ttle knowledge they are masters of, without attempting, in the least,
to improve it. Nor are they remarkably curious, either in their
observations or their enquiries. New objects do not strike them with
such a degree of surprise as one would naturally expect; nor do they
even fix their attention for a moment. Omai, indeed, who was a great
favourite with them, would sometimes attract a circle about him; but
they seemed to listen to his speeches like persons who neither
understood, nor wished to understand, what they heard.

One day, on our enquiring of Taweiharooa, how many ships, such as ours,
had ever arrived in Queen Charlotte's Sound, or in any part of its
neighbourhood? he began with giving an account of one absolutely unknown
to us. This, he said, had put into a port on the N.W. coast of
Teerawitte, but a very few years before I arrived in the Sound in the
Endeavour, which the New Zealanders distinguish by calling it Tupia's
ship. At first, I thought he might have been mistaken as to the time and
place; and that the ship in question might be either Monsieur
Surville's, who is said to have touched upon the N.E. coast of
Eaheinomauwe, the same year I was there in the Endeavour; or else
Monsieur Marion du Fresne's, who was in the Bay of Islands, on the same
coast, a few years after. But he assured us that he was not mistaken,
either as to the time, or as to the place of this ship's arrival, and
that it was well known to every body about Queen Charlotte's Sound and
Teerawitte. He said, that the captain of her, during his stay here,
cohabited with a woman of the country; and that she had a son by him
still living, about the age of Kokoa, who, though not born then, seemed
to be equally well acquainted with the story. We were also informed by
Taweiharooa, that this ship first introduced the venereal disease
amongst the New Zealanders. I wish that subsequent visitors from Europe
may not have their share of guilt in leaving so dreadful a remembrance
of them amongst this unhappy race. The disorder now is but too common
here, though they do not seem to regard it, saying, that its effects are
not near so pernicious at present as they were at its first appearance.
The only method, as far as I ever heard, that they make use of as a
remedy, is by giving the patient the use of a sort of hot bath, which
they produce by the steam of certain green plants laid over hot stones.

I regretted much that we did not hear of this ship while