Series 05.01 : Copy of a letter written by Banks to Comte Louis de Lauraguais, December 1771 - No. 0005

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to proceed higher Latitude than 40º into which Late we arriv'd by a due South course & turning then to the westward on ye 3d of October, fell in wth the Easter side of New Zeland [New Zealand]. The extent of this country which extends from the Late of 34.º to that of 47.º S. took us up six months before we could compleat our Circumnavigation of it: in time however we discover'd that instead of being as generally suppos'd part of a Southern Continent, it was in reality only 2 Islands without any firm land in their neighbourhood.

The coast of these islands abounds in Harbours, the country is fertile, & ye climate temperate, the inhabitants are a robust, lively and very ingenious people: they always strenuously oppos'd us, so that we sometimes were laid under the desagreeable necessity of effecting our landing by force; they were however when subdued, unalterably our friends & carried that sentiment to lengths which in Europe we are unacquainted with: Notw.thstanding that their barbarous customs taught them to eat the bodies of such of their enemies as were kill'd in battle. But what surpriz'd us ye most, was that notwithstanding ye distance, these people all along that large extent of Coasts, spoke different dialects of the language of Otaheite.  Everyone