Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 1.djvu/220

140 good harbours will be found a great drawback, and the two tribes of New Zealanders from Port Nicholson, who took possession of it in 1835, after eating the half of the aborigines they found there, and making slaves of the other half, will prove a difficult people to dispossess of the land they have gained by conquest.

The southern harbour of Auckland Island is said to be capacious, but the water too deep over the greater part of it for anchoring: there are several coves on either side of it, where good anchorage may be found, and well protected; but as we did not visit that inlet, I cannot answer for the accuracy of these statements, which I received from masters of whalers. Laurie Harbour is well calculated for the location of an establishment for the prosecution of the whale fishery: many black and several sperm whales came into the harbour whilst we were there; and from such a situation the fishery might be pursued with very great advantage. I am rejoiced to hear that the enterprising merchant, Charles Enderby, Esq., is making application to the government for a grant of the Islands for that purpose, and from the circumstance of their having been discovered by the commander of one of his ships, he may with some justice claim to be entitled to greater privileges than others.

We arrived there in the spring of the year, November being equivalent to April of the northern latitudes; and although less than eight degrees to the southward of the latitude of Hobart Town, we