CorExs0.— Notes on the ancient Dog of the New Zealanders. 147 
was considered to be greatly inferior to those of the same breed they had seen 
in the other isles of the South Sea. It is not at all unlikely that this 
variety had degenerated through successive breeding-in-and-in,* and want 
of proper food. And it does not seem to have been eaten by our early 
voyagers, as the dogs of the other islands were, although, for want of fresh 
provisions, they serupled not to eat rats and other ‘small gear.” It is true 
that we have in their journals especial mention of four dogs having been 
killed for food at different times on board of their ship after leaving New 
Zealand; but all these it seems were obtained from other places. The dog 
on which the officers made such a feast when near the Traps off the South 
Cape of New Zealand, during their first voyage, and shortly after leaving 
this country, had been “bred on board." The dog which was killed on 
board for food in June, 1778, during their second voyage and soon after 
their leaving Cook Straits for Tahiti, was of the ** Dutch " breed; + and 
very likely brought with them from the Cape of Good Hope. Again, after 
leaving New Zealand the third time on discovery, the dog which was killed 
on board when near Easter Island, to save Captain Cook's life, was an old 
ship dog, of which circumstance Captain Cook himself says,—‘‘ I was now 
taken violently ill so as to be confined to my bed, and it was several days 
before the most dangerous symptoms of my disorder were removed. * * 
When I began to recover, a favourite dog of Mr. Forster fell a sacrifice to 
my tender stomach. We had no other fresh meat whatever on board ; and 
I could eat of this flesh, as well as broth made of it, when I could taste 
nothing else. Thus I received nourishment and strength from food which 
would have made most people in Europe sick, so true it is that necessity is 
governed by no law." And about a month after, when on their run from 
Easter Island to the Marquesas, another dog, which was also killed on 
board under similar cireumstances, was from the Friendly Islands the year 
before. Of this dog G. Forster writes :—‘‘ Captain Cook himself was obliged 
* Norze.—To a superficial observer such must have been much the same in the 
tropical islands, but there is this great difference, viz., the New Zealanders were, from 
the earliest times, split up into small tribes, who were ever at deadly enmity; hence the 
eircle of breeding a strictly domestie animal must have been very contracted and limited : 
it was not so in the islands, which were under kingly rule. 
; t For this I am indebted to Dr. Sparrman, whose entry in his Journal is so highly 
characteristic, that I copy it. He says,—*' On the 7th June we sailed from New Zealand. 
TC TN we had been at sea a few days we resolved upon killing a fat, though ugly 
Dutch dog, before the scurvy, together with the short commons ofthe ship, should render 
his flesh unfit for eating. Already used in our run between the Cape and New Zealand 
to put up with sheep that had died of the scurvy or other disorders, diseased hens and 
geese, we certainly were not now in a condition to turn up our noses at a roasted dog, 
which was really very palatable and well tasted." Sparrman’s Voyage, 4to., London, 
1786, p. 88. 
