State Library of NSW
[Page 178]
174. Some acount of New Zealand
bogs which last land it seems however rather to prefer as I have always seen it in such places of a larger size than any where else
When first we came ashore we imagind the countrey to be much better peopled than we afterwards found it concluding from the Smoaks that we saw that there were inhabitants very far inland which indeed in Poverty bay & the bay of plenty which are much the best peopled parts of the countrey that we have seen may yet be the case in all the other parts we have been in we have however found the sea coast only inhabited & that but sparingly insomuch that the number of inhabitants seem to bear no kind of proportion to the size of the countrey which they possess & this probably is owing to their frequent wars. besides this the whole Coast from Cape Maria Van Diemen to Point Mount Egmont & seven eights of the Southern Island seems totaly without people
The men are of the size of the larger Europeeans Stout Clean Limnd & active fleshy but never fat as the lazy inhabitants of the South Sea Isles are vigorous nimble & at the same time Clever in all their excersizes I have seen
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