A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World, Volume 1

by James Cook

Here are, as well as in all other parts of New Zealand, a great number of aromatic trees and shrubs, most of the myrtle kind; but amidst all this variety, we met with none which bore fruit fit to eat.

In many parts the woods are so over-run with supplejacks, that it is scarcely possible to force one's way amongst them. I have seen several which were fifty or sixty fathoms long.

The soil is a deep black mould, evidently composed of decayed vegetables, and so loose that it sinks under you at every step; and this may be the reason why we meet with so many large trees as we do, blown down by the wind, even in the thickest part of the woods. All the ground amongst the trees is covered with moss and fern, of both which there is a great variety; but except the flax or hemp plant, and a few other plants, there is very little herbage of any sort, and none that was eatable, that we found, except about a handful of water-cresses, and about the same quantity of cellery. What Dusky Bay most abounds with is fish: A boat with six or eight men, with hooks and lines, caught daily sufficient to serve the whole ship's company. Of this article the variety is almost equal to the plenty, and of such kinds as are common to the more northern coast; but some are superior, and in particular the cole fish, as we called it, which is both larger and finer flavoured than any I had seen before, and was, in the opinion of most on board, the highest luxury the sea afforded us. The shell-fish are, muscles, cockles, scallops, cray-fish, and many other sorts, all such as are to be found in every other part of the coast. The only amphibious animals are seals: These are to be found in great numbers about this bay on the small rocks and isles near the sea coast.

We found here five different kinds of ducks, some of which I do not recollect to have any where seen before. The largest are as big as a Muscovy duck, with a very beautiful variegated plumage, on which account we called it the Painted Duck; both male and female have a large white spot on each wing; the head and neck of the latter is white, but all the other feathers as well as those on the head and neck of the drake are of a dark variegated colour. The second sort have a brown plumage, with bright green feathers in their wings, and are about the size of an English tame duck. The third sort is the blue-grey duck, before mentioned, or the whistling duck, as some called them, from the whistling noise they made. What is most remarkable in these is, that the end of their beaks is soft, and of a skinny, or more properly, cartilaginous substance. The fourth sort is something bigger than a teal, and all black except the drake, which has some white feathers in his wing. There are but few of this sort, and we saw them no where but in the river at the head of the bay. The last sort is a good deal like a teal, and very common, I am told, in England. The other fowls, whether belonging to the sea and land, are the same that are to be found in common in other parts of this country, except the blue peterel before-mentioned, and the water or wood-hens. These last, although they are numerous enough here, are so scarce in other parts, that I never saw but one. The reason may be, that, as they cannot fly, they inhabit the skirts of the woods, and feed on the sea-beach, and are so very tame or foolish, as to stand and stare at us till we knocked them down with a stick. The natives may have, in a manner, wholly destroyed them. They are a sort of rail, about the size and a good deal like a common dunghill hen; most of them are of a dirty black or dark-brown colour, and eat very well in a pye or fricassée. Among the small birds I must not omit to particularize the wattle-bird, poy-bird, and fan-tail, on account of their singularity, especially as I find they are not mentioned in the narrative of my former voyage.

The wattle-bird, so called, because it has two wattles under its beak as large as those of a small dunghill-cock, is larger, particularly in length, than an English black-bird. Its bill is short and thick, and its feathers of a dark lead colour; the colour of its wattles is a dull yellow, almost an orange colour.

The poy-bird is less than the wattle-bird. The feathers of a fine mazarine blue, except those of its neck, which are of a most beautiful silver-grey, and two or three short white ones, which are on the pinion joint of the wing. Under its throat hang two little tufts of curled, snow-white leathers, called its poies, which being the Otaheitean word for earrings, occasioned our giving that name to the bird, which is not more remarkable for the beauty of its plumage than for the sweetness of its note. The flesh is also most delicious, and was the greatest luxury the woods afforded us.

Of the fan-tail there are different sorts; but the body of the most remarkable one is scarcely larger than a good filbert, yet it spreads a tail of most beautiful plumage, full three quarters of a semi-circle, of at least four or five inches radius.

For three or four days after we arrived in Pickersgill harbour, and as we were clearing the woods to set up our tents, &c. a four-footed animal was seen by three or four of our people; but as no two gave the same description of it, I cannot say of what kind it is. All, however, agreed, that it was about the size of a cat, with short legs, and of a mouse colour. One of the seamen, and he who had the best view of it, said it had a bushy tail, and was the most like a jackall of any animal he knew. The most probable conjecture is, that it is of a new species. Be this as it may, we are now certain that this country is not so destitute of quadrupeds as was once thought.

The most mischievous animals here are the small black sand flies, which are very numerous, and so troublesome, that they exceed every thing of the kind I ever met with. Wherever they bite they cause a swelling, and such an intolerable itching, that it is not possible to refrain from scratching, which at last brings on ulcers like the small-pox.

The almost continual rains may be reckoned another evil attending this bay; though perhaps this may only happen at this season of the year. Nevertheless, the situation of the country, the vast height, and nearness of the mountains, seem to subject it to much rain at all times. Our people, who were daily exposed to the rain, felt no ill effects from it; on the contrary, such as were sick and ailing when we came in, recovered daily, and the whole crew soon became strong and vigorous, which can only be attributed to the healthiness of the place, and the fresh provisions it afforded. The beer certainly contributed not a little. As I have already observed, we at first made it of a decoction of the spruce leaves; but finding that this alone made the beer too astringent, we afterwards mixed with it an equal quantity of the tea plant (a name it obtained in my former voyage, from our using it as tea then as we also did now,) which partly destroyed the astringency of the other, and made the beer exceedingly palatable, and esteemed by every one on board. We brewed it in the same manner as spruce-beer, and the process is as follows: First, make a strong decoction of the small branches of the spruce and tea plants, by boiling them three or four hours, or until the bark will strip with ease from off the branches; then take them out of the copper, and put in the proper quantity of molasses, ten gallons of which is sufficient to make a ton, or two hundred and forty gallons of beer; let this mixture just boil, then pot it into the casks, and to it add an equal quantity of cold water, more or less, according to the strength of the decoction, or your taste: When the whole is milk-warm, put in a little grounds of beer, or yeast, if you have it, or any thing else that will cause fermentation, and in a few days the beer will be fit to drink. After the casks have been brewed in two or three times the beer will generally ferment itself, especially if the weather is warm. As I had inspissated juice of wort on board, and could not apply it to a better purpose, we used it together with molasses or sugar, to make these two articles go farther. For of the former I had but one cask, and of the latter little to spare for this brewing. Had I known how well this beer would have succeeded, and the great use it was of to the people, I should have come better provided. Indeed I was partly discouraged by an experiment made during my former voyage, which did not succeed then, owing, as I now believe, to some mismanagement.