Espinosa adopts, 93° 43' or Oltmanns, vol. III, p. 403, gives D.L. by 2ch 7d. 5 20 32 99° 1' 30" Espinosa makes this difference 5° 18' 30" arsen. 5° 20′ 24′′ B. Hall, D.L. San Blas, 1ch. 18d. 5° 24′ 40′′ 100° 16′ 45′′ Brown, D.L. Do. Beechey, D.L. Do. Bel 1836-8, D.L. Do. We shall adopt for this difference 5 23 15, this gives the Fort 99o 5′ 20′′ * I cannot, unfortunately, meet with the paper from which Capt. Belcher's measures were copied, and am uncertain of the precise point to which they refer. 153. Port Guatulco. Esp. 90° 16' or 3° 26' E. of Acapulco. 96° 4' 48" As this diff. long. 3° 47', is both given by Capt. Belcher, and employed by him in his absolute positions, we do not hesitate to adopt it. 155. C. Corrientes. Malasp. D.L. San Blas, City, 21' 15" W. or 19' 21" W. of ars. 105° 34′ 45′′ B. Hall, D.L. Do. 23′ 59′′ or ars. 22′ 5/ Brown, D.L. San Blas, ars. Beechey, D.L. Do. Place of obs. 47" E. of ars. We have adopted 105° 39' 105 37 29 105 38 44 105 39 28 105 38 40 23 24 24 30 23 43 156. Libertad. Flag Staff. 157. Port Realejo, Cardon Id. N.E. point. Malasp. 1791, S.W. part of the port, I. Sat. Jup. calculated by D.L. Same pt. to Panama, after several days calm, 7° 38′ 5′′ D.L. Acapulco, 12 43 15 (see note at No. 152.) We omit the D.L. to San Blas in 46 days. * There is a doubt on this diff. long. as well as in one or two other points of detail, which we cannot at present explain. This inconvenience must be expected to occur occasionally in compiling data from surveys in actual progress. As Capt. Belcher, in a document at the Hyd. Office, adopts 7° 37′ 48′′ for the D. L. from Panama, we shall adopt for the present 87° 9′. 158. Manzanilla Bay. South side near the well. In a MSS. by Bauza in the Hyd. Office, the entrance is placed (from San Blas,) in 103° 23′ 10′′; by C. Corrientes, in 104° 22′ 39′′; and by Acapulco in 104° 22′ 49′′; an agreement which he observes, proves these places to be well determined. This determination, seems on the existing data, uncertain. 104° 18' 10" THE PELORUS, or Owerrie RivER, in Cooks Strait-New Zeeland. On Saturday, January 11th, 1840, at half past six o'clock in the morning, we left the mouth of the Owerrie, or Hoohery,' as it is called by the natives, and Pelorus River,' by the officers of that vessel,—in a whale-boat belonging to Mr. Simmons. We had only three natives for a crew, the master of the fourth, who had been engaged the night before refusing to allow him to go,—and all the natives on the beach, of whom there might have been about forty or fifty present, including women and children, showing the utmost aversion to allow us to go up the river. What their motives for this opposition were, unless they were prompted by those who were interested in representing the place in a more favourable light than it deserved, it is difficult to divine. After considerable remonstrance on our part, the opposition was at last withdrawn, one of the native chiefs giving his consent to allow us to go, and persuading the others to do so also. The morning was dark and cloudy, and having the tide as well as a strong wind in our favor, we used the sails with great effect. The river, as it is called, might be about three or four miles wide at the entrance, and branched off occasionally to the right and left, farther than the eye could reach from the boat on both sides, and the main stem, which if we had not had a pilot, (some of the natives having been up it before,) it would not have been easy to discover, turned nearly at right angles, first to the left, then to the right, and then to the left again, shutting out all view of the sea at a short distance up. At ten o'clock we had run by estimation about twenty miles up the estuary, and excepting the place we left, which had been called by the officers of the Pelorus, Pilot Beach, we did not see as much clear level land as would graze a cow. There was no grass land to be seen; (indeed it is alleged there is no natural grass to the northward of the middle island in New Zeeland ;) nor was there an eligible spot to build a house on. Nothing was to be seen but hills many thousand feet high, standing nearly perpendicular; (the pitch of a hayrick conveys the best idea of their steepness,) on both sides of the estuary, and covered with trees and jungle, from the water's edge up to their summits, which terminated in a ridge. To climb them was impracticable, even had there been an object. At high water the tile flows up to the foot of the hills, and at low water there is a narrow pebbly or rocky beach, bounded by the rise and fall of the tide, and deep water close to the shores. The great depth of water in the middle of the estuary and extending close to the shores, renders it undesirable as a harbour of refuge, for which its locality in Cooks Straits might otherwise be favourable. The trees, so far as we could judge, were principally the Kykateah, an inferior