510 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



who, in 1769, landed for the first time in New Zealand at that bay 

 thought at first of bestowing another name. He soon changed his mind, 

 but the name that he first wrote down was " Endeavour Bay." " Cook's 

 Journal " is preserved in the handwriting of Orton, the ship's clerk, but 

 it was originally written by the captain on loose sheets. Most of these 

 have perished, but a few have been preserved, and are now in the Austra- 

 lian Museum, at Sydney. On the fifth page, or on the front side of the 

 thiid leaf, will be found the name that Cook first thought of giving, 

 though he changed his mind before he sent on the rougn draft to be 

 copied by the clerk. I only found this out a few days ago, and this is 

 the first time that I am publishing the fact. 



At my suggestion the editor of Toivn and Country repro- 

 duced the passage on the 4th May, 1901, Mr. Etheridge, the 

 Curator of the Australian Museum, kindly permitting. 



From Gisborne I went north and made a visit to Eotorua, 

 but the geysers did not play for me, nor were they soaped. 

 About a fortnight later, however, the papers were full of 

 descriptions of magnificent play. Perhaps I ought not to 

 have yielded to the temptation to visit the hot lakes, but to 

 have spent my time at Mercury Bay, and to have gone north- 

 ward in the '• Clansman." She starts every Monday, and 

 the only Monday that I could have gone on that expedition 

 to the Bay of Islands proved so stormy that I listened to the 

 advice that urged me to stay in Auckland, nor tempt the 

 stormy waves. I paid a visit to the Firth of Thames, and 

 obtained a general idea of the Coromandel Peninsula, but 

 the Town of Thames is more full of shares and poppet-heads 

 than of memories of Cook. 



Earlier in these notes it has been suggested that papers, 

 based on local knowledge, should be contributed to the Pro- 

 ceedings of the New Zealand Institute on the history of 

 Cook's visits to Mercury Bay and to the Bay of Islands. 

 Now, it is quite possible that work of this nature has been 

 already done, and published in local newspapers. If any 

 reader of these words can find any such essays, the help will 

 be gratefully received. 



In connection with Cook's visits to New Zealand hardly 

 anything is of more interest than the accounts preserved of 

 what the Maoii thought of their visitors. The difficulty in 

 dealing with the information lies in the careless manner in 

 which those who first met the survivors took down their 

 statements. "What the Maori said is often called " evidence." 

 Now, every one knows that in obtaining evidence much de- 

 pends on the questions put. Barristers are not allowed to 

 lead a witness — that is, to suggest to him the answer that 

 would be satisfactory. It will be as well to examine one or 

 two cases of this evidence. The most important is that of 

 Taniwha. 



In the " Long White Cloud," a book that gives an admir- 

 able conspectus of the story of New Zealand, a short account 



