[Stylist] 250 years ago today

[Jewel]

Captain James Cook first sighted New Zealand :  or to be more precise:  Nick Young, one of the most junior midshipmen of the Endeavour's crew:  did, when he was on watch in the Crow's nest:  on October 6 1769 , exactly 250 years ago today.
   As a reward for his sharpness of eye,  the piece of God's Own:  New Zealand:  Aotearoa [ Land of the Long White Cloud] that he spotted bears his name:  Young Nick's Head:  and is the cape that is the southernmost arm of Poverty Bay.

NOTE:  There is more about this name at the end of this letter.  END  OF  NOTE.

The ship's heading was adjusted and it sailed for the cape that Nick had reported and from there it was only a matter of 
turning the ship's helm a smidgeon, and the Endeavour sailed into Poverty Bay:  Cook's first, of several,   landfalls.
This was quite opposite to the strategy of   the Dutch navigator,  Abel Tasman who was the first 
European  to sight this new country in 1642 and who, incidentally, bestowed the name of New Zealand 
upon it:  he, merely sailed around the coastline, never once touching land, which, as will be found 
a little later in this telling was perhaps, a very wise decision. 
Now having jumped back into our time machine and pressed the button marked 1769, we see the Endeavour sailing into the bay that bears the rather unprepossessing one of Poverty Bay.  Note:  that is not the, original, Maori name and there will be more on that later.
As I said at the beginning of this letter, that was, to the day, 250 years ago, but here we are, now having to beg the Maoris forgiveness for the fact that when the Endeavour entered the bay, the 
welcome she and those aboard received from the locals was, a tad, and quite a big tad at that, less 
than friendly.
At the sight of a fleet of war canoes paddled at speed and packed with heavily-armed warriors, the 
Endeavour's crew resorted to cannon fire as a warning, but this was ignored so, to ram the point 
home, instead of firing wide, the next cannonball landed in one canoe, killing 11 of its occupants:  I thought that that showed a great deal of restraint as, without breaking into a sweat, the entire fleet and all aboard could have been sent to the bottom.
Unlike the tribes of the North American continent,  the Maoris did not have bows and arrows, so all 
fighting, and there being no love lost between many of the tribes, there was plenty of that, all 
weapons were for hand to hand combat.
Now I don't know if the next incident that I am about to relate occurred in Poverty Bay or not, but 
Cook's men went ashore to gather water to refill the ship's water barrels, and when they failed to 
return, a second party was sent out to search for them, and they were successful, well! successful 
insofar as they found what was left of the water party:  left after the Maoris had ambushed, killed 
and roasted and eaten them!
Which was the more heinous of the two incidents?  At least the Endeavour's crew didn't cannibalise their victims!!!
But are we of European descent asking that our dark-skinned brethren go down on their knees and offer their abject apology for what was done by their rellies of 250:  and less:  years ago?
Harking back to those North Island east coast bays:  there are two in particular:  the Bay of Plenty and its immediate neighbour, Poverty Bay.
When the Endeavour dropped anchor in the Bay of Plenty, unlike the hostility demonstrated by its neighbour, when the crew went ashore, they were welcomed and shown every kindness and the ship was reprovisioned:  hence the Bay of Plenty, but when they paid a second visit to the neighbouring bay, and this time, being well armed with revolvers, the Maoris having learned a lesson from the ships's previous visit, they did not offer any outward show of hostility, but neither were they forthcoming with help of any description:  hence Poverty Bay, "and you can put that in your pipes and smoke it, and we won't even give you the tobacco, whatever tobacco is!"
On February 17th of this year, one of the district councellors proposed that Poverty Bay have a dual name:  its current one and its original Maori one.  If it wasn't for the fact that the Maori one is a heck of a mouthful for us, tongue-tied New Zealanders of European descent, I would have said "Ditch Poverty Bay as the region is far from being poverty-stricken.  so the region would be:  Te Reo Turanganui A Kiwa Poverty Bay.
I can envisage the Maori name being shortened to Turanganui, which would, in time and given practice:  heaps of it:  , be quite manageable.  The largest town:  or is it a city?  is Gisborne, and the largest populace in the Bay of Plenty is Tauranga, so there might be a little confusion there at first, but, at the present, I think that the proposal is writ in water, and not in stone!
         Jewel 
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