'I Have Named it the Bay of Islands.'

Lee took the title for his book from the log of Captain James Cook, made when he first visited New Zealand in 1769, giving the sheltered waters where he anchored the name, Bay of Islands. When he wrote those words Cook could not have known that area would see some of the earliest contacts between Maori and European and settlement by the latter. Thus,The Bay of Islands was the scene of a number of historic occasions, including signing the Treaty of Waitangi, the first of the land wars and the conversion of the Maori people by missionaries. What Jack Lee does in his history is to update and expand on some of the information contained in earlier works of history, particularly regarding to the importance the Bay in commercial activities, including with the South Pacific and the vexed subject of land transactions with the Maori people. A fine history, the product of thorough research and wide personal knowledge of the area he writes about and its history. First edition of 1983, 328 pages including six appendices, the first containing 21 Maori whakapapa (genealogies), index, 13 contemporary b/w art works, eight portraits, four maps.