe but broader made very sharp, with these they chop at the heads of their antagonists when an opportunity offers Patoo Patoos as they call them a kind of small hand bludgeon of Stone bone or hard Wood, most admirably calculated for the cracking of Skulls, they are of different shapes, some like an Old fashioned chopping knife, others of this

always however having sharp edges, & sufficient weight to make a second blow unnecessary if the first takes place, in these they seemed to put their cheif dependance, fastning them by a strong strap to their wrists, least they should be wrenched from them; the principal People seldom stirred out without one of them sticking in his girdle generally made of Bone (of Whales as they told us) or of coarse black Jasper very hard, insomuch that we were almost led to conclude that in peace as well as war they wore them as a warlike Ornament in the same manner as we Europeans wear Swords. Darts about 8 feet long made of Wood bearded & sharpend but intended cheifly for the defence of their forts, where they have the advantage of throwing them from a hight down upon their Enemy; they often brought them out in their Boats when they meant to attack us, but so little were they able to make use of them against us who were by reason of the hight of the Ship above them that they never but once attempted, & that dart tho' thrown with the utmost effort of the Man who held it, barely fell on board; sometimes I have seen them pointed with the stings of Sting rays but very seldom why they do not oft'ner use them I do not know, nothing is more terible to an European than the sharp jagged beards of those bones, but I believe they seldom cause Death, tho' the wounds made by them must be most troublesome & painfull. Stones however they use much

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more dextrously tho' ignorant of the use of Slings they throw by hand a considerable distance, when they have pelted us with them on board the Ship I have seen our People attempt to throw them back & not be able to reach the Canoes, tho they had so manifest an advantage in the hight of their Situation.

These are all that can properly be called Arms, but besides these the cheifs when they came to attack us carried in their hands a kind of Ensign of distinction in the same manner as ours do Spontoons 26 they were either the rib of a Whale as white as Snow carved very much & ornamented with Dogs hair & feathers, or a stick about 6 feet long carved & ornamented in the same manner & generally inlaid with Shell like mother of Pearl, of these cheifs there were in their War Canoes one, 2, or 3, according to the size of them, when within about a Cables length of the Ship these generally rose up dress'd themselves in a distinguishing dress often of Dogs Skin, & holding in their hands either one of their Spontoons or a Weapon, directed the rest of the People how to proceed, they were always old or at least past the middle Age & had upon them a larger quantity than common of the black stains that they call Amoco, these Canoes commonly paddled with great Vigour till they came within about a Stones throw of the Ship (having no Idea that any missive Weapon could reach them farther) & then began to threaten us, this indeed the smaller Canoes did as soon as they were in hearing their Words were almost universally the Same "haromai haromai harre uta a patoo patoo 'oge" come to us come to us come but ashore with us & we will Kill You with our Patoo patoos: 27 in this manner they continued to threaten us venturing by degrees nearer & nearer till they were close along side at intervals talking very civily, & answering any Questions we asked them, but quickly renewing their threats till they had by our non resistance gained Courage enough to begin their War song & dance, after which they either became so insolent that we found it necessary to chastise them by

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firing small Shot at them, or else threw 3 or 4 Stones on board & as if content with having offered such an insult unrevenged left us.

The War Song & Dance consisted of various contortions of the Limbs, during which the tongue was frequently thrust out incredibly far, & the orbits of the Eyes enlarged so much that a Circle of white is distinctly seen round the Iris, in short nothing is omitted which can render human shape frightfull & deformed, which I suppose they think terrible; during this time they brandish their Spears, hack the Air with their patoo patoos & shake their darts as if they meant every moment to begin the attack, singing all the time in a Wild but not disagreable manner, & ending every strain with a loud & deep fetched sigh in which they all Join in concort, the whole is accompanied by strokes struck against the sides of the Boats &c with their feet, Paddles, & Arms, the whole in such excellent time that tho the crews of several Canoes join in Concort, you rarely or never hear a single stroke wrongly placed.

This we call the War song, for tho they seemed fond of using it upon all occasions whether in War or Peace, they I believe never omit it in their attacks; besides this they have several other songs which their Women sing prettily enough in parts they were all in a slow melancholy style, but certainly had more taste in them than could be expected from untaught Savages Instrumental Music they have not, unless a kind of Wooden Pipe or the shell called Tritons Trumpet with which they make a noise not much differing from that made by boys with a Cows horn, may be called such; 28 they have indeed besides these a kind of small Pipe of Wood crooked & shaped almost like a large Tobacco Pipe head, 29 but it has hardly more Music in it than a whistle with a Pea in it, but on none of these did I ever hear them attempt to play a tune or sing to their Music.

