Title Page of Dr Solander's Manuscript
Translated, this reads:
The First Fruits of the Flora of New Zealand
Or
Catalogue of Plants Collected in the North and South Islands
of New Zealand from 8th october to 31st March AD 1769 and
1770
‘Eahei no Mauwe’ and ‘T'avai Poenammoo’ are Solander's (and Cook's) way of writing the Maori prases ‘he ahi no Maui’ (a fire of Maui) and ‘Te Wai-Pounamu’ (the water of greenstone). Cook adopted these names for the North and South Islands, though he stated he could not be sure whether they referred in each case to the whole island or to a district of it. Actually the Maoris called the North Island ‘Te Ika a Maui’ (Maui's fish) and the South Island ‘Te Waka a Maui’ (Maui's canoe).