S. _Bounty_, and the consequent colonisation of
Pitcairn Island. Tahiti is now civilised, and under the protective
government of the French. The produce of the island is bread-fruit,
cocoa-nuts, bananas of thirteen sorts, plantains, a fruit not unlike an
apple, which, when ripe, is very pleasant, sweet potatoes, yams,
sugar-cane, which the natives eat raw, besides many other kinds of
fruits, roots, and vegetables, all of which grew wild when Cook was
there, or with so little culture that the islanders are almost
altogether exempted from labour.

Setting sail from Tahiti, the _Endeavour_ visited several other isles,
and at length arrived at the celebrated island of New Zealand. This is
one of the largest in the South Seas, and is now the site of several
thriving British settlements. Flourishing cities have been built on its
rich soil; large portions of it have been brought under cultivation;
gold-mines have been discovered; churches and schools have been erected,
and many of the natives have become partially civilised.

Very different indeed was the state of things when Captain Cook first
drew near to its shores in the year 1769.

He cast anchor on the 8th of October in a bay near the mouth of a small
river about half a league from shore. The sides of the bay were white
cliffs of great height, and inland the hills rose one behind another,
towering upwards until they terminated in a chain of mountains in the
far distance. Some natives had been seen on the beach, so, when the
ship was secured, Cook took two of his boats, and, accompanied by Mr
Banks and Dr Solander, with a party of men, went on shore. They landed
on the east side of the river, but finding it too deep to cross, and
seeing some natives on the other side, they took one of the boats--the
yawl--and went over, leaving the other boat--the pinnace--behind them.

When the navigators drew near to the place where the natives were
assembled, the latter ran away. The sailors then landed, and, leaving
four boys in charge of the boat, walked up to some huts which were two
or three hundred yards from the beach. But they had not gone far from
the water-side when four men, armed with long lances, rushed out of the
woods, and ran to attack the boat. They would certainly have succeeded
in overpowering the four boys and making off with the boat, had they not
fortunately been seen by the people left in the pinnace, who called out
to warn the boys of their danger, t