st side of the river and bay is very barren, its only
produce being fern, and a few other plants that will grow in a poor
soil. The land on the north-west side is covered with wood, and the soil
being much more fertile, would doubtless produce all the necessaries of
life with proper cultivation: It is not however so fertile as the lands
that we have seen to the southward, nor do the inhabitants, though
numerous, make so good an appearance: They have no plantations; their
canoes are mean, and without ornament; they sleep in the open air; and
say, that Teratu, whose sovereignty they do not acknowledge, if he was
to come among them, would kill them. This favoured our opinion of their
being outlaws; yet they told us, that they had Heppahs or strongholds,
to which they retired in time of imminent danger.

We found, thrown upon the shore, in several parts of this bay, great
quantities of iron-sand, which is brought down by every little rivulet
of fresh water that finds its way from the country; which is a
demonstration that there is ore of that metal not far inland: Yet
neither the inhabitants of this place, or any other part of the coast
that we have seen, know the use of iron, or set the least value upon it;
all of them preferring the most worthless and useless trifle, not only
to a nail, but to any tool of that metal.

Before we left the bay, we cut upon one of the trees near the
watering-place the ship's name, and that of the commander, with the date
of the year and month when we were there; and after displaying the
English colours, I took a formal possession of it in the name of his
Britannic majesty King George the Third.

SECTION XXIV.

_The Range from Mercury Bay to the Bay of Islands: An Expedition up the
River Thames: Some Account of the Indians who inhabit its Banks, and
the fine Timber that grows there: Several Interviews with the Natives on
different Parts of the Coast, and a Skirmish with them upon an Island_.

I continued plying to windward two days to get under the land, and on
the 18th, about seven in the morning, we were abreast of a very
conspicuous promontory, being then in latitude 36 deg.26', and in the
direction of N. 48 W. from the north head of Mercury Bay, or Point
Mercury, which was distant nine leagues: Upon this point stood many
people, who seemed to take little notice of us, but talked together with
great earnestness. In about half an hour, several canoes put off from
different places, a