206 
HISTORY. 
trumpet, they were of a color between brown and yellow, their 
hair was long, and almost as thick as that of the Japanese, 
combed up and fixed with a quill, or some such thing, in the 
very same manner that the Japanese fastened their hair behind 
their heads. On the 19th of December they killed three of his 
men ; he gave the place the name of Murderer’s Bay. 
On the 4th of January 164-3, he sighted the North-West 
Cape and the Three Kings; to the former of which he gave 
the name of Maria Van Dieman, in honor of the daughter of 
the Governor of Batavia; and afterwards to his discovery was 
given the name of New Zealand, from that of his own coun¬ 
try. Tasman, however, was not aware of its being islands ; he 
supposed that it formed a portion of the Great Terra Australis 
Incognita, and therefore he called it Staten Land. 
In 1769 and 1777, Cook visited New Zealand during his 
circumnavigations of the world : he surveyed the coasts of both 
islands, with such accuracy, that substantially the charts still 
used are his; he first discovered the straits which separate the 
two largest islands, to which his own name was affixed. He 
took possession of them for England, and so high was the 
opinion which he formed of their fertility and importance, 
that he suggested their immediate colonization; and in 1788 
the question was agitated in Parliament, whether New South 
Wales or New Zealand should be made a penal settlement. 
It is also remarkable that that clear-sighted and observing 
man, recommended the spot which Auckland now occupies, 
as the most suitable locality for the capital. Between the 
visits of Cook, the massacre of Captain Furneaux’s crew in 
the Bay of Islands, together with that of the Mascarin, com¬ 
manded by Marion du Fresne, took place, which appears to 
have been occasioned by their own injudicious conduct. 
Every recollection of Cook is interesting. The natives 
have several springs in the different places where he anchored, 
which still go by his name. There is one at Uaua, in Tologa 
Bay, on the East Coast, which is still known as Cook’s spring ; 
but the chief record of his having been on the island, is the 
cabbage and turnip which he sowed in various places: these 
have spread and become quite naturalized, growing everywhere 
