1777- THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 209 



of those I had left in West Bay, and in Cannibal 

 Cove, when I was here in the course of my last 

 voyage. However, all the natives whom I con- 

 versed with agreed, that poultry are now to be met 

 with wild in the woods behind Ship Cove ; and I was 

 afterward informed, by the two youths who went 

 away with us, that Tiratou, a popular chief amongst 

 them, had a great many cocks and hens in his se- 

 parate possession, and one of the sows. 



On my present arrival at this place, I fully intended 

 to have left not only goats and hogs, but sheep, and 

 a young bull, with two heifers, if I could have found 

 either a chief powerful enough to protect and keep 

 them, or a place where there might be a probability 

 of their being concealed from those who would igno- 

 rantly attempt to destroy them. But neither the 

 one nor the other presented itself to me. Tiratou 

 was now absent ; and Tringoboohee, whom I had 

 met with during my last voyage *, and who seemed 

 to be a person of much consequence at that time, 

 had been killed five months ago, with about seventy 

 persons of his tribe ; and I could not learn that 

 there now remained in our neighbourhood any tribe, 

 whose numbers could secure to them a superiority of 

 power over the rest of their countrymen. To have 

 given the animals to any of the natives who pos- 

 sessed no such power, would not have answered the 

 intention. For, in a country like this, where no 

 man's property is secure, they would soon have fallen 

 a prey to different parties, and been either separ- 

 ated or killed ; but most likely both. This was so 

 evident, from what we had observed since our ar- 

 rival, that I had resolved to leave no kind of animal, 

 till Matahouah and the other chief solicited me for 

 the hogs and goats. As I could spare them, I let 

 them go, to take their chance. I have, at different 

 times, left in New Zealand no less than ten or a 



* See Vol. IV. p. 144. 

 VOL. V. P 



