1777- THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 219 



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 remem- 

 brance than the unhappy one just mentioned. Ta- 

 weiharooa 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 descrip- 

 tion, 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 bethought 

 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. 



