i8 HISTORICAL RECORD 



together with many cattle, sheep and other stock from England, 

 called in at Stewart Island — ^presumably at Port Pegasus — and stayed 

 for a period of three weeks. Apparently the 'Rosanna' also called 

 with immigrants. She then went on to Hokianga, where a settlement 

 was made, but Captain Herd and most of the settlers took fright 

 and sailed for Sydney, only four men remaining. 



In 1820 Major Cruise, who spent ten months in the north of 

 New Zealand, says: "The excellent plants left by Captain Cook" (in 

 Queen Charlotte Sound?) "viz., Cabbages, turnips, parsnips, carrots, 

 etc., etc., are still numerous, but very much degenerated; and a great 

 part of the country is over-run with cow-itch which the natives gave 

 Marion the credit of having left among them." (I do not know what 

 plant he refers to here.) "Water melons and peas were raised while 

 we were in the country, with great success, and the people promised 

 to save the seeds and sow them again. The missionaries have got 

 some peach trees that bear very well, and an acorn and a seed of an 

 orange were sown by a gentleman of the ship near Pomarrees village, 

 and the place rigidly tabooed by the inhabitants." Cruise also reports 

 that the natives (at Wy-ow Bay) brought a cat for them to cook and 

 eat, which he remarks must have come from the shipping at the Bay 

 of Islands or from the Coromandel. 



In 1832, d'Urville — who spent four months on the coast of the 

 South Island — ^found a gang of six men — sealers — ^working at Mason 

 Bay, Stewart Island. In his visit in 1840, he entered Port Pegasus 

 and learned that 20 English sailors had settled on the shores 

 of Foveaux Strait, where they had married native women. They 

 grew potatoes and various other vegetables, and reared fowls. They 

 told d'Urville that as many as 30 vessels anchored in Port Pegasus 

 annually. 



In this same year (1840) Major Bunbury in his report on the 

 proclamation of Stewart Island as Her Majesty's possession, says of 

 Paterson Inlet, "the Europeans there employ themselves at boat 

 building and in the culture of wheat and potatoes, with which they 

 supply the whalers, as also with pigs and poultry." 



Previous to this, Waikouaiti was one of the best known whaling 

 stations on the Otago coast. In 1838 this was purchased from its 

 Sydney owners by Mr John Jones, who two years later sent down 

 several families to engage in farming and cattle raising, and at the 

 end of 1840 the population of the settlement numbered about 100 

 persons. They had enclosed some 6000 acres of land, and had about 

 100 acres in crop; while the live stock numbered about 100 horses, 

 200 cattle, and 2000 sheep. 



In 1840 also a small settlement was made where Christchurch 



