118 Tra7isaGtions. — 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-Hved loassion ?" 



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 (Eaiatea) ; he was excessively fat, although he had 

 eaten nothing while he had been on board. On the evening of the next 

 day, 28th, John Eaden, 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 flow 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 Hne. The 

 captain apprehended that we were near land, and promised one gallon 

 of rum to the man who should first discover it by day, and 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 seal asleep 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 cm-rent 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 ■Ith a great shoal of bottle-nosed porpoises swam 

 alongside of the ship, with a great number of other porpoises having sharp 

 white snouts, and thek sides and bellies of the same colour. On the 5th 

 we had light breezes from the N.E. and j)leasant weather ; about two o'clock 

 in the afternoon, one of ovx people, Nicholas Young, the surgeon's boy, 

 descried a point of land of New Zealand from the starboard bow, ataboutnine 

 leagues distance, bearing W. and by N. We bore u^d to it, and at sunset we 

 'had a good view of it. The land was high, and it appeared like an island. We 

 regaled ourselves in the evening upon the occasion ; the land was called 

 * Young Nick'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 



