PREFACE. 



to Other nations. The author, however, did not 

 know that Krusenstiern had visited and named these 

 Islands, till his Journal was published. 



But did not Captain Coc^k not only name, but 

 take formal possession of the discoveries of other 

 nations ? 



" Having fixed the post firmly in the ground, he 

 (Captain Cook,) hoisted upon it the Union Flag, 

 and honoured the Inlet with the name of Queen 

 Charlotte's Sound. At the same time, he took for- 

 mal possession of this and the adjacent country, in 

 the name and for the use of his majesty, king 

 George the Third."* This, the reader will be 

 pleased to understand, was part of New Zealand, 

 first discovered by Tasman, and at the moment of 

 taking possession, inhabited by numerous nations, 

 unconquered by his Britannic majesty, or any body 

 else. What renders this solemnity still more whim- 

 sical, Cook knew all this perfectly well, for he 

 states expressly, that New Zealand was first disco- 

 vered by Abel Jansen Tasman, in 1642. The 

 reader is referred to Dr. Kippis, pp. 258, 251, 289, 

 345, 348, 354, 403, 416, for similar examples of 

 giving nicknames" to the discoveries of others. 

 He is also requested, to task his ingenuity, for a 

 philosophical reason, why the naming and taking 

 formal possession of an Island which Captain Por- 

 ter actually then held, and which was discovered by 

 one of his countrymen, is more ridiculous than the 

 naming and taking possession of New Zealand, dis- 

 covered by a Dutchman, and still in possession of 

 its original inhabitants, by an Englishman ? 



The accuracy of Capt. Porter's account of the 

 island of Nooaheevah, his description of the beauty 

 of the women, the valour of the men, their houses, 



Kippis' Life of Cook, p. 88. 



