Georg Forster

“ Our parting with the Adventure, was almost universally regretted among our crew, and none of them ever looked around the ocean without expressing some concern on seeing our ship alone on this vast and unexplored expanse, where the appearance of a companion seemed to alleviate our toils, and inspired cheerfulness and comfort. We were likewise not entirely without apprehensions, that the Adventure might have fallen in with land, as the sight of pinguins, of little diving petrels, and especially of a kind of grebe, seemed to vindicate its vicinity. ”

“ About five o'clock in the afternoon, we had sight of more than thirty large islands of ice a-head, and perceived a strong white reflexion from the sky over the horizon. Soon after we passed through vast quantities of broken ice, which looked honey-combed and spungy, and of a dirty colour. This continually thickened about us, so that the sea became very smooth, though the wind was fresh as before. An immense field of solid ice extended beyond it to the south, as far as the eye could reach from the mast-head. ”

“ With all its defects, Dusky Bay is one of the finest places in New Zeeland, for a set of people to touch at in our situation, exhausted with labours and hardships of long continuance, and deprived of the sight of land above four months. Nothing is more easy than to sail into it, there being no danger except what is visible above water, and so many harbours and coves existing in every part of it, that it is impossible to miss a convenient anchoring-place, where wood, water, fish, and wild-fowl are to be found in plenty. ”

“ The roar of the waves at a distance was tremendous, and only overcome at times by the agitation of the forests, and the crashing fall of huge timber-trees around us. We went to look after our boat, and at that instant a dreadful flash of lightning illuminated the whole arm of the sea; we saw the billows foaming, and furiously rolled above each other in livid mountains; in a word, it seemed as if all nature was hastening to a general catastrophe. ”

“ We had already frequently observed the old petrels flying about us in the evening, when we returned late from our excursions, but till now they had always been taken for bats. They have a broad bill, and a blackish stripe across their bluish wings and body, and are not so large as the common shear-water or Mank's petrel of our seas. The instinct is very wonderful which actuates these birds to burrow holes under ground for their young, to roam all over the ocean in quest of food for their support, and to find their way to the shore when they are several hundred leagues distant from it. ”

“ The ocean covered to a great extent, with myriads of animalcules; these little beings, organized alive, endowed with locomotive power, a quality of shining whenever they please, of illuminating every body with which they come in contact, and of laying aside their luminous appearance at pleasure: all these ideas crouded upon us, and bade us admire the Creator, even in his minutest works. It is the natural fault of young people to think too well of mankind ”

“ We were almost perpetually wrapt in thick fogs, beaten with showers of rain, sleet, hail, and snow, the temperature of the air being constantly about the point of congelation in the height of summer; surrounded by innumerable islands of ice against which we daily ran the risk of being shipwrecked, and forced to live upon salt provisions, which concurred with the cold and wet to infect the mass of our blood. ”

“ From this time, till we left the torrid zone, we were almost daily amused with the view of immense shoals of these fishes, and now and then caught one upon our decks when it had unfortunately taken its flight too far, and was spent by its too great elevation above the surface of the sea. In the uniform life which we led between the tropics, where we found weather, wind, and sea, almost constantly favourable and agreeable, the mind catched at every little circumstance that could give the hint to a reflection. ”

“ On turning round we beheld an extensive bay, strewed as it were with small islands, which are covered with lofty trees; beyond them on one side, the mountains rise majestic on the main land, capt with clouds and perpetual snow ”

“ Our boat being nearest to these natives, Captain Cook desired the officer in it to land, and accept their proferred friendship, whilst he meant to take the advantage of the tide to get as high up in the river as possible. Whether the officer did not understand Captain Cook's meaning, or whether he was too deeply engaged with duck shooting, we did not land; and the poor people, to all appearance apprehensive of the worst consequences, from a set of men who rejected their proposals of peace, fled into the woods with the utmost precipitation. ”

“ It is natural for people whose solids are relaxed in a fervid climate, to incline to sloth and laziness; but they are confirmed in these vices, and must become indifferent to improvement, when they know the attempt would only make their situation more irksome. With a kind of gloomy insensibility they give themselves up to beggary, the only state which can protect them from the greedy clutches of tyrannical masters; and they shun every labour, which must encrease the treasures of others without benefit to themselves ”

“ We saw an immense field of flat ice before us, broken into many small pieces on the edges, a vast number of islands of ice of all shapes and sizes rose beyond it as far as the eye could reach, and some of the most distant considerably raised by the hazy vapours which lay on the horizon, had indeed some appearance of mountains. ”

