ard, so to keep them off ordered a
musket to be fired over them; but as it only caused them to stop for a
moment, a round shot was sent over them, and they hurriedly turned tail.
The place was given the name Cape Runaway. White Island was named, but it
must have been quiescent as there is no note of its being a volcano. As
they sailed along the coast they met with canoes from which fish,
lobsters, and mussels were purchased, and trading seemed well
established, when one gentleman took a fancy to Cook's sheets, which were
trailing overboard (they were in the wash), and refused to give them up.
Muskets were fired over them and they fled, and Cook lost his sheets.
From near White Island, Mount Edgecombe was seen, named after the
sergeant of marines. It is a high round mountain, and forms a conspicuous
landmark on both sides of the North Island. During this day they had
noticed several small villages perched on difficult eminences and
surrounded by palisades, which Tupia declared were "Mories or places of
worship," but, says Cook:

"I rather think they are places of retreat or strongholds, where they
defend themselves against the attack of an enemy, as some of them seem'd
not ill design'd for that purpose."

British soldiers have since discovered that a Maori Pah is "not ill
designed for that purpose." Cook most unfortunately missed the Harbour of
Tauranga, the only safe port on the east coast between Auckland and
Wellington for ships of any size.

NATIVE ACCOUNT.

In what is now known as Cook's Bay, they managed to induce the natives to
trade, and purchased crayfish, over which Parkinson waxes enthusiastic,
and "Mackerell as good as ever was eat," the latter in such large
quantities that they were able to salt a considerable number, thus saving
their sea stores. After an observation of a transit of Mercury, in which
they were not very successful (Wharton thinks they were taken by
surprise, the transit occurring somewhat earlier than expected; Green
says: "Unfortunately for the seamen, their look-out was on the wrong side
of the sun. The end was likewise as grossly mistaken"), they returned to
the ship and found that there had been a difficulty with the natives, who
had assumed a very threatening manner, and one attempted to run off with
a piece of calico which was at that time a subject of barter. Mr. Gore
seized a musket and fired, killing his man. Colonel Mundy, in Our
Antipodes, says he saw a man named Taniwha, in 1