1840.] NEW ZEALAND. 291 



The rock of Gibraltar, occupied by the soldiery of England, 

 like the Acropolis of Corinth, throws its shadow over two 

 seas ;* and the banner of St. George, waving in sullen maj- 

 esty over the rock of St. Helena, is seen far out in the Atlantic. 



(2.) One of the most recent acquisitions of the British 

 government, is New Zen land, which consists of a group of 

 two large and several smaller islands in the Southern Pacific 

 ocean, lying between the parallels of 35° and 47° of southern 

 latitude, and 166° and 179°, east longitude. Tasman, in 

 1642, was the first discoverer of New Zealand, but he ob- 

 tained very little information in regard to its extent and char- 

 acter. Captain Cook, however, made two voyages hither, 

 in 1769 and 1774 ; his examinations of the islands and the 

 neighboring waters were carefully and critically made, and 

 the real merit of the discovery may, therefore, with much 

 justice, be claimed for him. At any rate, its substantial ad- 

 vantages have, after some delay, accrued to the government 

 by which he was commissioned. 



It is mentioned as a singular fact, that the natives had no 

 name originally for either of the islands, or for any part of the 

 country. Cook and d'Urville were evidently ignorant of this, 

 and gave them appellations which they had heard among the 

 natives, and supposed to be applied to the islands. Until the 

 English occupation, the two larger islands, however, were gen- 

 erally designated among sailors and whalemen, as the North, 

 and the South Islands ; and the small island, still further south, 

 was called Stewart's Island, after the master of an English ves- 

 sel, who assisted the natives of the northern island in a bloody 

 foray among the inhabitants of South Island. The present 

 masters of the group have latterly provided names for their 

 new acquisitions. North Island is now called New Ulster ; the 

 middle, or South Island, New Munster ; and Stewart's Island, 

 New Leinster. New Ulster is the widest of the two prin- 

 cipal islands, being about three hundred miles in its greatest 



" Qua summas caput Acrocorinthos in auras 

 Tollit, et alterna. geminum mare protegit umbra." 



P. Statius, Thebaid., lib. vii. 



