HISTORICAL REVIEW OF NEW ZEALAND. 



989 



islands, and was not part of a Great Southern Continent which, in the imagination of 

 geographers, stretched across the South Pacific and extended over some thirty degrees 

 of latitude. Men engaged in commerce became impressed with the value of the various 

 articles which New Zealand produced, and hence of its importance as a market for 

 manufactured goods ; while the savant and the scientist regarded with great interest the 

 information recently published respecting a race of people who, while having a real 

 though hitherto undescribed form of civilization, were yet greedy eaters of human flesh. 

 Cook's various visits to New Zealand extended from the 6th of October, 1769, to 



DUSKY SOUND, MIDDLE ISLAND. 



the 25th of February, 1777. Jn the second voyage in the Resolution, Captain Furneaux, 

 of the Ad-ccnturc, was associated with him, and lost in Cook Strait nine men, who 

 were killed and eaten. Pigs, potatoes, and garden seeds were the memorials of Cook's 

 visits among ;i race which possessed a land void of all quadrupeds, save dogs and rats. 



Going north in his first voyage, after leaving the Bay of Islands, Cook named 

 Rangungu " Doubtless Bay." He crossed its waters on the same day that De Surville, 

 in the St. Jean Baptiste, was approaching the land at Mongonui. This early navigator 

 shared the belief that the English had found an island of gold in the South Seas, and 

 came from India to see if he could participate in the golden discovery. He was 

 received by the natives with great hospitality ; but finding nothing more valuable than 

 spars for his ship, he proceeded to South America, carrying away in irons the Rarawa 

 chief Ngakinui, who had entertained him and his sick seamen with great hospitality 

 while on shore. Ngakinui pined on ship-board for his native food, and died some 



