They were a species of Prussian pine, very appropriate for the spars needed for the _Resolution_. Cook accordingly sent a sloop and some men to choose and cut the trees he needed. Some of them were twenty inches in diameter, and seventy feet high, so that a mast could have been formed of one had it been needed. The discovery of this island had a certain value, as, with the exception of New Zealand, it was the only one in the entire Pacific Ocean which produced wood fit for masts and poles. In steering southwards towards New Zealand, Cook sighted a small uninhabited island on the 10th of October, upon which the botanists reaped a plentiful harvest of unknown vegetables. It was Norfolk Island, so named in honour of the Howard family. It was afterwards colonized by a part of the mutineers of the _Bounty_. The _Resolution_ anchored again in Queen Charlotte's Sound. The gardens so anxiously planted by the English had been entirely neglected by the New Zealanders, but in spite of this several plants had grown marvellously. The natives were very shy of appearing at first, and seemed to care little for any intercourse with the strangers; but when they recognized their old friends, they testified their delight most extravagantly. When asked why they had been so reserved at first, they evaded a reply, and there was no doubt that they were thinking of murder and combats. This aroused Cook's apprehensions for the fate of the _Adventure_, of which he had heard nothing since his last stay in this port, but he could obtain no reply to the questions he put. He was only to learn what had occurred in his absence, when he reached the Cape of Good Hope, and found letters from Captain Furneaux. After once more landing some pigs, with which he wished to endow New Zealand, the captain set sail for Cape Horn on the 10th of November. After a vain cruise, he at last sighted the eastern shore of Tierra del Fuego, near the entrance to the Straits of Magellan. "The portion of America which now met our view," says Cook, "was dreary enough. It seemed to be cut up into small islands, which though by no means high, were very black, and almost entirely barren. In the background, we saw high ground covered with snow, almost to the water's edge. It is the wildest shore I have ever seen, and appears entirely composed of mountains and rocks, without a vestige of vegetation. The mountains overhang horrible precipices, the sharp peaks of which arise to great height. Probably there is nothing in nature which presents so wild an appearance. The interior mountains are covered with snow, but those bordering the sea are not. We imagined the former to belong to Tierra del Fuego, and the latter to be ranged over the small islands in such a way as to present the appearance of an uninterrupted coast."