I regretted much that we did not hear of this ship while we were in the Sound; as, by means of Omai, we might have had full and correct information about her from eye-witnesses. For Taweiharooa’s account was only from what he had been told, and therefore liable to many mistakes. I have not the least doubt, however, that his testimony may so far be depended upon, as to induce us to believe that a ship really had been at Teerawitte prior to my arrival in the Endeavour, as it corresponds with what I had formerly heard. For in the latter end of 1773, the second time I visited New Zealand, during my last voyage, when we were continually making enquiries about the Adventure, after our separation, some of the natives informed us of a ship’s having been in a port on the coast of Teerawitte. But, at that time, we thought we must have misunderstood them, and took no notice of the intelligence.
The arrival of this unknown ship has been marked by the New Zealanders with more cause of remembrance than the unhappy one just mentioned. Taweiharooa told us, their country was indebted to her people for the present of an animal, which they left behind them. But as he had not seen it himself, no sort of judgment could be formed, from his description, of what kind it was.
We had another piece of intelligence from him, more correctly given, though not confirmed by our own observations, that there are snakes and lizards there of an enormous size. He described the latter as being eight feet in length, and as big round as a man’s body. He said, they sometimes seize and devour men; that they burrow in the ground; and that they are killed by making fires at the mouths of the holes. We could not be mistaken as to the animal; for with his own hand he drew a very good representation of a lizard on a piece of paper; as also of a snake, in order to show what he meant.
Though much has been said, in the narratives of my two former voyages, about this country and its inhabitants, Mr. Anderson’s remarks, as serving either to confirm or to correct our former accounts, may not be superfluous. He had been three times with me in Queen Charlotte’s Sound, during my last voyage; and, after this fourth visit, what he thought proper to record, may be considered as the result of sufficient observation. The reader will find it in the next chapter; and I have nothing farther to add, before I quit New Zealand, but to give some account of the astronomical and nautical observations made during our stay there.
| The longitude of the Observatory in Ship Cove, by a mean of 103 sets of observations, each set consisting of six or more observed distances, was | 174° | 25ʹ | 15ʺ | east. |
| By the time-keeper, at Greenwich rate, it was | 175 | 26 | 30 | |
| By ditto, at the Cape rate, it was | 174 | 56 | 12 | |
| Variation of the compass, being the mean of six needles, observed on board the ship | 12 | 40 | 0 | east. |
| By the same needles on shore, it was | 13 | 53 | 0 | |
| The dip of the south end, observed on shore, was | 63 | 42 | 0 | |
By a mean of the results of eleven days observations, the time-keeper was too slow for mean time, on February 22. at noon, by 11h 50ʹ 37ʺ, 396; and she was found to be losing, on mean time, at the rate of 2ʺ, 913 per day. From this rate the longitude will be computed, till some other opportunity offers to ascertain her rate anew. The astronomical clock, with the same length of pendulum as at Greenwich, was found to be losing on sidereal time 40ʺ, 239 per day.
It will not be amiss to mention, that the longitude, by lunar observations, as above, differs only 6ʹ 45ʺ from what Mr. Wales made it during my last voyage; his being so much more to the W., or 174° 18ʹ 30ʺ.
The latitude of Ship Cove is 41° 6ʹ 0ʺ, as found by Mr. Wales.
CHAP. VIII.
MR. ANDERSON’S REMARKS ON THE COUNTRY NEAR QUEEN CHARLOTTE’S SOUND.—THE SOIL.—CLIMATE.—WEATHER.—WINDS.—TREES.—PLANTS.—BIRDS.—FISH.—OTHER ANIMALS.—OF THE INHABITANTS.—DESCRIPTION OF THEIR PERSONS.—THEIR DRESS.—ORNAMENTS.—HABITATIONS.—BOATS.—FOOD AND COOKERY.—ARTS.—WEAPONS.—CRUELTY TO PRISONERS.—VARIOUS CUSTOMS.—SPECIMEN OF THEIR LANGUAGE.