On the 29th, we received a visit from our old man, whose name we found to be Topaa, and three other natives, with whom Tupia had much conversation. The old man told us, that one of the men who had been fired upon by the officer who had visited their Hippah, under pretence of fishing, was dead; but to my great comfort I afterwards discovered that this report was not true, and that if Topaa's discourses were taken literally, they would frequently lead us into mistakes. Mr Banks and Dr Solander were several times on shore during the last two or three days, not without success, but greatly circumscribed in their walks by climbers of a most luxuriant growth, which were so interwoven together, as to fill up the space between the trees about which they grew, and render the woods altogether impassable. This day also I went on shore again myself, upon the western point of the inlet, and from a hill of considerable height, I had a view of the coast to the N.W. The farthest land I could see in that quarter, was an island which has been mentioned before, at the distance of about ten leagues, lying not far from the main: Between this island and the place where I stood, I discovered, close under the shore, several other islands, forming many bays, in which there appeared to be good anchorage for shipping. After I had set off the different points for my survey, I erected another pile of stones, in which I left a piece of silver coin, with some musket-balls and beads, and a piece of an old pendant flying on the top. In my return to the ship, I made a visit to several of the natives, whom I saw along the shore, and purchased a small quantity of fish.

On the 30th, early in the morning, I sent a boat to one of the islands for celery, and while the people were gathering it, about twenty of the natives, men, women, and children, landed near some empty huts: As soon as they were on shore, five or six of the women sat down upon the ground together, and began to cut their legs, arms, and faces, with shells, and sharp pieces of talc or jasper, in a terrible manner. Our people understood that their husbands had lately been killed by their enemies; but while they were performing this horrid ceremony, the men set about repairing the huts, with the utmost negligence and

unconcern.

The carpenter having prepared two posts to be left as memorials of our having visited this place, I ordered them

to be inscribed with the ship's name, and the year and month; one of them I set up at the watering-place, hoisting the union flag upon the top of it; and the other I carried over to the island that lies nearest to the sea, called by the natives Motuara. I went first to the village or Hippah, accompanied by Mr Monkhouse and Tupia, where I met with our old man, and told him and several others, by means of Tupia, that we were come to set up a mark upon the island, in order to show to any other ship which should happen to come thither, that we had been there before. To this they readily consented, and promised that they never would pull it down: I then gave something to every one present; and to the old man I gave a silver threepence, dated 1736, and some spike nails, with the king's broad arrow cut deep upon them; things which I thought most likely to remain long among them: I then took the post to the highest part of the island, and after fixing it firmly in the ground, I hoisted upon it the union-flag, and honoured this inlet with the name of Queen Charlotte's Sound, at the same time taking formal possession of this and the adjacent country, in the name and for the use of his majesty King George the Third. We then drank a bottle of wine to her majesty's health, and gave the bottle to the old man who had attended us up the hill, and who was mightily delighted with his present.

While the post was setting up, we enquired of the old man concerning the passage into the eastern sea, the existence of which he confirmed; and then asked him about the land to the S.W. of the streight, where we were then situated: This land, he said, consisted of two Whennuas or islands, which might be circumnavigated in a few days, and which he called Tory Poenammoo; the literal transla tion of this word is, "the water of green talc :" and probably, if we had understood him better, we should have found that Tovy Poenammoo was the name of some particular place where they got the green talc or stone of which they make their ornaments and tools, and not a general name for the whole southern district: He said, there was also a third Whennua, on the east side of the streight, the circumnavigation of which would take up many moons: This he called Eaheinomauwe; and to the lands on the borders of the streight he gave the name of Tiera Witte. Having set up our post, and procured this intelligence, we returned on board the ship, and brought the old man with

Us,

us, who was attended by his canoe, in which, after dinner, he returned home.

On the 31st, having completed our wooding, and filled all our water casks, I sent out two parties, one to cut and make brooms, and another to catch fish. In the evening, we had a strong gale from the N.W. with such a heavy rain, that our little wild musicians on shore suspended their song, which till now we had constantly heard during the night, with a pleasure which it was impossible to lose without regret.

On the 1st, the gale increased to a storm, with heavy gusts from the high land, one of which broke the hawser, that we had fastened to the shore, and obliged us to let go another anchor. Towards midnight, the gale became more moderate, but the rain continued with such violence, that the brook which had supplied us with water overflowed its banks, and carried away ten small casks which had been left there full of water, and notwithstanding we searched the whole cove, we could never recover one of them.