description of wood. There were few, if any trees with tall stems clear of branches, and we did not consider them, generally, fit for masts, yards, and spars of vessels. There are at irregular distances, a few small coves at the foot of the hills, formed by their undulations; but the steepness of the hills is without exception. Where they are not covered with trees and jungle they are covered with short stunted fern, looking quite brown, and having the appearance of being blighted by the wind, this is said to indicate poor land. There are several streamlets of fresh water in the ravines on the sides of the hills, but in general this can only be ascertained by landing, being hid from sight by the trees and jungle. At one o'clock, having still kept the tide and a strong wind with us, we were at the head of the navigable inlet, where it is terminated by a mud flat, and where the Pelorus had anchored in four fathoms, finding it impracticable to go farther up. We were now by estimation about forty miles from the mouth of the inlet, and over the whole of this extent the same description of steep hills, covered either with wood and jungle, or stunted fern applies. The head of the navigable inlet terminates on the left, in what may be called a valley, covered with stunted fern, and which valley is said to be opposite to an abandoned native settlement in Cloudy Bay, called Wijro. Supposing the land here to be fit for cultivation, which, from its being covered with stunted fern, we doubt, we consider it, irrespective of that too steep for the purpose. After pulling over the mud flat, on which the grass was growing amongst the salt water in many places, and on which there were abundance of shags, and red bills, (sea birds,) and wild ducks, some of the latter of which we shot; we entered a creek, being what we considered the mouth of the Pelorus River, though it is clear there was not water to float that vessel to it or in it. After pulling two or three miles up this creek, we met two bush natives in a canoe shooting wild ducks, one of whom came into our boat as pilot. The creek was here from 100 to 200 feet wide, according to the time of tide, and although the land was flat on the left side, it was evident from the trunks of trees washed up on the shores on both sides, that the flat land was at times, after heavy freshes, completely overflowed. It was covered with impenetrable jungle, as we found on landing, beautifully green, and many of the shrubs covered with flowers. This flat being an island, as we afterwards discovered, (having gone up on one side of it and returned on the other,) the probability is that it has been formed by alluvial deposits washed down from the mountains by freshes. A few miles higher up the water was quite fresh. There was abundance of New Zeeland flax growing on the marshy land on the banks of the creek. New Zeeland flax when growing, has the appearance of large and strong sedges, and is said to grow on poor soil. The steepness of the hills on the right still continued, and on the left the vision was bounded by the flat jungle. Still nothing like plains, or land covered with natural grass were anywhere to be seen. About eight or ten miles from the mouth of the creek the boat grounded on a shallow, although it was then the very top of high water, which at that distance up, and with the current constantly running down, still affects the height of water by impeding the current at its mouth, and the crew had to get out to lighten the boat and get her over the shallow. Here the current was constantly running down, and the trunks of many trees lying aground on the shallows in the middle of the river, and washed up on its banks on both sides. We attempted to proceed higher up, but found it impracticable owing to the boat taking the ground so frequently, and the strong current running down. The object (of finding land desirable for a location) was also gone, as it was evident that should such land exist higher up, it was not accessible either by land or water owing to the steepness of the hills and the shallowness of the creek. Failing, therefore, in our efforts to proceed higher, we landed about four o'clock in the afternoon on a pebbly flat on the right bank of the creek; the left bank being ten or twelve feet high, as perpendicular as the wall of a house, and a marsh or swamp covered with jungle lying behind the bank. We hauled the boat up three or four times her own length from the edge of the water, and turned her bottom up and took shelter under her, it having come on a heavy rain. We estimated our distance here to be about fifty miles from the mouth of the inlet. As the evening closed in, and the rain continued, we became apprehensive that should it last during the night, as it was clearly evident from the banks that the water rose occasionally eight or ten feet higher than where we then were, we should be flooded before