James Cook - A Journal of the proceedings of His Majesty's Bark Endeavour on a voyage round the world, by Lieutenant James Cook, Commander, commencing the 25th of May 1768 - 23 Oct. 1770: No. 148

            New Zealand

[left hand - October 
Poverty bay ]
that they should fall into the hands of their Enemies who would kill & Eat them. however at last of their own accord left us & hid themselves in some bushes soon after this we discover'd several bodys of the Natives marching towards us upon which we retir'd aCross the River & joined the wooders & with us came the 3 Natives we had just parted with for we could not prevail upon them to go to their own People, we had no sooner got over the River than the others assembled on the other side to the Number of 150 0r 200 all Armed Tupia now began to parly with them & the 3 we had with us shewed every thing we had given them part of which they laid & left upon the Body of the Man that was Killed the day before these things seemed so far to Convince them of our friendly intentions that one man came over to us while all the others sat down upon the Sand, we every one made this man a prest & the 3 Natives that were with us likewise presented him with such thing as they had got from us with which after a short delay he retired across the River. I now thought proper to take every body onboard to prevent any more Quarrels & with us came the 3 natives whom we could not prevail upon to stay behind & this appeared the more strange as the man that came over to us was Uncle to one of them. after we had returned  onboard we saw them Carry off the Dead Man but the one that was kill'd the first evening we landed remained in the very spot they had left him

Wednesday 11 In the PM as I intended to sail in the Morning we put the 3 Youths ashore seemingly very much against their inclination but whether this was owing to a desire they had to remain with us or the fear of falling into the hands of their Enemies as they pretended I know not , the latter however seemed to be ill founded for we saw them carried across the River in a Catarmaran & walk Leisurely off with the other Natives.       At 6 AM we weighed & stood out of the Bay which I have named Poverty Bay  because it afforded us no one thing we wanted Latde 38 o 42 S Long de 181.36 W. t /it is in the form of a Horse Shoe & is known by an Island lying close under the NEt Point the 2 Points which form the Entrance are high with the Steep white Cliffs & lay a League & a half or 2 Leagues from Each other & NEbE & SWbW.  the Depth of the water in this Bay is from 12 to 6 & 5 fa om a sandy bottom & very good Anchorage but you lay open to the winds between the S& Est  Boats can go in & out of the river above mentioned at any time of Tide in fine weaer but as there is  a Bar at the Entrance on which the Sea sometimes runs so high that no Boat can either get in or out which hapened while we laid  here however I believe that the Boats can generally land on the NEst  side of the river the shore pf this Bay from a little within each Entrance is a low flat sand but this is only a Narrow Slip for the face of the Country appears with a variety of hills & Vallies all cloathed