Smith. — Exploration of Tasman Bay. 427 



them singularly. Often they asked if we would not go and 

 kill and eat them, openly testifying the pleasure they would 

 •experience. They cultivated the potato, but had no pigs, which 

 they only knew of by name — pouaka [poaka]. For bed I gave 

 them a sail, in which they enveloped themselves, and slept well 

 in one of the boats. 



17th January. — At an early hour in the morning all the work 

 commenced at the same time. MM. Jacquinot and Lottin 

 went to establish their observatory on a little sandy beach 

 near where were found abandoned houses ; MM. Guilbert and 

 Dudemaine commenced the plan of Astrolabe Bay ; and a party 

 was sent to the woods. About 8 a.m. three canoes came along- 

 side, containing about forty persons. Two of these canoes 

 were those we had seen the previous evening ; the third con- 

 tained new faces. The savages brought this time only three 

 women, who remained hidden under some mats whilst the 

 canoes remained alongside, and who, on shore, fled into the 

 fern if one wished to approach them. These islanders remained 

 some time near the corvette, occupied in exchanging mats, 

 hemp of their country, and divers other objects for European 

 bagatelles. In general they manifested much gentleness and 

 good faith in their bargains, and one could only praise their 

 conduct. When they had finished they went to the beach 

 where was the observatory, hauling up their canoes, and esta- 

 blishing themselves in the adjacent huts [pi. xxxviii]. It was 

 very agreeable to me to see them fix themselves near us : nothing 

 could better demonstrate to us their confidence, and the sincerity 

 of their intentions ; but, thus placed under the range of our 

 cannon, the least outrage on their part could be followed by 

 a punishment prompt and severe. 



After I had assured myself of the pacific disposition of the 

 Natives, and having also otherwise prepared if they testified 

 differently, I went ashore at 9.30 a.m., followed by M. Lesson 

 and the sailor Simonet. I landed at the beach named in our 

 chart " the watering-place " [pi. xxxix]. The first thing I 

 remarked with joy was a pretty stream of water, very limpid, 

 that twisted and turned down through the sand to the sea, and 

 where our long-boat could, at high water, obtain all our water 

 with the greatest facility. 



The land around was very broken, mountainous, and difficult 

 to climb. At first I was struck with the role played in the vege- 

 tation of a climate so far distant from the line, by the ferns of all 

 descriptions, identical with those of the tropics, or, at least, 

 perfectly analogous. The ligneous and also the arborescent 

 species inhabit in crowds the humid ravines, whilst the slopes 

 are entirely occupied by that kind of which the root furnishes 



