I774--
October. latter offered us a molt welcome and palatable refrelhment.
We cut down feveral of them, and took on board the central
fhoot, or heart, which in tafte more refembles an
almond than a cabbage. The animal creation, like the
vegetable, confided chiefly of the fame fpecies which we
found at New Zeeland. The parrots and parroquets were
infinitely brighter coloured, though evidently of the fame
fpecies ; but the pigeon was exactly the fame. We found
befides thefe, a number of fmall birds, peculiar to this fpor,
fome of which were very beautiful. On the beach we found
feveral fueculent plants, fuch as a fpecies of tetragmia, and
a mefembryantbemum, of which we gathered a quantity to boil
in our foups. The melody of the birds was very pleafing
in this little deferted fpot, which if it had been of a greater
fize, would have been unexceptionable for an European fettle-
ment. We put off from it late in the evening, and when
we arrived on board, we greatly regretted that we had not
thought of leaving a hog of each fex, which would doubtlefs
have propagated undifturbed, and in the fpace of a few
years flocked the ifland, fo as to become ufeful to future
navigators. Captain Cook gave this pretty little fpot, the
name of Norfolk Ifland; it is fituated in 29° 2 30 ' S. and
-1 6 8° 16' E. Whilft we had examined the woods, fome
of the boats’ crew had been no lefs bufy in catching fitb,
having been fortunate enough to meet with a pool, where
they had come in at high water. The tops of the cabbagebage
palm, thefe fifli, and the birds' which we had October;-
afforded us an excellent refrelhment for a day or two. We
paffed the S. E. end of the ifland the next morning, and
faw a large Angle rock off that end. We founded repeatedly
all the forenoon, and found bottom at thirty and
forty fathom, to the diftance of eight leagues-and upwards-
from the ifland. The vaff number of boobies,, and Ihear-
waters, which were continually catching filh about us, by
darting down into the fea, indicated that this was a kind of
fiffiing-bank. At one o’clock in the afternoon, we were
out of foundings, and advanced with a frelh breeze towards
New Zeeland, where we could expeft to meet with regular
refrelhments after our tropical cruize, which towards the
latter end had greatly weakened-the crew, by confining them
to a putrid falt-diet, and which had proved particularly
fatal to the officers and ourfelves, by means of the poi-
fonous fillies that unfortunately fell in our way.
We made fuch fpeed, attended by flocks of pintadas, pe- Monday,r..
trels,. and albatroffes, that we made the eoaftof New Zeeland
on the 17 th, early in the morning, after having heavy
dews for two nights before, which are commonly reckoned
figns of land. The part of New Zeeland which we now
fell in with, was Mount Egmont, that prodigious peak
which forms the north point of Cook’s Strait coming from
the weft. It appeared to be covered with fnow and ice
nearly from the middle to the fummit, of which we had:
only