GEOGRAPHY, OR THE WORLD WE LIVE IN.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume I, Issue 9, 1 December 1855, Page 1

GEOGRAPHY, OR THE WORLD WE LIVE IN.

Chapter VII. When the people of England heard of the discoveries in the New World, as it was called, they determined to explore some parts of it also. They hoped still to find a short route to India by sailing due west from England. Some England ships accordingly sailed on a straight course till they reached an island which they named New Foundland. It is a cold barren country. Its waters however abound in fish, very large fish, like the whapuku of New Zealand. The English who are settled there now salt this fish in great quantities and send them across to English and to other countries. After a while other ships sailed-from England to America on a northerly course and reached Labrador. The English found this a cold wretched climate, some crossed thence to Greenland. Gold as it is, they found people living there. They get lit Lie food except seal and whale flesb ; and have to make the seal-skins into clothes.

They use dogs to draw their sledges over the ice There are huge white bears in Oreeniand. The bears io all other countries are brown or bbick. The English and the Dutch have beun continually trying to find a passage through the r -ys culled Br-tilin's and llud sun's Bar. ■ ■••■ at wish has been to find an opening to j;ovc;i west, by which they might vouch India, iludson's *3ay was so name! after a Dutch cap tain, a very brave man who first explored it. Again and again the English have tried to work their way through the ice. And at last, not long ago, an English ship did get through. But we have now given up the attempt to go by this way. i Two aen-of-war were lost in the ice only a year or two before. The ice is too thick for ships to go safely through. "We must now return to Newfoundland, of which we first spoke, opposite to that island is the river St. Laurence, ihe French gave it that name They first settled in the country around. The name of the whole country is Canada. Its chief town is Quebec. There are five large lakes in Canada. Two great rivers rise beyond these lakes, the Missouri and the Mississippi. The Mississippi is the largest river in the world. It runs to the south, and falls into the Gulf of Mexico. At its mouth stands the city of New Orleans. There arc crocodiles in this river like those in the Amazon. All the country that lies between the two great rivers, the St. Laurence and the Mississippi, has been peopled by colonists from England. Wben the settlers first landed there, they found very few native people on the ground. They were not as skilful as the Mexicans or Peruvians. They did not cultivate the ground. Their chief employment was to wander up and down the land to hunt wild beasts for food. Their houses-and canoes were made of the bark of trees, the strips of bark were sewn together. These bark canoes are so light that they can be carried on the back. The English found two new plants growing there, which have been greatly prized, these are the potatoe and tobacco plants. The Natives in North America first taught the English to smoke. In the great grassy plains inland are herds of bisons. These beasts are something like the cow in appearance, only thev have a hump between the shoulder, and the hair is always black. The bison is very fierce and wild, and roams about in these great plains. The Indians hunt it and kill great numbers for food. The English did not seize the land on which thev settled. They bought it all of the as they are still called. The English settlements have spread over the whole country westward, to the sea. They are almost like England sow, there are so many large towns and villages, and such good roads, and sol in any ships and steamers. The whale ships that visit New Zealand come from North America. 1

Formerly this American .people and the kingdom of England were all one, but after a while they separated and became independent. All the different settlements there are now united under one Government, and because of this union they are called the United States. The seat of Government is at Washington, but the chief town of all is New York. To the west of the United States is a great chain of high mountains which runs from north to south. It is part of the same chain we spoke of in South America, on the other side of these mountains is California. Further north the land is barren and very cold. The country to the extreme northwest belongs to the Russians who came thither from Asia by way of Siberia. They do not mind the cold, they are used to it. The Russians go there to trade in beaver skins, which are very valuable. The beaver is a small animal with very soft fine black hair, which is used for men's hats The beaver is a skilful little creature and builds houses for itself by the sides of the rivers. It can live either in or out of the water. It collects bark of trees and sticks to make its house of. and covers these over with clay. In the North the Esquimaux people live. This is the common name for all the native people in the north as far as Greenland. They all have sledges and dugs to carry them about over the snow.