That they eat the bodies of such of their Enemies as are killd Eat Men in War is a fact which tho universally acknowledge by them from our first landing at every place we came into, I confess I was very loath to give credit to till I by accident found the bones of Men well picked in the very Baskets where these People keep

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their Provision: so convincing a proof I could not withstand, so I proceeded to enquire as well as I could with the small knowlege of their Language which I had & the assistance of Tupia what were their customs upon this occasion, they told us that a few days before A Canoe of their Enemies had been surprized by them, & that out of her they killed 7 persons to one of whom the bones in the basket had belonged, that now all the flesh of these People was eat up & most of the bones thrown away which we found to be true, for in almost every Cove where we landed fresh bones of Men were found near the places where fires had been made; the whole was still more confirmed by the Old Man who we supposed to be the cheif of an Indian Town which was very near us coming a few days afterwards & at our desire bringing with him in his Canoe 6 or 7 heads of Men preserved with the flesh on; these it seems these People keep, after having Eat the Brains as trophies of their Victories in the same manner as the Indians of North America do Scalps they had their Ornament in their Ears as when alive, & some seemed to have false Eyes he was very Jealous of shewing them, One I bought tho' much against the Inclinations of its owner, for tho' he liked the price I offered he hesitated much to send it up, yet having taken the price I insisted either to have that returned or the head given but could not prevail until I enforced my threats by shewing him a Musquet on which he chose to part with the head rather than the price he had got, which was a pair of Old drawers of very white linnen; it appeared to have belonged to a person of about 14 or 15 Years of Age & evidently shewd by the contusions on one side of it that it had received many violent blows, which had chipped off a part of the Scull near the Eye, from hence & many more circumstances I am inclined to believe that these Indians give no Quarter or ever take Prisoners, to eat upon a future Occasion as is said to have been practised by the Floridan Indians for had they done so this Young creature, who could not make much resistance would have been a very proper Subject.

The state of War in which they live, constantly in danger of being surprized when least upon their guard; has taught them not only to live together in Towns, but to fortify those Towns, which they do by a broad ditch, & a Pallisade within it, of no despicable construction: for these Towns or Forts which they

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call Heppas they chuse situations naturally strong; commonly Islands or Peninsulas, where the Sea or steep cliffs defend the greatest part of their works, & if there is any part weaker than the rest, a stage is erected over it of a considerable hight 18 or 20 feet, on the top of which the defendants range themselves, & fight with a great advantage, as they can throw down their darts & stones with so much greater force than the assailants can throw them up. Within these forts the greatest part of the tribe to whom they belong reside, & have large stocks of Provisions, Fern roots & dry'd fish laid up, but no Water, for that article in all that I have seen was not to be had but at some Distance without the lines, from whence we were led to conclude that sieges are not used among them; Some however are generally out in small Parties in the neighbouring Creeks & Coves employed either in taking Fish or collecting fern Roots &c, a large quantity of which they bring back with them a reserve I suppose for times when the neighbourhood of an Enemy or other circumstances make the procuring of fresh Provisions difficult or dangerous.

Of these Forts or Towns we saw many, indeed the Inhabitants constantly lived in such from the Westernmost part of the Bay of Plenty to Queen Charlottes Sound: but about Hawkes Bay, Poverty Bay, Tegadu, & Tolaga there were none & the houses were scattered about; there were indeed upon the sides of hills stages built sometimes of a great length which might serve as a retreat to save their lives at the last extremity nothing else & these were mostly in Ruins: throughout all this District the People seemed free from apprehension & as in a state of Profound Peace; Their Cultivations were far more numerous & larger than we saw them any where else, & they had a far greater quantity of fine Boats, fine Cloaths, fine carved work; in short the People were far more numerous, & lived in much greater affluence, than any others we saw. This seemed to be owing to their being Joined together under one cheif or King, so at least they always told us whose name is Toratu & who lives far up in the Countrey, V. p. 190, 30 it is much to be lamented that we could get no farther knowledge of this cheif or King than only his name his Dominions are certainly for an Indian Monarch

