which at our departure from New Zealand, stood at 51 deg. at eight o’clock in the morning, sunk in proportion as we came to the southward to 48 deg., and sometimes to 47 deg., at the same time of day; but the temperature of the air upon the whole was extremely variable, and the weather equally unsettled.  From thence it arose, that we daily observed rainbows, or parts of them about the horizon, especially in the morning.  The wind during this time was likewise very changeable, and veered round the compass in a direction contrary to the course of the sun, that is, from west round by the north towards east, and so further on; but it chiefly prevailed from the easterly quarter, where we least expected it, so that our situation became tedious, and was made more irksome by frequent fogs, rains, and heavy swells.”—­G.F.

[3] According to Sir G.F., it seems that the venereal disease made its appearance on some of the Adventure’s crew, as was intimated by Captain Furneaux to Captain Cook, during a visit paid to the latter.  In the opinion of Mr F., who is at some pains to investigate the subject, this disease was indigenous in New Zealand where the sailors contracted it, and not imported there by Europeans.  This opinion is, no doubt, in confirmation of what the writer has elsewhere stated to be his own as to the general question respecting the origin of the disease; but he is bound in candour to admit, that it seems to rest on rather slender evidence and insufficient reasoning, in the present instance—­so that he is less disposed to avail himself of it.  Mr F. himself is not positive as to the facts on which he founds his opinion, and consequently is not so as to the opinion.  This is to be inferred from his concluding remarks, which, besides, exhibit so fair a specimen of just indignation and regret, as may deserve to be offered to the reader’s notice.  “If,” says he, “in spite of appearances, our conclusions should prove erroneous, it is another crime added to the score of civilized nations, which must make their memory execrated by the unhappy people, whom they have poisoned.  Nothing can in the least atone for the injury they have done to society, since the price at which their libidinous enjoyments were purchased, instils another poison into the mind, and destroys the moral principles, while the disease corrupts and enervates the body.  A race of men, who, amidst all their savage roughness, their fiery temper, and cruel customs, are brave, generous, hospitable, and incapable of deceiving, are justly to be pitied, that love, the source of their sweetest and happiest feelings, is converted into the origin of the most dreadful scourge of life.”  In this last paragraph, there is reason to imagine Mr F. has somewhat overstepped the modesty of both history and nature—­the former, by too high commendation of the New Zealanders, who, whatever merit they may claim on other grounds, can scarcely be said, at least if facts are to be trusted, to be