1909




INTRODUCTION.


The author of this account of New Zealand in the year 1827 was an artist
by profession. "A love of roving and adventure," he states, tempted him,
at an early age, to sea. In 1815 he procured a passage on board a
storeship bound for Sicily and Malta, where he had a brother stationed
who was a captain in the navy. He visited many parts of the
Mediterranean, accompanying Lord Exmouth's fleet in his brother's gunboat
on his Lordship's first expedition against the Barbary States. He
afterwards visited the ruins of Carthage and the remains of the ancient
city of Ptolomea, or Lepida, situated in ancient Libya. Returning to
Malta, he passed through Sicily, and ascended Mount Etna. In 1818 he left
England for the United States, and spent nearly two years in rambling
through that country. Thence he proceeded to Brazil and Chile, returning
to Rio de Janeiro, where he practised his art until the commencement of
1824. Having received letters of introduction to Lord Amherst, who had
left England to undertake the government of India, Mr. Earle left Rio for
the Cape of Good Hope, intending to take his passage thence to Calcutta.
On the voyage to the Cape the vessel by which he was a passenger touched
at Tristan d'Acunha, and was driven off that island in a gale while Mr.
Earle was ashore, leaving him stranded in that desolate land, where he
remained for six months, when he was rescued by a passing ship, the
"Admiral Cockburn," bound for Van Diemen's Land, whence he visited New