150 Transactions. 



tunate subjects. The offence alleged was that two Roman 

 Catholic priests who had landed, desirous of promulgating their 

 faith, were forbidden to remain, and, refusing to leave, were 

 gently if forcibly removed. A full account of this peculiar 

 transaction, which finally ended in the cession of Tahiti to 

 France in 1843, is given in " Polynesian Reminiscences " by 

 Mr. Pritchard, the British Consul at Samoa and Fiji. As with 

 the other voyages published by the French Government, that 

 of the " Venus " is magnificently produced. Three hundred 

 and fifty pages relate to New Zealand, the Natives, Bishop 

 Pompallier's mission, the Rev. Dr. Lang's ' Letters to the 

 Earl of Durham " regarding New Zealand, and to Baron de 

 Thierry, who was so curiously connected with the early history 

 of New Zealand, and of whom many pages might be written. 

 In the folio atlas is a view of a Native village, an excellent chart 

 of the Bay of Islands, and other illustrations. 



In March and April of 1840 the intrepid D'Urville paid 

 his third visit to New Zealand, whilst in command of another 

 voyage of discovery round the world and towards the South Pole. 

 One of the vessels of the expedition was his old corvette the 

 " Astrolabe," the other the " Zelee." An additional feature 

 of interest to us in connection with this visit is that New Zea- 

 land had become a British colony two months before, so that 

 no longer might France covet its possession. The Treaty of 

 Waitangi was signed, Captain Hobson was in supreme command, 

 and •the infant settlement was full of speculation and excite- 

 ment. All this is well described by D'Urville, who is unsparing 

 in his criticism of these events. His first stay, however, was at 

 the Auckland Islands, at that time full of the bustle and activity 

 of whaling and sealing parties, and he relates something of 

 this wild life and adventure. Brought up by a wall of ice, his 

 efforts to reach the South Pole abruptly terminated after reach- 

 ing the latitude of 64° S. Returning slowly north, and roughly 

 surveying the coast past Stewart Island, the Molyneux, and 

 Cape Saunders, off which he was nearly wrecked, he sailed 

 inside the Otago Heads, then a whaling settlement belonging 

 to the brothers Weller, of Sydney. The description of the 

 scenes around him is not cheering. The Natives especially in- 

 spired him with disgust — so different from those whom he had 

 seen on his previous voyage in 1828. Contact with the whalers 

 had ruined them. No longer were they the proud and haughty 

 savage warriors : they were like impudent mendicants, dressed in 

 filthy rags, their hovels miserable and poisonous, with a little 

 straw on the ground for bedding. Old Taiaroa is specially 

 singled out for description. The whole settlement appears 

 to have been of the most debased kind ; but it is not necessary 



