CHAPTEE X 



GENERAL ACCOUNT OF NEW ZEALAND 



Its discovery by Tasman Mountains Harbours Cultivation Trees Suita- 

 bility of Thames River for colonisation Climate Absence of native 

 quadrupeds Birds Insects Fish Plants Native and introduced 

 vegetables Absence of fruits New Zealand flax Population Qualities 

 of the natives Tattowing and painting Dress Head-dresses Ear- and 

 nose-ornaments Houses Food Cannibalism amongst men Freedom 

 from disease Canoes Carving Tools Cloth fabrics Nets Tillage 

 Weapons Spontoons War and other songs Human trophies Heppahs 

 Chiefs Religion Burial Language. 



As we intend to leave this place to-morrow, I shall spend 

 a few sheets in drawing together what I have observed of 

 the country and of its inhabitants, premising that in this, 

 and in all other descriptions of the same kind which may 

 occur in this journal, I shall give myself liberty to conjecture, 

 and draw conclusions from what I have observed. In these 

 I may doubtless be mistaken ; in the daily Journal, however, 

 the observations may be seen, and any one who refers to 

 that may draw his own conclusions from them, attending as 

 little as he pleases to any of mine. 



This country was first discovered by Abel Jansen Tasman 

 on the 13th of December 1642, and called by him New 

 Zealand. He, however, never went ashore on it, probably 

 from fear of the natives, who, when he had come to an 

 anchor, set upon one of his boats and killed three or four 

 out of the seven people in her. 



Tasman certainly was an able navigator ; he sailed into 

 the mouth of Cook's Straits, and finding himself surrounded, to 

 all appearance, by land, observed the flood tide to come from 



