The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World, Vol. III. Being the First of the Second VoyageCook, James
History
The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World, Vol. III. Being the First of the Second Voyage
Cook, James
Cook, James, 1728-1779 -- Travel; Explorers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Voyages around the world -- History -- 18th century
It was noon when we took leave of these two men, and proceeded down the
north side of the bay; which I explored in my way, and the isles that
lie in the middle; night, however, overtook us, and obliged me to leave
one arm unlooked into, and hasten to the ship, which we reached by eight
o’clock. I then learnt that the man and his daughter stayed on board the
day before till noon; and that, having understood from our people what
things were left in Cascade Cove, the place where they were first seen,
he sent and took them away. He and his family remained near us till
to-day, when they all went away, and we saw them no more; which was the
more extraordinary, as he never left us empty-handed. From one or
another he did not get less than nine or ten hatchets, three or four
times that number of large spike nails, besides many other articles. So
far as these things may be counted riches in New Zealand, he exceeds
every man there; being at this time possessed of more hatchets and axes
than are in the whole country besides.
In the afternoon of the 21st, I went with a party out to the isles on
seal-hunting. The surf ran so high that we could only land in one place,
where we killed ten. These animals served us for three purposes; the
skins we made use of for our rigging; the fat gave oil for our lamps;
and the flesh we ate. Their harslets are equal to that of a hog, and the
flesh of some of them eats little inferior to beef steaks. The following
day nothing worthy of notice was done.
In the morning of the 23d, Mr. Pickersgill, Mr. Gilbert, and two others,
went to the Cascade Cove, in order to ascend one of the mountains, the
summit of which they reached by two o’clock in the afternoon, as we
could see by the fire they made. In the evening they returned on board,
and reported, that inland nothing was to be seen but barren mountains,
with huge craggy precipices, disjoined by valleys, or rather chasms,
frightful to behold. On the S. E. side of Cape West, four miles out at
sea, they discovered a ridge of rocks, on which the waves broke very
high. I believe these rocks to be the same we saw the evening we first
fell in with the land.
Having five geese left out of those we brought from the Cape of Good
Hope, I went with them next morning to Goose Cove (named so on this
account), where I left them. I chose this place for two reasons; first,
here are no inhabitants to disturb them; and secondly, here being the
most food. I make no doubt but that they will breed, and may in time
spread over the whole country, and fully answer my intention in leaving
them. We spent the day shooting in and about the Cove, and returned
aboard about ten o’clock in the evening. One of the party shot a white
hern, which agreed exactly with Mr. Pennant’s description, in his
British Zoology, of the white herns that either now are, or were
formerly, in England.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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