was erected on a high point or peninsula, projecting into the sea. The natives call these fastnesses eppah or heppa, and, says Mr. Cook, the best engineer in Europe could not have chosen a situation better adapted to enable a small number to defend themselves against a greater. The steepness of the cliffs rendered it wholly inaccessible from the sea, which inclosed it on two sides; and to the land it was fortified by a double ditch, and a bank raised on the inside. The whole was executed with great judgment. It was inclosed by a pallisade about ten feet high, consisting of strong pales bound together with withes. The natives called this heppah by the name of Wharretowa. Great quantities of darts and stones were laid up ready for annoying assailants; and a store of fern-root, which these Indians eat as bread, and dried fish, lay in heaps to furnish provisions in case of a siege; but no fresh water was seen nearer than a brook which ran close under the foot of the hill. The perpetual hostility in which these poor savages, who have made every village a fort, must necessarily live, will account for there being so little of the land in a state of cultivation; and as mischiefs very often reciprocally produce other, it may perhaps appear, that there being so little land in a state of cultivation, will account for their living in perpetual hostility. The quantity of fish procured here was prodigious; and beds of very fine oysters yielded such a profuse abundance, that the ship might have been loaded with them in one tide. The natives, for a few pieces of cloth, sold as much fish, of the mackarel kind, as served the whole ship's company. An old Indian, named Toiava, who seemed to be of superior rank, behaved with great prudence and honesty; those of the

A Hippa, or Place of retreat in New Zealand & a War Canoc.

Dublin, Published by J-Christie,17 Rofs Lane.

lower sort frequently gave a loose to the most open and daring insolence. On the 9th of November, Mr. Cook and Mr. Green went on shore to observe a transit of Mercury: the weather was remarkably favourable, for not a cloud intervened during the whole transit. Whilst the party remained there, Mr. Gore was commanding officer; and two very large canoes came to the side of the ship, one of which had forty-seven men on board, all armed with pikes, darts and stones; after having behaved in a menacing manner for some time, they at length began to trade; some of them offered their arms, and one man tendered a square piece of cloth, which makes a part of their dress, and is called a haahow. Mr. Gore having agreed for this ornament, sent down the price, which was a piece of British cloth, and expected to have the purchase delivered; but the Indian had no sooner got the cloth in his possession, than he refused to part with his own, and put off in his canoe. Upon being threatened for this fraud, he and his companions began to sing their war-song in defiance, and shook their paddles; still, however, they began no attack, only defied Mr. Gore to take any remedy in his power; which so provoked him, that he levelled his musket, loaded with ball, at the offender, while he was holding the cloth in his hand, and shot him dead. The provocation was indeed great, but the revenge was beyond all proportion to the crime. The Indians who were with the party on shore, when they heard the rumour of this transaction, retired in a body, but in a short time after returned, having received a more particular account of the affair, and intimated that they thought the man who had been killed deserved his fate. A strong proof that ideas

of right and wrong are derived from nature, not acquired by education. But though they seemed to be very sensible that their countryman had acted criminally, they probably disguised their real sentiments, and accommodated themselves to their situation with as much address as an European hackneyed in the trammels of deceit could have done; for when the ship was about to sail from this bay, Mr. Cook learned from Toiava, that a general resentment prevailed among the Indians on account of this murder.

Great quantities of iron sand were found thrown upon the shore in several parts of this bay. This sand is brought down by every rivulet of fresh water that finds its way from the country, which is a demonstration that there is ore of that metal not far inland; yet neither the inhabitants of these parts, nor of any other which had then been visited, knew the use of iron, or set the least value upon all of them preferring the most worthless and useless trifle, not only to a nail, but to any tool of that metal.

it,

Upon one of the trees near the watering-place was cut the ship's name, and that of the commander, with the date of the year, and the month in which they touched there; and after displaying the English colours, Mr. Cook took a formal possession of it in the name of his Britannic majesty, George III.

The inhabitants here, though numerous, do not make so good an appearance as those who were seen on the eastern coast; they have no plantations; their canoes are mean and without ornament; they sleep in the open air; and do not acknowledge Terata, whom the other Indians spoke of as their king; on the contrary, they said, that if he was to