Cotznso.—On the Day in which Cook took possession of N.Z. 107 
continually (both when on shore at the various places where he had landed, 
and from the very many canoes, which, during his coasting voyage S. and 
N., came alongside) of a great chief or king named Teratu; this he mentions 
several times, and seems to have been in great expectation of meeting with 
him. When nearing Mercury Bay (having passed the island which he 
named the Mayor and the Court of Aldermen), he says :—‘‘ As far as we 
had yet coasted this country from Cape Turnagain, the people acknowledged 
one chief whom they called Teratu." And again, ‘It is much to be 
regretted that we were obliged to leave this country without knowing 
anything of Teratu but his name. As an Indian monarch, his territory is 
certainly extensive: he was acknowledged from Cape Kidnappers to the 
northward and westward as far as the Bay of Plenty, a length of coast 
upwards of 80 leagues, and we do not yet know how much farther westward 
his dominions may extend. Possibly the fortified towns which we saw in 
the Bay of Plenty may be his barrier; especially as at Mercury Bay he was 
not acknowledged, nor indeed any other single chief.” 
But after landing in Mercury Bay and obtaining friendly intercourse 
with the natives residing there, Cook says:—''It was also discovered that 
the natives of Mercury Bay acknowledged neither Teratu nor any other 
person as their king ; as in this particular they differed from all the people 
that we had seen upon other parts of the coast, we thought it possible that 
they might be a set of outlaws in a state of rebellion against Teratu, and in 
that ease they might have no settled habitations or cultivated land in any 
part of the country." 
Hence he might have done it through supposing he was now in another 
king's territory ; but I do not believe this. At the same time it should not 
be forgotten that Captain Cook came direct to New Zealand from the Society 
Isles and other Polynesian islands where he had seen all the inhabitants 
living under kings; of whose immense power over their people he had also 
seen a great deal. 
9. One of Captain Cook's principal instructions from the British 
Government was,—to observe the transit of Venus in the South Seas ; and 
for this purpose he was accompanied by Mr. Green, the astronomer. This 
was a matter eagerly looked forward to by all the leading scientific men of 
Europe; and Captain Cook in carrying it out was highly fortunate. So 
again at Mercury Bay, where he stayed some days to observe the transit of 
Mercury; here he was again “in luck," as the sailors say ;—he was in a 
good situation, with plenty of leisure and skilled assistants, free from 
annoyance from natives, and, as before, favoured with delightfully fine - 
weather, for we read, **not a cloud intervened during the whole transit !” 
On the day of their leaving the place he says, “ to the bay which we had now 