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most extensive, he was acknowledged for a length of Coast of upwards of Leagues & yet we do not know the Eastern [sic] limits of his Dominions, we are sure however that they contain the greatest share of the rich part of the Northernmost Island, & that far the greatest number of People upon it are his Subjects. Subordinate to him are lesser cheifs, who seem to have obedience & respect paid them by the tribes to whom they belong, & probably administer Justice to them, tho we never saw an instance of it except in the case of theft on board the Ship when upon our complaint the offender received Kicks & blows from the cheif with whom he came on board; these cheifs were generally old Men; whether they had the office of cheif by birth or on account of their Age we never learnt, but in the other parts where Teratu was not acknowledged we plainly learnt that the cheifs whom they obeyed, of which every tribe had some, received their dignity by inheritance.

In the southern parts their Societies seemed to have many things in common particularly their fine Cloaths & Nets the former of which they had but few, we never saw any body employed in making it might be that what they had were the spoils of War, they were kept in a small hut erected for that purpose in the middle of the Town the latter seemed to be the Joint Work of the whole Society every house had in it pieces of netting upon which they were at Work by the joining together, these it is probable that they made the large Seins which we Saw.

The Women are less regarded here than at the S. Sea Islands, at least so Tupia thought, who complained of it as an insult upon the sex; they Eat with the Men however. 31 How the sexes divide labour I do not know, but I am inclined to believe that the Men till the ground, Fish in Boats, & take Birds, the Women dig up Fern roots, collect shell Fish & Lobsters near the beach, dress the Victuals & weave Cloth while the Men make nets; thus at least these Employments have been distributed when I had an opportunity of observing them which was very seldom for our approach generally made a holliday wherever we went Men, Women & Children flocking to us, either to satisfy their Curiosity, or trade with us for whatever they might have, taking in

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exchange Cloth of any kind especially Linnen or the Indian Cloth we had brought from the Islands, Paper, Glass bottles, sometimes pieces of broken Glass, Nails &c.

We saw few signs of Religion among these People they had Religion no Public Places of Worship among them as the Inhabitants of the S. Sea Islands; & only one private one came under my observation, which was in the neighbourhood of a plantation of their sweet Potatoes; it was a small square, bordered round with Stones; in the middle was a spade, & on it was hung a basket of Fern roots, an offering (I suppose) to the Gods for the success of the crop, so at least one of the Natives explained it: they however acknowlege the influence of superior beings & have nearly the same account of the Creation of the World, mankind &c as Tupia he however seemed to be better versed in such legends than any of them, for whenever he began to preach as we calld it, he was sure of a numerous audience who attended with most profound silence to his doctrines.

The Burial of the Dead instead of being a Pompous ceremony as in the Islands is here kept secret, we never saw so much as a grave where any one had been interred; nor were they always alike in the accounts they gave of the manner of disposing of Dead Bodies; in the Northern parts they told us that they buried them in the ground; & in the southern said that they threw them into the Sea, having first tied to them a sufficient weight to cause their sinking, howsoever they disposed of the Dead, their regret for the loss of them was sufficiently Vissible, few or none were without scars & some had them hideously large on their cheeks, arms, thighs, legs, &c which proceeded from the cuts they had given themselves during their mourning I have seen several with such wounds of which the blood was not yet staunched & one only A Woman while she was cutting herself & lamenting, she wept much repeating many Sentences in a plaintive tone of Voice, at every one of which she with a shell cut a gash in some part of her body; she however contrived her cuts in such a manner that few of them drew blood, & those that did penetrated a small depth only, she was Old & had outlived probably those violent impressions that greif, as well as other passions of the mind make upon Young People her greif also was probably of long standing the scarrs upon the bodies of the greater part of these

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People evinced however that they had felt sorrows more severely than she did.

Thus much for the manners & Customs of these People as far as they have come to my knowlege in the few opportunities I had of seeing them they differ in many things but agree in more with those of the Inhabitants of the S. Sea Islands their Language I shall next give a short specimen of which is almost precisely the same at least in fundamentals, it is true that they have generally added several letters to the Words as used by the inhabitants of Otahite &c but the original plainly appears in the composition; The Language of the Northern & Southern parts differ cheifly in this, the one has added more letters than the others, the original words are however not less vissible to the slightest Observer I shall give a short table of each compared with the Otahite, taking care to mention as many words as I know which are either of a doubtfull or different Original premising however two things, first that the words were so much disguised by their manner of pronouncing them that I found it very difficult to understand them till I had wrote them down, secondly that Tupia at the very first understood and conversed with them with great facility.

