CoLENSO. — On the Day in which Cook took possession of N.Z. 107 



continually (botli 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 Gsupe Turnagain, the people acknowledged 

 one chief whom they called Teratu." And again, " It is much to be 

 regi-etted 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 then' 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 case 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. 



2. 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 

 Em'ope ; 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 then- leaving the ]3lace he says, " to the bay which we had now 



