Notwithstanding the divided and hostile state in which the New Zealanders live, travelling strangers, who come with no ill design, are well received and entertained during their stay; which, however, it is expected will be no longer than is requisite to transact the business they come upon. Thus it is that a trade for poenammoo, or green talc, is carried on throughout the whole northern island. For they tell us, that there is none of this stone to be found but at a place which bears its name, somewhere about the head of Queen Charlotte's Sound, and not above one or two days journey, at most, from the station of our ships. I regretted much that I could not spare time sufficient for paying a visit to the place; as we were told a hundred fabulous stories about this stone, not one of which carried with it the least probability of truth, though some of their most sensible men would have us believe them. One of these stories is, that this stone is originally a fish, which they strike with a gig in the water, tie a rope to it, and drag it to the shore, to which they fasten it, and it afterwards becomes stone. As they all agree that it is fished out of a large lake, or collection of waters, the most probable conjecture is, that it is brought from the mountains, and deposited in the water by the torrents. This lake is called by the natives Tavai Poenammoo, that is, the Water of Green Talc; and it is only the adjoining part of the country, and not the whole southern island of New Zealand, that is known to them by the name which hath been given to it on my chart.
Polygamy is allowed amongst these people; and it is not uncommon for a man to have two or three wives. The women are marriageable at a very early age; and it should seem, that one who is unmarried, is but in a forlorn state. She can with difficulty get a subsistence; at least she is, in a great measure, without a protector, though in constant want of a powerful one.
The New Zealanders seem to be a people perfectly satisfied with the little knowledge they are masters of, without attempting, in the least, to improve it. Nor are they remarkably curious, either in their observations or their enquiries. New objects do not strike them with such a degree of surprise as one would naturally expect; nor do they even fix their attention for a moment. Omai, indeed, who was a great favourite with them, would sometimes attract a circle about him; but they seemed to listen to his speeches like persons who neither understood, nor wished to understand, what they heard.
One day, on our enquiring of Taweiharooa, how many ships, such as ours, had ever arrived in Queen Charlotte's Sound, or in any part of its neighbourhood? he began with giving an account of one absolutely unknown to us. This, he said, had put into a port on the N.W. coast of Teerawitte, but a very few years before I arrived in the Sound in the Endeavour, which the New Zealanders distinguish by calling it Tupia's ship. At first, I thought he might have been mistaken as to the time and place; and that the ship in question might be either Monsieur Surville's, who is said to have touched upon the N.E. coast of Eaheinomauwe, the same year I was there in the Endeavour; or else Monsieur Marion du Fresne's, who was in the Bay of Islands, on the same coast, a few years after. But he assured us that he was not mistaken, either as to the time, or as to the place of this ship's arrival, and that it was well known to every body about Queen Charlotte's Sound and Teerawitte. He said, that the captain of her, during his stay here, cohabited with a woman of the country; and that she had a son by him still living, about the age of Kokoa, who, though not born then, seemed to be equally well acquainted with the story. We were also informed by Taweiharooa, that this ship first introduced the venereal disease amongst the New Zealanders. I wish that subsequent visitors from Europe may not have their share of guilt in leaving so dreadful a remembrance of them amongst this unhappy race. The disorder now is but too common here, though they do not seem to regard it, saying, that its effects are not near so pernicious at present as they were at its first appearance. The only method, as far as I ever heard, that they make use of as a remedy, is by giving the patient the use of a sort of hot bath, which they produce by the steam of certain green plants laid over hot stones.
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 eyewitnesses. 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 late 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 this 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 causes 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 shew what he meant.[146]
[Footnote 146: There can be little doubt that the animal here called a lizard is an alligator.--E.]
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 to 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 section; 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° 25' 15" E.
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 E.
By the same needles on shore, it was 13 53 0
The dip of the south end, observed on
shore was 63 42 0