we were in the
sound; as, by means of Omai, we might have had full and correct
information about her from eyewitnesses. For Taweiharooa's account was
only from what he had been told, and therefore liable to many mistakes.
I have not the least doubt, however, that his testimony may so far be
depended upon, as to induce us to believe that a ship really had been at
Teerawitte prior to my arrival in the Endeavour, as it corresponds with
what I had formerly heard. For in the latter end of 1773, the second
time I visited New Zealand, during my late voyage, when we were
continually making enquiries about the Adventure, after our separation,
some of the natives informed us of a ship's having been in a port on the
coast of Teerawitte. But, at this time, we thought we must have
misunderstood them, and took no notice of the intelligence.

The arrival of this unknown ship has been marked by the New Zealanders
with more causes of remembrance than the unhappy one just mentioned.
Taweiharooa told us their country was indebted to her people for the
present of an animal, which they left behind them. But as he had not
seen it himself, no sort of judgment could be formed from his
description of what kind it was.

We had another piece of intelligence from him, more correctly given,
though not confirmed by our own observations, that there are snakes and
lizards there of an enormous size. He described the latter as being
eight feet in length, and as big round as a man's body. He said they
sometimes seize and devour men; that they burrow in the ground; and that
they are killed by making fires at the mouths of the holes. We could not
be mistaken as to the animal; for, with his own hand, he drew a very
good representation of a lizard on a piece of paper, as also of a snake,
in order to shew what he meant.[146]

[Footnote 146: There can be little doubt that the animal here called a
lizard is an alligator.--E.]

Though much has been said, in the narratives of my two former voyages,
about this country and its inhabitants, Mr Anderson's remarks, as
serving either to confirm or to correct our former accounts, may not be
superfluous. He had been three times with me to Queen Charlotte's Sound
during my last voyage; and, after this fourth visit, what he thought
proper to record, may be considered as the result of sufficient
observation. The reader will find it in the next section; and I have
nothing farther to add, before I quit New Zealand, but to