“No country upon earth can appear with a more rugged and barren aspect than this does from the sea, for as far inland as the eye can reach nothing is to be seen but the summits of these rocky mountains, which seem to lay so near one another as not to admit any vallies between them.”

On the 24th they rounded the north point of the South Island, and on the 27th Cook writes:  “As we have now circumnavigated the whole of this country, it is time for me to think of quitting it.”  He had thus carried out to the fullest extent the instructions to determine the situation and nature of the land seen by Tasman in 1642, and had done it in the most conclusive manner possible—­by sailing round it—­and thus upset Mr. Dalrymple’s favourite theory that it formed part of a continent.

In Admiralty Bay, which he entered to refit for the homeward voyage, the sails were found to require a thorough overhaul, for, as Banks says, they: 

“were ill-provided from the first, and were now worn and damaged by the rough work they had gone through, particularly on the New Zealand coast, and they gave no little trouble to get into order again.”

The two points forming the bay were appropriately named after the Secretaries of the Admiralty, Stephens and Jackson.

The opinion was expressed that European fruits, grain, etc., would grow well in New Zealand, and an agricultural population would be successful.  Timber of excellent quality was plentiful, and it was believed that New Zealand flax promised to be of considerable commercial value.  Fish was found in great quantities, the lobsters and oysters being specially remarkable for quality and quantity.  No quadrupeds except dogs and rats were seen, and birds did not seem very plentiful.  The minerals, in Cook’s opinion, did not appear of much value, but he admitted that he was not an authority on the subject.  Banks notes the southern islanders appeared to be an inferior race to those of the north, the latter probably more closely allied to the Otaheitan type; many of their customs were similar, and their language practically identical.  Tupia had no difficulty in making himself understood.

It would seem that even at this time founding a colony in the southern hemisphere had been under discussion, for Cook says that if a settlement were decided on in New Zealand, he would recommend the Estuary of the Thames and the Bay of Islands as most suitable for the purpose.

Speaking of his chart of New Zealand, Cook points out frankly the places where he thinks he may have fallen into error, and gives his reasons for so thinking, and the opinions of others are worth recording.

A dull sailor.

Admiral Wharton says: 

“Never has a coast been as well laid down by a first explorer, and it must have required unceasing vigilance and continual observation in fair weather and foul, to arrive at such a satisfactory conclusion, and with such a dull sailor as the Endeavour was, the six and a half months occupied in the work (2,400 miles of coast) must be counted as a short interval in which to do it.”