v 
224 
. side imperfectly glanced at by Tasman, 
more than a century previously, as we 
have just shown, it may be added, wholly 
unseen by European eyes. 
In the brief notice here proposed to be 
taken of the progress of geographical in- 
quiry, with which the investigation of 
Natural History appears to have gone hand- 
in-hand, on the coasts of New Zealand, as - 
well in Cook's, as during the subsequent 
visits of navigators to those islands, whilst 
on voyages of discovery, it may not be al- 
together uninteresting to the botanical 
reader, who occasionally looks at a ma 
and is desirous of observing what opportu- 
nities the accompanying Naturalists had 
affe sd aL. re 1 3 sah 4k 
> 
with the vegetable and other products of 
those islands, to join us, in first following 
Captain Cook in his original great voyage 
along those coasts; then noticing briefly 
the visits and results, as regards Botany, 
of subsequent voyagers on discovery, in the 
order (chronologically speaking) in which 
they were severally prosecuted. 
After a stay of three days in Poverty Bay 
(during which brief period he discovered 
its inhabitants were as fierce and savage as 
Tasman had found them on his transitory 
visit in 1642, on the opposite coast) Cook 
quitted the port, to which he gave a name 
descriptive of its inhospitable character, 
having no fresh water on its shores. Dur- 
ing the following week, he stood along- 
shore to the southward, but finding the 
land to continue in that direction, appa- 
rently without termination, he put about to 
explore the coast to the North. Passing 
the port he had left some days previously, 
he anchored his vessel in a bay called by 
the natives Tegadoo, and there the Natu- 
ralists added materially to their collections 
during the Commander's short stay, for the 
bay had nothing to recommend it, being 
very open, without fresh water, and afford- 
ing no shelter from the prevalent winds. 
A landing was also effected at Tolaga, im- 
mediately to the South of it (now better 
known as Howa-howa Bay) where several 
days were ied in examining the shores 
water being 
Gays 
and in filling their casks, good 
SPECIMEN OF THE BOTANY OF NEW ZEALAND. 
found convenient to the beach. Fre 
natives, however, Cook remarks, we 
nothing by barter but some fish anda 
sweet Potatoes (Convolvulus Ba 
Dogs and Rats were seen with the 
for the first time. The adjacent fore 
however, yielded many valuable tim 
fruit, upon being examined on board, 
ed, like several of the birds that were s 
in those primeval woods, quite new, 
of which, as Cook emphatically observe 
* none of us had the least knowledge. 
Among the stately trees, that imi 
ately on landing, arrested the attentiot 
our indefatigable Naturalists, was the noble 
Knightia excelsa, Br. There also, it 1 ay 
be remarked en passant, was first o í 
and cut down for the sake of the top, 
to the North, and on doubling what is now 
called Cape East, he crossed the Bay ol 
by the inhabitants, but which he suite 
quently named Mercury Bay, from than i 
cumstance of his having observed, on tts 
were gathered, and, notwithstanding 
hostility manifested by the natives towa | 
their visitors, much, information s pei 3 
lected, regarding the capabilities ir 
soil on that part of the coast. It may 4 
be observed, that on the sandy ems 
this bay Dr. Solander discovered s ii 
anthus puniceus, now an acclimatize 
habitant of our gardens. 
and as the Endeavour ran along shine 
natives were every where disting 
from the deck, on the beach. Four 
subsequent to the departure of our 
agers from Mercury Bay, they reac 
estuary of a large piece of water, 