On the Sd, as I intended to sail the first opportunity, I went over to the Hippah on the east side of the Sound, and purchased a considerable quantity of split and half-dried fish, for sea stores. The people here confirmed all that the old man had told us concerning the streight and the country, and about noon I took leave of them: Some of them seemed to be sorry, and others glad that we were going: The fish which I bought they sold freely, but there were some who shewed manifest signs of disapprobation. As we returned to the ship, some of us made an excursion along the shore to the northward, to traffic with the natives for a farther supply of fish; in which, however, they had no great success. In the evening, we got every thing off from the shore, as I intended to sail in the morning, but the wind would not permit.

On the 4th, while we were waiting for a wind, we amused ourselves by fishing, and gathering shells and seeds of various kinds; and early in the morning of the 5th, we cast off the hawser, hove short on the bower, and carried the kedgeanchor out in order to warp the ship out of the cove, which having done about two o'clock in the afternoon, we hove up the anchor and got under sail; but the wind soon failing, we were obliged to come to an anchor again a little above Motuara. When we were under sail, our old man Topaa came on board to take his leave of us, and as we

were

were still desirous of making farther enquiries whether any memory of Tasman had been preserved among these people, Tupia was directed to ask him whether he had ever heard that such a vessel as ours ha before visited the country. To this he replied in the negative, but said, that his ancestors had told him there had once come to this place a small vessel, from a distant country, called Ulimaroa, in which were four men, who, upon their coming on shore, were all killed: Upon being asked where this distant land lay, he pointed to the northward. Of Ulimaroa we had heard something before from the people about the Bay of Islands, who said that their ancestors had visited it; and Tupia had also talked to us of Ulimaroa, concerning which he had some confused traditionary notions, not very different from those of our old man, so that we could draw no certain conclusion from the accounts of either.

Soon after the ship came to an anchor the second time, Mr Banks and Dr Solander went on shore, to see if any gleanings of natural knowledge remained, and by accident fell in with the most agreeable Indian family they had seen, which afforded them a better opportunity of remarking the personal subordination among these people, than had before offered. The principal persons were a widow, and a pretty boy about ten years old: The widow was mourning for her husband with tears of blood, according to their custom, and the child, by the death of its father, was become proprietor of the land where we had cut our wood. The mother and the son were sitting upon matts, and the rest of the family, to the number of sixteen or seventeen, of both sexes, sat round them in the open air, for they did not appear to have any house, or other shelter from the weather, the inclemencies of which, custom has probably enabled them to endure without any lasting inconvenience. Their whole behaviour was affable, obliging, and unsuspicious; they presented each person with fish, and a brand of fire to dress it, and pressed them many times to stay till the morning, which they would certainly have done if they had not expected the ship to sail, greatly regretting that they had not become acquainted with them sooner, as they made no doubt but that more knowledge of the manners and disposition of the inhabitants of this country would have been obtained from them in a day, than they had yet been able to acquire during our whole stay upon the coast.

On

On the 6th, about six o'clock in the morning, a light breeze sprung up at north, and we again got under sail, but the wind proving variable, we reached no farther than just without Motuara; in the afternoon, however, a more steady gale at N. by W. set us clear of the Sound, which I shall now describe..

The entrance of Queen Charlotte's Sound is situated in latitude 41° S. longitude 184° 45′ W. and near the middle of the south-west side of the streight in which it lies. The land of the south-east head of the Sound, called by the na tives Koamaroo, off which lie two small islands and some rocks, makes the narrowest part of the streight. From the north-west head a reef of rocks runs out about two miles, in the direction of N.E. by N.; part of which is above the water, and part below. By this account of the heads, the Sound will be sufficiently known: At the entrance, it is three leagues broad, and lies in S.W. by S.S.W. and W. S.W. at least ten leagues, and is a collection of some of the finest harbours in the world, as will appear from the plan, which is laid down with all the accuracy that time and cir cumstances would admit. The land forming the harbour or cove in which we lay, is called by the natives Totarranue The harbour itself, which I called Ship Cove, is not inferior to any in the Sound, either for convenience or safety: It lies on the west side of the Sound, and is the southermost of three coves, that are situated within the island of Motuara, which bears east of it. Ship Cove may be entered, either between Motuara and a long island, called by the natives Hamote, or between Motuara and the western shore. In the last of these channels are two ledges of rocks, three fathom under water, which may easily be known by the sea-weed that grows upon them. In sailing either in or out of the Sound, with little wind, attention must be had to the tides, which flow about nine or ten o'clock at the full and change of the moon, and rise and fall between seven and eight feet perpendicularly. The flood comes in through the streight from the S.E. and sets strongly over upon the north-west head, and the reef that lies off it: The ebb sets with still greater rapidity to the S.E. over upon the rocks and islands that lie off the south-east head. The variation of the compass we found from good observation to be 13° 5' E.

The land about this Sound, which is of such a height

that