232 cook's SECOND VOYAGE OCT. 



At five o'clock in the morning of the 21st, we 

 made the land of New Zealand extending from N. W. 

 by N. to W. S. W. : at noon, Table Cape bore west, 

 distant eight or ten leagues. I was very desirous of 

 having some intercourse with the natives of this coun- 

 try as far to the north as possible ; that is, about Po- 

 verty or Tolaga Bays, where I apprehended they were 

 more civilized than at Queen Charlotte's Souud ; in 

 order to give them some hogs, fowls, seeds, roots, &c. 

 which I had provided for the purpose. The wind 

 veering to the N. W. and north, enabled us to fetch 

 in with the land a little to the north of Portland, and 

 we stood as near the shore as we could with safety. 

 We observed several people upon it, but none at- 

 tempted to come off to us. Seeing this, we bore 

 away under Portland, where we lay to some time, as 

 well to give time for the natives to come off* as to 

 wait for the Adventure. There were several people 

 on Portland, but none seemed inclined to come to 

 us ; indeed the wind, at this time, blew rather too 

 fresh for them to make the attempt. Therefore as 

 soon as the Adventure was up with us, we made sail 

 for Cape Kidnappers, which we passed at five o'clock 

 in the morning, and continued our course along-shore 

 till nine, when, being about three leagues short of 

 Black Head, we saw some canoes put off from the 

 shore. Upon this I brought to, in order to give them 

 time to come on board ; but ordered the Adventure, 

 by signal, to stand on, as I was willing to lose as 

 little time as possible. 



Those in the first canoe, which came along-side, 

 were fishers, and exchanged some fish for pieces of 

 cloth and nails. In the next, were two men, whom, 

 by their dress and behaviour, I took to be chiefs. 

 These two were easily prevailed on to come on board, 

 when they were presented with nails, and other arti- 

 cles. They were so fond of nails, as to seize on all 

 they could find, and with such eagerness, as plainly 

 showed they were the most valuable things we could 