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I must remark that the greatest part of the Southern Language was not taken down by myself, & I am inclined to believe that the person who did it for me made use of more letters in spelling the Words than were absolutely necessary the Genius of the Language especially in the Southern parts is to add some particle before a Noun as we do, the, or, a; this was generally He, or Ko; they also often add to the end of any Word, especially if it is in answer to a question the Word Oeia which signifies yes, really, or certainly: this sometimes led our Gentlemen into most long winded Words, one only of which I shall mention as an example in the Bay of Islands a very remarkable Island was calld by the natives Motu Aro, some of our Gentlemen asked the name of it from one of the natives who answerd I suppose as usual Kemotu aro, the Gentleman not hearing well the word repeated his question, on which the Indian again repeated his answer, adding Oeia to the end of the name which made it Kemotuarooeia; this way at least & no other can I account for that Island being calld in

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the Logbook &c, Cumattiwarroweia 32 the same is practised by the Inhabitants of the South Sea Islands only their particle instead of He, or Ke, is To or Ta, their oeia is exactly the same which when first I began to learn the Language produced many difficulties & mistakes.

From the Similarity of Customs, the still greater of Traditions, & the almost Identical sameness of Language between these People & those of the Islands in the South Sea there remains little doubt that they came originally from the same source, where that source is future experience may teach us, at present I can say no more than that I firmly believe that it is to the Westward, & by no means to the East.

NOTES [by Sir Joseph Banks]

[1] Tho Tasmans longde of Cape Maria Van Diemen comes so near the truth our seamen affirm & seem to make it appear that he erred no less than 4°.4'9 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.

[2] The People who mentioned Teratu to us pointed as we thought always inland, but since the Countrey has been laid down upon Paper, it appears that over the Land in that direction lies the Bay of Plenty, from hence it appears probable that this is the residence of Teratu & if so the Countrey inland will probably be found to be quite void of inhabitants.

Having now intirely circumnavigated New Zealand, & found it, not as generally has been supposed part of a Continent, but 2 Islands, & having not the least reason to imagine that any Countrey larger than itself lays in its neighbourhood it was resolved to leave it & proceed upon farther discoveries in our return to England, being determined to do as much as the State of the Ship & Provisions would allow, in consequence of this Resolution a consultation was held & 3 schemes proposed, One, much the most Eligible to return by Cape Horn, keeping all the way in the high Latitudes by which means we might with certainty determine whether or not a Southern Continent existed; but this was unanimously agreed to be more than the condition of the Ship would allow, our Provisions indeed might be equal to it we had Six Months at 2/3 allowance but our Sails & Rigging with which the former especially we were at first but ill provided were rendered so bad by the blowing Weather that we had met with off

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New Zealand that we were by no means in a Condition to Weather the hard Gales that must be expected in a Winter Passage thro' high latitudes; the second was to steer to the Southward of Van Diemens Land & stand away directly for the Cape of Good Hope, but this was likewise immediately rejected: if we were in too bad a condition for the former, we were in too good a one for this, 6 Months Provisions was much more than enough to carry us to any port in the East Indies, & the overplus was not to be thrown away in a Sea where so few Navigators had been before us; the third therefore was unanimously agreed to which was to stand immediately to the Westward, fall in with the Coast of New holland as soon as possible, & after following that to the Northward as far as seemed proper, to attempt to fall in with the Lands seen by Quiros in 1606. 33 in doing this, although We hoped to make Discoveries more interesting to Trade at least than any we had yet made, we were obliged intirely to give up our first grand Object, the Southern Continent, this for my own part I confess I could not do without much regret. That a Southern Continent really exists, I firmly believe, but if asked why I believe so, I confess my reasons are weak, yet I have a preposession in favor of the fact which I find it difficult to account for; Ice in large bodies has been seen off Cape Horn now & then; Sharp saw it in & Monr Frezier, in his return from the Coast of Chile, in the Month of March 1714: he also mentions that it has been seen by other French ships in the same place. 34 If this Ice, (as is generally believed) is formed by fresh Water only, there must be Land to the Southward; for the Coast of terra del Fuego is by no means cold enough to produce such an effect. I should be inclined to think also, that it lays well away to the Westward as the West & SW Winds so generally prevail, that the Ice must be supposed to have followed the direction of these Winds & consequently have come from those Points. When we saild to the Southward, in the months of August & Sepr 1769; we met with signs of Land, Sea weed, & a Seal; which tho' both of them are often seen at large distances from

