Series 03: Joseph Banks - Endeavour journal, 25 August 1768 - 12 July 1771 (vol. 2) - No. 0176
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[Page 176]
172.
Some account of New Zealand
an ornament they are very fond of & this was doubtless the reason why they preferrd the Cloth which we had brought from the South Sea Islands with us to any merchandise we could shew them & next to it white paper
Fruits they have none, except I should reckon a few kind of insipid berries which had neither sweetness nor flavour to recommend them & which none but the boys took the pains to gather the woods however abound with excellent timber trees fit for any kind of building in size, grain, & apparent durability one which bears a very conspicuous scarlet flower made up many threads & is a large tree as big as an oak in England has a very heavy hard wood which seems well adapted for the Cogs of Mill wheels &c. or any purpose for which very hard wood is us'd that which I have before mentiond to grow in the swamps which has a leaf not unlike Yew & bears small bunches of Berries is tall streight & thick enough to make Masts for vessels of any size & seems likewise by the streight direction of the fibres to be tough but is too heavy this however I have been told is the case with the pitch pine in North america the timber of which this very much resembles & that the North americans know how to lighten by tapping it properly & actualy use for Masts.