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. 214

[Page 214]
New Zealand

[In margin] 1770 February

So25°W.t 47 Miles. In the PM while we lay becalm'd Mr Banks in a small Boat, shott two Port Egmont Hens which were in every respect the same Sort of Birds as are found in great Numbers upon the Island of Faro, they are of a very dark brown plumage with a little white about the under side of their wings & are as large as a Muscovy duck these were the first that we have seen since we arrived upon the Coast of this Country but we saw of them for some days before we made land.
Sunday 25.th In the PM Steer'd SWbS & SW edging in for the land having the Advantage of a fresh Gale at N.o which I was over desirous of making the most of & by that means carried away the Maintop Gallantmast & Foretopmst steerg sail Boom but these were soon replaced by others altho' we kept at no great distance from the Shore yet the wea.r was so Hazey that we could see nothg distinct upon the land only that there were a ridge of Pretty high Hills lying Parallel with & but a little way from the Sea Coast which lies SbW.t & NbE & seem'd to End in a high Bluff point to the Southward which we run the length of by 8 o'Clock when being dark & not knowing which way the Land Trended we bro.t too for the night having run 15 Leagues upon a SW½Wt Course since Noon the Point bore at this time W.t dist.e ab.t 5 Miles depth of Water 37 fa.m the bottom small Pebble stones. at 4AM we made Sail but by this time the Northerly wind was gone & was succeeded by one from the Southward which proved very Var'bl & unsteady. at day light the Point abovemention'd bore N.o diste 3 Leag.s & we found that the land trended away from it SWbW. as far as we could see this point of land I have named Cape Saunders in Honour of Sr Charles / Latd 45:55 S.o Long.de 189:4 W.t / it requires no Discription to know it by the Lat.de & the Angle made here by the Coast will be found quite sufficient however there is a Remarkable saddle hill laying near the Shore 3 or 4 Leag.s SW of the Cape from 1 to 4 Leag.s North of the Cape of the Shore seem'd to form 2 or 3 Bays wherein there appear'd to be anchorage & Shelter from SW. Westerly & NW winds. I had som[e] thoughts of bearing up for one of these places in the morning when the Wind came to SW.t but the fear of loosing time & the desire I had of pushing to the Southw.[d] in order to see as much of the Coast as Possible or if this land would prove to be as Island to get round it, prevented our being not far from the Shore all the morning we had an Opp.y of Viewing the Land Pretty distinlcly, it is of a Moderate height, full of Hills which appear'd green & Woody but we saw not the least signs of inhabitants at noon Cape Saunders bore N30°Wt distant 4 Leag.s Lat.de [?] Log for we had no Observation 46:0 S.o ~
Monday