[79] The natives of all these Australasian and Pacific islands were styled "Indians" in Cook's day—following the silly fashion started by Columbus. This practice lasted even to the early part of the nineteenth century and in some of the explorations of the Niger and Fernando Po in West Africa the natives are referred to as Indians.
[80] On one of his visits to New Zealand of his second voyage, Cook, to be quite certain of the cannibalism of the New Zealanders, steeled himself to seeing them cook and eat the flesh of a young man who had been killed on the beach (apparently for that purpose). Many of the seamen with him who witnessed this disgusting spectacle were literally sick at the sight, but the person most affected was Oedidi, a youth from Tahiti, who had come with Cook as an interpreter, and who nearly went out of his mind with disgust, horror, and rage, extending his indignation to the white men who had allowed such a spectacle to take place in order to satisfy their curiosity.
[81] Phormium tenax, New Zealand "flax", which is so important a feature in the resources and development of New Zealand in earlier days, was an aloe-like plant with stiff, sword-shaped leaves like those of a flag in growth. From the centre of the mass of flag-like leaves rises a tall flower column, perhaps 10 feet high, bearing numerous orange-red tubular flowers like those of an aloe. Phormium, indeed, belongs to the Lily and Aloe order.
[82] Sutherland—really Cape Sutherland, at the entrance to Port Hacking—was named after Forby Sutherland, an English seaman, who died and was buried near here, the first white man, probably, and certainly the first Englishman, to lie in the soil of Australia. He was buried near the watering place.
[83] Australia, like the drier parts of Africa or Asia, possesses several examples of the bustard family, though in the case of Australia there are at most two or three species of the one Asiatic genus, Eupodotis.
[84] The terrible Spinifex grass so characteristic of Australia.
[85] Admiral Sir W.J.L. Wharton, who edited Cook's original journal, points, out that the idea seems equally to have emanated from Captain Cook, its carrying out being merely entrusted to Monkhouse because he was familiar with the process.
[86] These crows, so often referred to by Cook and the early Australian explorers, were not true crows of the sub-family Corvinæ (crows, ravens, or jackdaws), but belonged to genera like Corcorax and Gymnorhina, more nearly related to choughs and shrikes.
[87] See pp. 38, 39.
[88] The Conifers or "pines" (they are not of the actual pine or fir family of the northern hemisphere) of Australia belong chiefly to the following types (I am informed by Doctor Otto Stapf of Kew Gardens): Frenela, resembling the South African Callitris; Araucaria (Monkey-puzzle trees); Podocarpus (related to the yews); Phyllocladus (often miscalled a "spruce" fir); Dacrydium, Dammara (a conifer producing much pitch or resin); Arthotaxis (in growth like a cypress); Actinostrobus; Diselma; Microcochys; and Pherosphæra.