’ 773'
O c to b e r ,
November.
Monday i.
Tuefday 2.
rate her from us entirely, fhe being fo far aftern that this;
wind mud have had infinitely more effeCt upon her than
upon our fhip.
It would be ufelefs and tedious to repeat the many
changes from adverfe tempefts to favourable gales which;
fucceeded thofe already mentioned, and which made us-
defpair of ever coming to an anchor in New Zeeland again.
We were buffetted about for nine nights together, during
which deep fcarce ever vifited our eyes. On the 1 ft of
November we got into Cook’s Strait, but the weather proved
fo inconftant, that it became contrary to us as foon as
we had approached Cape Tera-wittee upon the Northern
Iiland. Our fituation permitted us, however, the next day
to come to an anchor in a new bay, which we difcovered
immediately under this promontory to the weftward. The
environs of this bay were dreary, blackiih, barren mountains,
of a great height, almoft wholly deftitute of woods
and fhrubs, and running out into long fpits of Iharp columnar
rocks into the fea. The bay itfelf feemed to extend
a confiderable way up between the mountains, and
by its direction left us in doubt, whether the land on
which Cape Tera-wittee is fituated, is not a feparate ifland
from Eaheino-mauwe. This miferable country was, however,
inhabited, and we had not been half an hour at anchor,
before feveral canoes full of natives came on board.
They were very defpicably habited in old fhaggy cloaks,
which
which they called bogbee-bogghee. The fmoke to which they M
are-perpetually expofed in their wretched habitations, and
a load of impurities which they had probably never waftied
off fince their birth, perfectly concealed their real colour,
and made them look of a vile brownifli yellow. The fea-
fon of winter, which was juft at an end, had in all likelihood
forced them at times to make their meals on putrid
fifties, which, together with the ufe of rancid oil for the
hair, had fo penetrated them with an infufferable ftench,
that we could fmell them at a diftance. They brought a
few of their fifli-hooks and fome dried tails of craw-fifli to
fell, for which they eagerly received our iron-ware and
Taheitee cloth. Captain Cook likewife prefented them with
two pair of fowls, with ftrong injunctions to keep them
for breeding; but it is hardly to be expected that thefe
wretched favages will attend to the domeftication of animals.
In their unthinking fituation, the firft moment they
have nothing ready at hand to fatisfy, the cravings of appetite,
our fowls muft fall the victims. to their voracity.
If there are any hopes of fucceeding in the introduction of
domeftic animals in this country, it muft be in the populous
bays to the northward, where the inhabitants feem to
be more civilized, and are already accuftomed to cultivate
feveral roots for their fubfiftence.
About three o’clock in the afternoon the weather fell
perfedtly calm; but in a little time a foutherly wind came
R r r a up