“ The animal creation afforded another proof that this country had not yet undergone any changes from the hands of mankind, and indeed at first raised the idea, that Dusky Bay was wholly uninhabited. Numbers of small birds which dwelt in the woods were so little acquainted with men, that they familiarly hopped upon the nearest branches, nay on the ends of our fowling-pieces, and perhaps looked at us as new objects, with a curiosity similar to our own. ”

“ A tolerable building, at a little distance from the fort, belongs to a company of merchants at Lisbon, who have the exclusive right to trade to all the Cape-Verd islands, and keep an agent here for that purpose. When we made application to this indolent Don, by the Governor's direction, to be supplied with live cattle, he indeed promised to furnish as many as we wanted, but we never got more than a single lean bullock. The company perfectly tyrannizes over the inhabitants, and sells them wretched merchandize at exorbitant prices. ”

“ But perhaps the climate was less noxious to Englishmen than to any other nation, because it is analagous to their own. Another inconvenience in Dusky Bay is the want of celery, scurvy-grass, and other antiscorbutics, which may be found in great plenty at Queen Charlotte's sound, and many parts in New Zeeland. The intricate forests which clothe the ground, the prodigious steepness of the hills, which on that account are almost incapable of cultivation, and the virulent bite of sand-flies, which causes ulcers like the small-pox, are certainly disagreeable circumstances ”

“ Cook, who had but cursorily examined the southern extremities of New-Zeeland in his former voyage, to spend some time there, in order to gain a more competent knowledge of its situation and productions. On our part, we perceived a new store of animal and vegetable bodies, and among them hardly any that were perfectly similar to the known species, and several not analogous even to the known genera. With these therefore we hoped to be wholly employed during our stay, in spight of the approach of autumn, which seemed to threaten the vegetable creation. ”

“ The cochineal plant, indigo, some spices, and perhaps coffee, would thrive particularly well in this hot and parched climate; and these productions would be sufficient to supply the natives not only with the necessaries, but likewise with the conveniencies and luxuries of life, under the benign influence of a free and equal government, like that under which we have the happiness to live in this country. Instead of feeding on a scanty allowance of roots, we should see their board heaped with plenty, and convenient houses would then supply the place of wretched hovels. ”

“ These occupations served to lower the great idea which our people had conceived of this country; for the prodigious intricacy of various climbers, briars, shrubs, and ferns which were interwoven throughout the forests, rendered the task of clearing the ground extremely fatiguing and difficult, and almost precluded the access to the interior parts of the country. It is indeed reasonable to suppose, that in the southern parts of New-Zeeland, the forests have never been touched by human industry, but have remained in the rude unimproved state of nature since their first existence. ”

“ The risks to which the voyager is exposed at sea are very numerous, and danger often arises where it is least expected. Neither can we trace the care of Providence more evidently in storms among hidden rocks and shoals, and where water or fire threaten destruction, than in these little circumstances, which the traveller and the reader are both too apt to forget or pass lightly over, if they come to a favourable issue. ”

“ By the side of a murmuring rivulet, whose passage into the sea we facilitated, a long range of casks, which had been prepared by our coopers for that purpose, stood ready to be filled with water. Here ascended the steam of a large cauldron, in which we brewed, from neglected indigenous plants, a salutary and palatable potion, for the use of our labourers. In the offing, some of our crew appeared providing a meal of delicious fish for the refreshment of their fellows. ”

“ From the history of this bird, which was of the common species, or a house-swallow (hirundo rustica Lin.) we may deduce the circumstances that bring solitary land-birds a great way out to sea. It seems to be probable, that they begin with following a ship, from the time she leaves the land; that they are soon lost in the great ocean, and are thus obliged to continue close to the ship, as the only solid mass in this immense fluid expanse. If two or more ships are in company, it is also easy to account for the expression of meeting with land-birds at a great distance from land ”

“ Notwithstanding the coldness of this climate, our sloops were still surrounded by birds of the petrel genus, albatrosses and pinguins. We particularly observed a petrel, about the size of a pigeon, entirely white, with a black bill and blueish feet; it constantly appeared about the icy masses, and may be looked upon as a sure fore-runner of ice. Its colour induced us to call it the snowy-petrel. A grampus and several whales likewise made their appearance among the ice, and in these chilling regions served to vary the dismal scene, and gave us some idea of a southern Greenland. ”

“ The plants which clothed the ground, and the wonders of the animal creation, both in the forests and the seas, likewise attracted the notice of philosophers, whose time was devoted to mark their differences and uses. In a word, all around us we perceived the rise of arts, and the dawn of science, in a country which had hitherto lain plunged in one long night of ignorance and barbarism! ”