the morning. We therefore made everything ready to righten the boat, and put everything into her, intending to anchor her where she was, and remain in her exposed to the rain, as it would have been quite impracticable to descend the river over the shallows and amongst the snags and trunks of trees lying aground on them in the night. Fortunately the rain ceased about nine o'clock, and these measures were rendered unnecessary; notwithstanding the rain having ceased, the river rose in the course of the night to within half the length of the boat, so that at daybreak it was time to be on the move. We proceeded on foot as far as the banks of the creek would allow us, to view the scene higher up the creek, and found it to be confined on both sides by nearly perpendicular hills. The hills being so high, and the valley formed between them so narrow, it was clear that it must be late in the forenoon before the sun's rays could penetrate it, and there was no prospect of any kind of crop, requiring much sunshine to ripen, ripening in it. As already mentioned, there was plenty of New Zeeland flax, the Phormium tenax, growing on the banks, but no land covered with natural grass, or plains fit for cultivation on an extended scale was anywhere to be seen. The rapidity of the current down having greatly increased owing to the rain, any attempt to proceed higher up in the boat was quite impracticable; having, therefore, no object to remain where we were, and being in no desirable quarters should the rain again come on, we got a hurried breakfast, and on Sunday morning began to descend the creek. Although the water, owing to the rain, had risen at least two perpendicular feet, the current down had become so rapid, that it was only by the most skilful pilotage of the native we had taken in in going up, and the most dexterous and able handling of the boat by Simmons and the crew, who seemed to be quite aware that all our lives were at stake, (the boat often having to pull where there was scarce room for the oars between the trunks of trees lying aground on the shallows right across the rapid stream, for had she touched any of the logs she would have upset in an instant,) we were at last, by the Divine Mercy, carried safely over the danger. After we had passed the danger, our pilot informed us that before the pah or native settlement higher up had been abandoned, a number of canoes had been upset and natives drowned on these shallows every year; a statement to which we gave full credence, and resolved never again to expose ourselves voluntarily to such danger. In short, it appeared to us to be nothing short of madness to think of residing in such a place, which seemed to our comprehension to be totally unfit for the residence of civilized man. In returning, we landed our pilot where we had embarked him, and learned afterwards that he and his companion were the only natives who lived at the head of the Owerrie, and they were in exile, for fear of some other tribes with which they were at war, they being the relics of their own tribe. As we descended we took another survey of the limited landscape of the Owerrie, confined on both sides by nearly perpendicular hills, to correct our first unfavourable impressions of it, but which instead of removing, only confirmed them. It being low water when we crossed the mud flat, formed at the head of the inlet and mouth of the creek, the boat' repeatedly grounded, and the men had to get out to lighten her and get her over. There were some poles placed on the flat to shew the deepest water, said to have been put there a few years ago by Captain Stein, of the William the Fourth, in which vessel he loaded a cargo of timber. The wind being against us, so that we could make no use of the sails, we landed for a couple of hours in the middle of the day, and got some dinner consisting of the wild ducks we shot on the previous, and potatoes. After which, we again embarked and continued rowing till the evening, when we pulled into a deep cove forming one of the branches of the estuary; and after landing and getting some victuals, at cooking which the natives are very expert, we made a tent of the boat's sails, and although lying on the hard pebbly beach, we slept far more comfortably than we did the night before. Our tent was formed partly of branches at the foot of the hill, and in the morning at high water the lower edge of it was in the water. The boat had been moored off the night before, and though it was then about five in the morning and very cold, one of the natives made no scruple of swimming off to her and bringing her to the beach. New Zeelanders indeed, make no scruple of going into the water on occasions when it would be considered a punishment by Europeans. The wind still continuing to blow strong up the estuary, it was about ten o'clock in the forenoon of Monday the 13th of January, before we got to Pilot |