242 COOK S FIRST VOYAGE NOV. 



soon as they saw us, thronged to the banks, and in- 

 vited us on shore. We accepted the invitation, and 

 made them a visit notwithstanding the mud. They 

 received us with open arms, having heard of us from 

 our good old friend Toiava ; but our stay could not 

 be long, as we had other objects of curiosity in view. 

 We proceeded up the river till near noon, when we 

 were fourteen miles within its entrance ; and then, 

 finding the face of the country to continue nearly 

 the same, without any alteration in the course of the 

 stream, which we had no hope of tracing to its 

 source, we landed on the west side, to take a view 

 of the lofty trees which every where adorned its 

 banks. They were of a kind that we had seen before, 

 though only at a distance, both in Poverty Bay and 

 Hawke's Bay. Before we had walked an hundred 

 yards into the wood, we met with one of them which 

 was nineteen feet eight inches in the girt, at the 

 height of six feet above the ground : having a quad- 

 rant with me, I measured its height from the root to 

 the first branch, and found it to be eighty-nine feet : 

 it was as straight as an arrow, and tapered but very 

 little in proportion to its height; so that I judged 

 there were three hundred and fifty-six feet of solid 

 timber in it, exclusive of the branches. As we ad- 

 vanced, we saw many others that were still larger ; 

 we cut down a young one, and the wood proved 

 heavy and solid, not fit for masts, but such as would 

 make the finest plank in the world. Our carpenter, 

 who w^as with us, said that the timber resembled that 

 of the pitch-pine, which is lightened by tapping ; and 

 possibly some such method might be found to lighten 

 these, and they would then be such masts as no 

 country in Europe can produce. As the wood was 

 swampy, we could not range far; but we found 

 many stout trees of other kinds, all of them utterly 

 unknown to us, specimens of which we brought 

 away. 



The river at this height is as broad as the Thames 



