May This Sad Picture Have The Same Effect, Which The Fathers Of Sparta
Expected From The Exhibition Of Their Drunken Slaves!
- E.
[4] A few miscellaneous observations respecting New Zealand, collected
from Mr G.F.'s work, may be given here with interest to some
readers: - The arrival at New Zealand, was most delightful to men who
had so long suffered the inclemencies and hardships of a navigation in
the southern sea. Every object seen on the land afforded some
agreeable sensation, heightened in no ordinary degree by the contrast
which memory presented. No wonder then, that the description given of
the scenery should be somewhat enthusiastic; besides, for every
obvious reason, one might be inclined to expect, that Mr G. Forster
should exceed even Cook in the warmth of colouring. It is so. He
speaks in evidently poetical feeling of the delightfully fair weather,
the lightly wafting airs, the numerous evergreens mingling with the
various shades of autumnal yellow, the wild notes of the feathered
tribe, &c. This was on getting sight of Dusky Bay. The effects of such
charming panorama were visible on all the crew; "emotions of joy and
satisfaction," he tells us, "were strongly marked in the countenance
of every individual." He is quite aware of the magic at work in his
own mind, when contemplating the picture, and accordingly very
candidly and very justly says, "So apt is mankind, after a long
absence from land, to be prejudiced in favour of the wildest shore,
that we looked upon the country at that time, as one of the most
beautiful which nature, unassisted by art, could produce.
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