HISTORY. 
207 
in the greatest abundance, and affording an inexhaustible 
supply of excellent vegetables. There is a saying, which I 
fear is not so much to Cook’s credit, as it intimates that he 
gave them rum —“ Te wai toki a rangi ” (Cook’s sweet water 
of heaven,) which has passed into a proverb for anything sweet. 
It is interesting to know that the natives regarded Tupaia, 
the Tahaitian chief, as the captain; he must therefore have 
passed himself off as being such. 
Marion has also left some remembrance of himself, showing 
how different French taste is from the English. He sowed 
garlick, which has quite taken possession of the Bay of 
Islands; the milk and butter there is all more or less flavored 
with this delicious root. A better gift, is, I believe, the 
Kowai-ngutu-kaka, the parrots bill acacia ( Clianthus Puni- 
ceus), which most probably was introduced by his ship. I 
received a curious account from a native, that when a French 
vessel was taken, and its crew murdered, the natives carried 
the plunder to a small island in the Kirikiri River, and there 
emptied some of the boxes, which to their disappointment 
they found merely contained seeds; these they threw away as 
useless; in a few years, the island was covered with this beautiful 
plant. It was there I first saw it growing wild, nor have I ever 
found it, except where pas or cultivations have existed. The 
natives greatly admire its rich flowers as an ornament for the 
ear, and have thus carried it from place to place with them. The 
Taranaki slaves, when released by the Nga-puhi, brought the 
seed with them as a remembrance of the land of their captivity. 
The natives of Cook’s Straits have a tradition that some vessel 
arrived at Arapawa, Queen Charlotte’s Sound, before Captain 
Cook ; they call the captain Kongo tute. The crew committed 
such excesses, that the natives became exasperated, and took 
the vessel, killing the entire crew, and eating them; having- 
stripped the vessel they left the hull on the beach. Amongst 
the plunder were a number of dinner plates, which from their 
pattern were called Te upoko o Bewarewa: as this is the name 
of a disease which many years ago broke out amongst them, 
and destroyed great numbers, it may have been given, from 
its being a spotted pattern, the disease appearing to have 
