16 HISTORICAL RECORD 



and the goat and perhaps of fowls ; and among plants, of the cabbage, 

 turnip and potato. Other attempts to naturalise plants mostly failed. 



Cook visited Queen Charlotte Sound again on his third and last 

 voyage to the Pacific, entering it on i2th February, 1777, and leaving 

 it on the 25th. There is no record of any attempts to introduce 

 further species, except the pigs and goats previously referred to. 



In 1791, Vancouver visited Dusky Sound, and Lieut. Menzies 

 reported that in the garden (made by Cook eight years previously) 

 there had grown up a dense covering of brushwood and fern, which 

 completely obliterated all sign of the old clearing, and only the fact 

 that its position was recorded and described enabled the spot to be 

 identified. 



In view of the struggle between indigenous and introduced plants 

 which exercised the minds of many eminent naturalists, and to which 

 reference is made in the writings of Hooker, Darwin, Wallace and 

 others, the record of further visits to Dusky Sound is interesting. 



The value of the seal and whale fisheries of Southern New- 

 Zealand soon drew enterprising sailors to these waters, and a whole- 

 sale destruction of these animals took place. Dusky Sound had been 

 charted by Cook, its harbour was not only safe, but it provided 

 abundance of fish, wood and water, hence it made a good rendezvous, 

 and the base of a good hunting ground. 



On 3rd November, 1792, the 'Britannia' from Sydney anchored 

 in Facile Harbour, Dusky Sound, and landed a party of twelve sealers, 

 with store of provisions, etc. These men were not relieved till 

 September, 1793, when the 'Britannia' revisited the spot, and took 

 them off. During the early part of the same year the Sound was 

 visited by the Spanish corvettes ' Descuvierta ' (commanded by Don 

 Alexandro Malaspina), and 'Atrevida' (Don Jose Bustamente). I do 

 not know how long they stayed. 



Captain Raven of the ' Britannia ' in reporting from Norfolk Island 

 on 2nd November, 1793, says : " The animals I left had fed themselves 

 on what they found in the woods, and were exceedingly fat and 

 prolific" It would be interesting to know what animals these were, 

 and whether any had gone wild, or had been left, or if they were all 

 carried away again. Unfortunately we have no information on the 

 subject. 



On i9th September, 1795, the 'Endeavour,' Captain Bampton, 

 of 800 tons, and the brig 'Fancy' of 150 tons, sailed from Sydney 

 for India, and called in at Dusky Sound perhaps to load some spars. 

 They had no less than 244 people on board the two ships. There 

 they found a small vessel, which the twelve men left by the ' Britannia ' 

 had built during their ten months' stay in the Sound, but which they 



