A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 14 eBook

Robert Kerr (writer)
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 822 pages of information about A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 14.

A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 14 eBook

Robert Kerr (writer)
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 822 pages of information about A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 14.
to refrigerate the air, so as to assimilate it to that of the Falkland’s Islands, which are not so high.”—­G.F.
[4] “In the morning, the weather being clear again, Dr Sparrman, my father, and myself, went to the Indian Cove, which we found uninhabited.  A path, made by the natives, led through the forest a considerable way up the steep mountain, which separates this cove from Shag Cove.  The only motive which could induce the New Zealanders to make this path, appeared to be the abundance of ferns towards the summit of the mountain, the roots of that plant being an article of their diet.  The steepest part of the path was cut in steps, paved with shingle or slate, but beyond that the climbers impeded our progress considerably.  About half way up, the forest ended, and the rest was covered with various shrubs and ferns, though it appeared to be naked and barren from the ship.  At the summit we met with many plants which grow in the vallies, and by the sea-side, at Dusky Bay, owing to the difference of the climate, which is so much more vigorous in that southern extremity of New Zealand.  The whole to the very top consists of the same talcous clay, which is universal all over the island, and of a talcous stone, which, when exposed to the sun and air, crumbles in pieces, and dissolves into lamellae.  Its colour is whitish, greyish, and sometimes tinged with a dirty yellowish-red, perhaps owing to irony particles.  The south side of the mountain is clad in forests, almost to the summit.  The view from hence was very extensive and pleasing:  We looked into East Bay as into a fish-pond, and saw Cape Tera-wittee beyond the Strait.  The mountains in the south arose to a vast height, and were capt with snow; and the whole prospect on that side was wild and chaotic.”—­G.F.
[5] “Our sailors carried on their former amours with the women, amongst whom there was but one who had tolerable features, and something soft and humane in her looks.  She was regularly given in marriage by her parents to one of our ship-mates, who was particularly beloved by this nation, for devoting much of his time to them, and treating them with those marks of affection, which, even among a savage race, endear mankind to one another.  Togheeree, for so the girl was called, proved as faithful to her husband as if he had been a New Zealander, and constantly rejected the addresses of other seamen, professing herself a married woman, (tirratane.) Whatever attachment the Englishman had to his New Zealand wife, he never attempted to take her on board, foreseeing that it would be highly inconvenient to lodge the numerous retinue which crowded in her garments, and weighed down the hair of her head.  He, therefore, visited her on shore, and only day by day, treating her with plenty of the rotten part of our biscuit, which we rejected, But which she and all her countrymen eagerly devoured.”—­G.F.
[6] “They were more dressed than
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A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 14 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.