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Land, yet they are not met with in open Oceans, & we were at that time too far from the Coast of New Zealand, & much too far from that of South America, to have supposed them to have come from either of these: The Body of this Land must however be situated in very high Latitudes; a part of it may indeed come to the Northward within our track; but as we never saw any signs of Land, except at the time mentioned above, although I made it my particular business (as well as I believe the most of us) to look out for such; it must be prodigiously smaller in extent, than the theoritical Continent makers have supposed it to be; we have, by our Track proved the absolute falsity of above three fourths of their Positions; & after that the remaining part cannot be much relyed upon: but above all we have taken from them their firmest Ground Work, in proving New Zealand to be an Island, which I believe was looked upon even by the most thinking People to be in all probability at least a part of some Vast Countrey all this we have taken from them, the land seen by Juan Fernandes, the Land seen by the Dutch Squadron under Hermite, Signs of Continent seen by Quiros, & the same by Roggewein, &c &c; 35 have by us been proved, not to have at all related to a Continent: As for their reasoning about the balancing of the two Poles, which always appeared to me to be a most Childish argument, we have already shorn off so much of their supposed counterbalancing Land, that by their own account, the South Pole would already be too light, unless what we have left should be made of very ponderous materials as much fault as I find with these Gentlemen will however probably recoil on myself when I on such slight grounds as those I have mentioned again declare it to be my opinion that a Southern Continent exists one opinion in favor of which I am strongly preposesd, but foolish & weak as all preposessions must be thought, I would

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not but declare myself so least I might be supposed to have stronger reasons which I concealed.

To search for this Continent then the best & readyest way by which at once the existence or non existence of it might be proved appears to me to be this; Let the Ship or Ships destined for this purpose leave England in the Spring & proceed directly to the Cape of Good Hope, where they might refresh their People & supply in some articles their expence of Provision; from thence to proceed round Van Diemens Land to the Coast of New Zealand, where they might again refresh in any of the numerous Harbours at the Mouth of Cooks Streights where they would be sure to meet with plenty of Water, Wood, & Fish here they should arrive by the Month of October, that they might have the good Season before them to run across the S. Sea, which by reason of the prevailing Westerly Winds they would easily be able to do in any Latitude, & if in doing this they should not fall in with a Continent, they might still be of Service by exploring the Islands in the Pacific Ocean, where they might refresh themselves & proceed home by the East Indies Such a Voyage as a Voyage of mere Curiosity should be promoted by the Royal Society, to whom I doubt not but his Majesty would upon a Proper application grant a Ship as the Subject of such a Voyage seems at least as interesting to Science in general & the increase of knowlege as the Observation which gave rise to the present one the small expence such an Equipment is to Government is easily shewn I will venture roundly to affirm that the smallest Station Sloop in His Majesty's Service is every Year more expensive than this Ship where every Rope, every Sail, every rope Yarn even is obliged to do its duty most thoroughly before it can be dismissed, how trifling then must this expence appear when in return for it the Nation acquires experienced Seamen in those who execute it, & the Praise which is never denied to countries who in this public spirited manner promote the increase of Knowledge.

At the Cape of Good Hope might be procured, Beef, Bread, flower, Pease, Spirit, or indeed any kind of Provision at reasonable Rates; the Beef must be bought alive & salted, for which purpose it would be proper to take out Salt from Europe; the general price which indeed never varies in two pence a Pound,

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it is tolerable meat, but not so fat as ours in England; Pork is scarce & dear of that, therefore a larger proportion might be taken out: Bread which varies in price is of the Rusk kind, very good but rather brown; Spirit is Arrack from Batavia the price of which, after having paid the Duties of Import & Export is 60 Rd 36 12 lb Sterling a Legger of 150 Gallons; Wine is in vast plenty & very cheap, & while I was there they began to Distill a kind of Brandy which however at that time was as dear as Arrack & much inferior to it both in strength & Goodness. Should a Ship upon this Expedition be obliged to go into false Bay, into which the Dutch remove on the 12th of May most of these articles might be got there at a small advance occasioned by the carriage which is very cheap, & any be wanted which could not they might be brought from the Cape Town either by Dutch Scoots of which there are several belonging to the Company in the harbour, or by Waggons over land as the Road is good & much frequented at that Season of the Year.