f) 
fables j but that they lay at such a distance from this coast as to 
render them invisible; yet my eye searched inquiringly after them, 
and I felt quite disappointed that not even the last trace of them 
was to be descried. 
However, I always felt so, whenever I first set foot on a 
land, about which I had read a great deal; and every tra- 
veller, I think, will experience the same. The reality of the spot 
which he first steps upon in a new country, never corresponds 
with the picture created by the imagination. After a long voyage 
he approaches the new coast with a feeling of impatience and 
utmost curiosity in the full belief of finding all that is attractive 
and remarkable collected on the very spot he happens first to set 
foot on , ready and waiting for him , who lias come so far over 
the waters to see, with his own eyes, all he had read and heard 
of. But as it is with the traveller, who would like to see and 
experience at once all on one and the same spot, so it is, on the 
other hand, with others in regard to the traveller. He, in his turn, 
is expected to have seen all and every thing, to have experienced 
and passed through every thing, especially if he happens to be a 
so-called “circumnavigator.” And if he moreover should happen 
to have just visited the gold-fields of Australia, — why, nothing 
seems more natural than that he should have brought home with 
him all his pockets and coffers stuffed' with gold dust. It is the 
imagination which ever speculates, brings the most distant objects 
near , and would fain comprise all in one grasp. 
Should my friends in Auckland require any further apology 
after this my candid avowal , that the impression made on me on 
the 22 d of December 1858, on my first viewing the scenery of that 
country, did not realise the grand picture my imagination had 
drawn of New Zealand, I can only assure them, that as Auckland 
and New Zealand live in my memory at present, all my former 
expectations and anticipations have been surpassed by far, and should 
I live to be permitted a second view of that panorama, and to 
greet once more the Rangitoto, my heart would leap for joy. 
On a nearer approach we could perceive , that the signal had 
