CoLENSO. — On a Bemnrkahle Cavern at Tolaga Bay. 149 



with the natives : — ' he was often in the habit of doing so during the heats 

 of the day with his native friends, as is the wont of the New Zealanders,' 

 said my conductor ; — ' Tupaea was a great favourite with our fathers, so 

 much so, that to gratify him, several children who were born in the village, 

 during his sojom'n among us, were named after him.'* A few yards in 

 front of the cave is a small hole that was dug in the granite {sic) rock, by 

 order of Cook, for receiving from a small spring the fluid that unceasingly 

 flows into it. The marks of the pick-axe are as visible, at the present day, 

 as at the period it was excavated under Cook's eye. The water had over- 

 flowed this useful little memorial of our illustrious countryman, was pellucid 

 and very cold. The sun had not penetrated this sequestered spot for many 

 years, from the umbrageous kahikatoa and other trees that surround it. 



"Around the surface of the cavern are many native dehneations, executed 

 with charcoal, of ships, canoes sailing, men and women, dogs and pigs, etc., 

 drawn with tolerable accuracy. Above our reach, and evidently faded by 

 time, was the representation of a ship and some boats, which were unani- 

 mously pointed out to me, by all present, as the productions of the faithful 

 Tahitian follower of Cook, (Tupaea). This, also, had evidently been done 

 with similar materials. This cavern is made use of as a native resting place 

 for the night, as the villages of Uawa are at some considerable distance 

 from Opoutama ; it is mostly in request by parties fishing for the Koura 

 (crawfish) and other fish, which abound in all these bays." 



Mr. Locke visited the cavern and inspected it, and found that while it 

 bore ample marks of old "delineations" such were so worn and defaced by 

 the incessant action of the elements, and also so high over head, as to be 

 scarcely discernible. The traditions, however, of the Maoris, respecting 

 them and the place, were quite in keeping with Polack's relation. The 

 perennial spring was still there, and bore its old and never-to-be-forgotten 

 name of " Te ivai hari a Tupaea" (the well dug by Tupaea). f 



Mr. Locke also brought me a branch of the said single tree, which at the. 

 time of his visit was unfortunately neither in flower nor fruit. However, it 

 was sufiicient for me to identify it as being Sapota costata, a tree which 

 I had first noticed in flower at Whangarei Bay, in 1836, and in fruit at 

 Whangaruru Bay, further north, in 1841. It had been also found by Mr. E. 

 Cunningham, still further north, in 1834, on the shores opposite the Cavalhos 

 Islands, between the Bay of Islands and Whangaroa, and it has since been 

 also found at Kawau, and on some other of the islets in the Frith of the 



* On my arrival in New Zealand I found several natives bearing his name, mostly on 

 the East Coast. 



+ A further proof of the term by which Cook and his first visit to New Zealand was 

 everywhere known, Vide Trans, N, Z. Inst., Vol. XI., p. 108, 



