After dinner, I directed Tupia to ask the boys, if they had now any objection to going ashore, where we had left their uncle, the body having been carried off, which we understood was a ratification of peace: They said, they had not; and the boat being ordered, they went into it with great alacrity: When the boat, in which I had sent two midshipmen, came to land, they went willingly ashore; but soon after she put off, they returned to the rocks, and wading into the, water, earnestly entreated to be taken on board again; but the people in the boat, having positive orders to leave them, could not comply. We were very attentive to what happened on shore, and keeping a constant watch with our glasses, we saw a man pass the river upon another raft, and fetch them to a place where forty or fifty of the natives were assembled, who closed round them, and continued in the same place till sun-set: Upon looking again, when we saw them in motion, we could plainly distinguish our three prisoners, who separated themselves from the rest, came down to the beach, and having waved their hands three times towards the ship, ran nimbly back and joined their companions, who walked leisurely away towards that part which the boys had pointed to as their dwelling-place; we had therefore the greatest reason to believe that no mischief would happen to them, especially as we perceived that they went off in the clothes we had given them.
After it was dark, loud voices were heard on shore in the bottom of the bay as usual, of which we could never learn the meaning.[50]
[Footnote 50: It is remarked in the account of Tasman's voyage, that the people of this island had very hoarse, rough, strong voices.--E.]
_A Description of Poverty Bay, and the Face of the adjacent Country. The Range from thence to Cape Turnagain, and back to Tolaga, with some Account of the People and the Country, and several Incidents that happened on that Part of the Coast_.
The next morning, at six o'clock, we weighed, and stood away from this unfortunate and inhospitable place, to which I gave the name of _Poverty Bay_, and which by the natives is called _Taoneroa_, or Long Sand, as it did not afford us a single article that we wanted except a little wood. It lies in latitude 38° 42' S. and longitude 181° 36' W.; it is in the form of an horse-shoe, and is known by an island lying close under the north-east point: The two points which form the entrance are high, with steep white cliffs, and lie a league and a half, or two leagues, from each other, N.E. by E. and S.W. by W.; the depth of water in the bay is from twelve to five fathom, with a sandy bottom and good anchorage; but the situation is open to the wind between the south and east: Boats can go in and out of the river at any time of the tide in fine weather; but as there is a bar at the entrance, no boat can go either in or out when the sea runs high: The best place to attempt it, is on the north-east side, and it is there practicable when it is not so in any other part. The shore of the bay, a little within its entrance, is a low flat sand; behind which, at a small distance, the face of the country is finely diversified by hills and valleys, all clothed with wood, and covered with verdure. The country also appears to be well inhabited, especially in the valleys leading up from the bay, where we daily saw smoke rising in clouds one behind another to a great distance, till the view terminated in mountains of a stupendous height.