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O c t o b e r »
Taefday r*.
Saturday 16.
C H A P . II.
Cowfe from the Friendly IJles to New Zeeland.— Separation from tit
Adventure.— Second flay in Queen Charlotte's. Sound.
WE had no fooner left the torrid zone, than flocks of
fea-fowls attended us on our courfe, and hovered
lightly on the waves, which a favourable gale had raifed.
On the 12th an albatrofs appeared, among the reft of the
inhabitants of the temperate zone, which never dare to
erofs the tropic, but roam from thence even to the polar
circle y fo carefully has nature allotted to each animal its
proper place of abode.
The weather continued fair till the i dth in the morning,
when we had a fall of rain. Some of the people who examined
the pump-well, found there a dog, which they
brought upon deck. This creature, which had been pur-
chafed at the illand of Huahine, like maijty others of the
fame fpecies, had obftinately refufed to take any nourifh-
ment, and in all probability had lived ever fince in that
hole without the leaffi fupport of food, for a fpace of
thirty-nine or forty days. The whole body was reduced
to a mere fkeleton, the legs were contracted, and he voided
blood
blood at the anus. The torments in which this poor animal
mull have lived, were a leffon to our people, to purchafe
only young puppies of this race for the future, as the
grown dogs conftantly refufed to eat on board.
The next night feveral blubbers palled by the Ihip,
which were vilible on account of their phofphoric light.
Their luminous quality was fo great, that the bofom of
the fea, feemed to contain brighter liars than the tether.
Sea-weed, Iheer-waters, and albatrofles daily appeared,
as we advanced towards New Zeeland. On the i 9 th, the
fea was luminous, and on the 20th, the diving petrels arrived
in flocks about us, and indicated the proximity of
the land, which we faw the next morning at five o’clock.
We Hood in fiiore all the day, till four in the afternoon,
when we were abreaft of the Table Cape *, and Portland
Ifland: which adjoins to it by a ledge of rocks. The fhores'
were white and fteep towards the fea, and we could perceive
the huts and ftrong holds of the natives, like eagles airies
on the top of the cliffs^ A great number of natives ran
along the rocks, in order to gaze at us, as we palled by
them, and many feated themfelves at the point which extends
to the fouthward, but did not care to come off to us
in their canoes. We failed between the funken rock and
the land, and continued our courfe acrofs Hawke’s Bay, and
then along Ihore, as it was growing dark.
* See the chart of New Zeeland, in vol; II. of Hawkefworth^s Compilation.