118 Transactions.—Miscellaneous. 
been expected, considering what they had suffered in the late skirmish ! 
Have we not reason to conclude that their dispositions are very flexible, and 
that resentment with them is a short-lived passion ?” 
On their voyage south from the islands we have these entries :— 
‘“ August 27th. We killed a dog and dressed him, which we brought on 
the 8th from Ulietea (Raiatea); he was excessively fat, although he had 
eaten nothing while he had been on board. On the evening of the next 
day, 28th, John Raden, the boatswain's mate, died. His death was occa- 
sioned by drinking too freely of rum the night before.— September 29th. 
Saw several parcels of sea-weed, and a land-bird that flew like a plover;: 
with a great number of large white albatrosses with the tips of their wings 
black. We sounded and found no bottom with 120 fathoms of line. The 
captain apprehended that we were near land, and promised one gallon 
of rum to the man who should first discover it by day, aud two if 
he discovered it by night; also, that part of the coast of the said 
land should be named after him. On the 1st of October the weather 
was fair but very cold, and almost calm. We saw a sealasleep upon the 
surface of the water, which had, at first, the appearance of a log of 
wood; we put the ship about to take it up, but it waked and dived out of 
sight. The master was sent in quest of a current but could find none; we 
having gone ten leagues farther to the north than what appeared in the log 
account. Though we had been so long out at sea in a distant part of the 
world, we had a roasted leg of mutton and French beans for dinner, and the 
fare of Old England afforded us a grateful repast. On the 2nd the sea was 
as smooth as the Thames. Mr. Banks went out in a little boat, and 
diverted himself in shooting of shearwaters; he also shot one white 
albatros that measured 10-7 feet; the water looked as green as it does in 
the Channel. On the 4th a great shoal of bottle-nosed porpoises swam 
alongside of the ship, with a great number of other porpoises having sharp 
white snouts, and their sides and bellies of the same colour. On the 5th 
we had light breezes from the N.E. and pleasant weather; about two o'clock 
in the afternoon, one of our people, Nicholas Young, the surgeon's boy, 
descried a point of land of New Zealand from the starboard bow, at about nine 
leagues distance, bearing W. and by N. We bore up to it, and at sunset we 
had a good view ofit. The land was high, and it appeared like an island. We 
regaled ourselves in the evening upon the occasion ; the land was called 
* Young Niek's Head,' and the boy received his reward. The sea on this 
coast was full of a small transparent animal, which, upon examination, we 
called Beroe coaretata. On the 8th we had light breezes and dead calms all 
day, and could not get in nearer the land than two or three leagues: but it 
appeared at this distance to be of considerable extent. We saw smoke 
