Narrative of a Voyage to New Zealand; Performed in the Years 1814 and 1815, in Company with the REV. Samuel Marsden Volume 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1817 edition. Excerpt: ... SUPPLEMENTARY OBSERVATIONS. CHAP. VIII. Of the first discovery of New Zealand--Its situation, extent and soil--General face of the country--Hills and mountains--Climate contrasted with that of New South Wales--Particulars of each--Vegetable productions--Fossils and minerals--Quadrupeds, birds and insects--Fish, abundant and of various species. The island of which I have hitherto treated was first visited in 1642, by Abel Jansen Tasman, a Dutch navigator who sailed from Batavia for the purpose of making discoveries in the Pacific Ocean. Arriving on the eastern side of it, on the 24th November, he explored the north-eastern coast, and entered a strait, or passage, of about five leagues broad, and separating two islands from each other, to which he gave the general name of New Zealand. Being attacked by the barSUPPLEMENTARY OBSERVATIONS. 227 barous natives almost immediately after he had anchored; and having three of his men killed on the spot, and a fourth mortally wounded, (as has been stated in the commencement of this work, ) he did not attempt to land upon the island; but sailed away, after he had given it the above-mentioned name, and imposed the appalling designation of Murderers' Bay on the inhospitable harbour. It was supposed, from the period of its first discovery, to the time of the enterprising Captain Cook, that the strait entered by Tasman separated an island from some vast southern continent; but the British navigator, who sailed round both islands in the years 1769 and 1770, has completely removed this geographical error. He made three more voyages hither in 1773 and 1774; and in these, while adding to his own celebrity as an indefatigable navigator and excellent commander, he has enabled some philosophical minds to extend...