34 MAMMALIA 



Forster, in his Journal (vol. I, p. 221), says "they were turned into 

 the woods to range at their own pleasure." In the following year, 

 October, 1774, he says (vol. n, p. 467): 



We took the opportunity to visit the innermost recesses of West Bay, 

 in order to be convinced, if possible, whether there was any probability 

 that the hogs, brought thither about a year before, would ever stock those 

 wild woods with numerous breeds. We came to the spot where we had left 

 them, but saw not the least vestiges of their having been on the beach, 

 nor did it appear that any of the natives had visited this remote place; 

 from whence we had room to hope, that the animals had retreated into 

 the thickest part of the woods. 



On 2nd November when off Cape Kidnappers Cook gave some pigs 

 to natives who came in their canoe. 



On his third voyage, he gave a boar and sow to a native 

 chief (?) in February, 1777, and they made him a promise not to 

 kill them. He adds: "The animals which Captain Furneaux sent on 

 shore here, and which soon after fell into the hands of the natives, 

 I was now told were all dead." I think, however, that this refers 

 chiefly to the goats, for he says: "I was afterwards informed by the 

 two youths who went away with us, that Tiratou, a popular chief 

 amongst them, had one of the sows in his possession." There is little 

 doubt that the wild pigs of the South Island, "Captain Cooks" as 

 they came to be called, were the progeny of those originally left at 

 Cannibal Cove, though Cook himself says in 1777: "I could get no 

 intelligence about the fate of those I had left in West Bay and in 

 Cannibal Cove, when I was here in the course of my last voyage." 

 They have in later years had their numbers added to, and their breed 

 modified by pigs which escaped from settlers, but the type remained 

 dominant, and is still found in most wild parts of the country in 

 great abundance. 



Dieffenbach (in 1839) states that "the natives had come from 

 Cannibal Cove to catch pigs, which overrun the island" of Motuaru. 



The North Island wild pigs, which are also abundant in nearly 

 all wild country from Cook Strait to North Cape, are largely the 

 progeny of animals given to the natives in later years. Governor 

 King (of New South Wales), during his visit to New Zealand, 

 in 1793, gave the natives at the Bay of Islands, ten young 

 sows and two boars. Dieffenbach states that these animals were 

 mistaken by them for horses, they having some vague recollection 

 of those which they had seen on board Captain Cook's vessels. They 

 forthwith rode two of them to death; and a third was killed for 

 having entered a burying-ground. A very old man, who had known 

 Captain King, related this singular story to me. The introduction 