“ One of our people, strongly persuaded that so great a country could not fail of possessing new and unknown animals, had already twice reported that he had seen a brown animal, something less than a jackal or little fox, about the dawn of morning, sitting on a stump of a tree near our tents, and running off at his approach. ”

“ However, great storms are sometimes known to have driven single birds, nay vast flocks out to sea, which are obliged to seek for rest on board of ships, at considerable distances from any land [8] . I shall venture another reflection on this incident. In the long solitary hours of an uniform navigation, every little circumstance becomes interesting to the passenger; it is therefore not to be wondered at, if a subject so trifling in itself as putting to death a harmless bird, should affect a heart not yet buffeted into insensibility. ”

“ Here, however, he found a new species of ducks, the fifth we had observed in Dusky Bay. Its size was something less than that of a teal, the colour of a shining greenish black above, and a dark sooty grey below; it had a purple cast on the head, a lead-coloured bill and feet, a golden eye, and a white bar in the lesser quill feathers. On Captain Cook's return to us, we perceived two men in the woods along the bank opposite to that where we had seen the friendly family. ”

“ On the 11th, the sky being clear and serene promised a fair day, which was very much wanted, in order to dry our sails and linen, as we had not been able to do either since our arrival in this bay. We likewise obtained the use of a boat, in order to increase the number of our observations on the productions of nature. We directed our course to the cove where we had seen the first canoe of the natives, and particularly to a water-fall, which we had observed from afar a few days ago, and which had induced us to call this inlet Cascade Cove. ”

“ From thence rises a sloping bank, about seventy-five yards high, on which a wall of twenty-five yards perpendicular is placed, crowned with verdure and shrubberies. Still farther to the right, the broken rocks are clothed with mosses, ferns, grasses, and various flowers; nay several shrubs, and trees to the height of forty feet, rise on both sides of the stream, and hide its course from the sun. The noise of the cascade is so loud, and so repeatedly reverberated from the echoing rocks, that it drowns almost every other sound ”

“ We may add to these the dismal gloominess which always prevailed in the southern latitudes, where we had impenetrable fogs lasting for weeks together, and where we rarely saw the cheering face of the sun; a circumstance which alone is sufficient to deject the most undaunted, and to sour the spirits of the most cheerful. ”

“ Corn, flour, biscuit, salted beef, brandy, and wine are to be had in abundance, and at moderate prices; and their fresh greens, fine fruits [10] , good mutton and beef, are excellent restoratives to seamen who have made a long voyage. The climate is likewise so healthy, that the inhabitants are rarely troubled with complaints, and strangers soon recover of the scurvy and other disempers. The winters at the Cape are so mild that they hardly ever have ice about the town: but on the mountains, and especially those far in the country, they have hard frosts with snow and hail storms ”

“ It would have been impossible for us, among the numerous islands and harbours, and in the mazy forests upon them, to have found out the family which we saw on the Indian Island, if they had not discovered themselves, and thus made the first advances. We might also have departed from the cove without knowing that it was inhabited, if the natives had not shouted at the discharge of our muskets. In both cases a certain openness and honesty, appear strongly to mark their character ”

“ The stay which we had made here of six weeks, and four days, together with the abundance of fresh provisions which we enjoyed, and the constant exercise we used, had contributed to recover all those who had been ill of the scurvy at our arrival, and given new strength to the rest. However it is much to be doubted, whether we should have preserved our health so well as we did, without the use of the fermented liquor or spruce-beer which we brewed. The climate of Dusky Bay, is I must own, its greatest inconvenience, and can never be supposed a healthy one. ”

“ If this circumstance was rightly understood, we cannot sufficiently wonder that a family so secluded from all the rest of the world, in a spacious bay, where they have a superfluity of food, and of all the necessaries of life, the fewness of their wants considered, should still have a thought of warring with their fellow-creatures, when they might live peaceably and happily in their retirement. ”

“ A harmless race of animals, dragged from the happy recess of native shades, to wear out the rest of their lives in continual anguish and torment, deserve a pitying remembrance, though humanity would fain have drawn the veil over all acts of iron-hearted insensibility, and wanton barbarism. ”

“ At day-break Captain Cook and my father, with two men, went in a small boat to take a view of the head of the cove, where they saw some flat land. They went on shore upon it at one corner, and ordered the boat to meet them at the opposite point. They had not walked a great way before they saw some wild-ducks, and, by creeping through the bushes, came near enough to fire and kill one of them. ”