1845 - Wakefield, E.J. Adventure in New Zealand [Vol.I.] - CHAPTER IV

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CHAPTER IV.

THE coast now forms a semicircular bay, at the northeast end of which is the mouth of Port Nicholson. A low table-land jutting out into a headland which we christened Baring Head, and the bluff end of a ridge called Turakirai, which divides Port Nicholson from Palliser Bay, form the eastern side of the semicircle. The western side slopes down from Sinclair Head into bare hills of moderate height, which, with a hilly fern-covered peninsula, form the western head of the harbour. The cove, at the head of which is the low sandy isthmus joining the peninsula to the main, might be mistaken by an inexperienced person for the real entrance. Piloted, however, by Dicky Barrett, we soon opened out the true channel, which lies between a two-headed bluff now called Pencarrow Head, a mile inside of Baring Head, and the peninsula. A reef of low black rocks is situated about mid-channel; and this seemed, as we approached from the westward, to close the passage. We found it, however, a mile in

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width between the reef and Pencarrow Head, and beat in against a good working breeze. Two islands inside the harbour formed distinguishing marks.

Captain Cook once anchored in the entrance of this magnificent harbour. Being anxious to rejoin the other ship in company with him, he was unable to examine it, but spoke highly of its promising appearance as a port.

It was christened Port Nicholson by the captain of a Sydney trading vessel some years ago, after his patron and friend the harbour-master of Port Jackson, in New South Wales.

As we advanced up the channel, which continues from two to three miles in width for four miles from a little inside the reef, we were boarded by two canoes, containing the two principal chiefs of the tribe living on shore. One of mature years, named Epuni, or "Greedy," advanced with much dignity of manner to greet Barrett as an old and respected friend, and was joined in this by his nephew Warepori, or "Dark House," a fine commanding man of about thirty-five. They were both nearly related to Mrs. Barrett, and had been Dicky's companions in the dangerous wars of Taranaki. The old man, Barrett told us, was as famous for his wisdom in council as for his former deeds of war. Warepori exercised the more immediate direction of the tribe, having acquired a more modern reputation by recent warlike exploits, by his attractive eloquence, and by his perfection in the native accomplishments of canoe and house making, clearing, and marshalling his followers in the field.

The harbour expanded as we advanced, two deep bays stretching to the south-west from the innermost end of the entering channel. From their western extremity the land trends round to a valley lying at the

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northern end of the harbour, about eight miles from the reef, while the hilly shores of the eastern side continue nearly straight to the mouth of the valley; thus leaving the upper part of the great basin four or five miles in width. In this upper part lie the two islands, behind the largest and most northerly of which we anchored at the distance of half-a-mile from the sandy beach at the valley's mouth. Epuni eagerly inquired the motive of our visit, and expressed the most marked satisfaction on hearing that we wished to buy the place, and bring white people to it. Warepori also expressed his willingness to sell the land, and his desire of seeing white men come to live upon it.

When the followers of Epuni and Warepori formed part of the extensive migration from Taranaki about the year 1834, they found this district occupied by the Ngatimutunga, who had been allied with Rauperaha during his invasion and conquest of the Strait. Tired, however, by the constant incursions of the Ngatikahuhunu, the tribe who had been driven by them to the east coast, but not exterminated, the Ngatimutunga determined to seek a new location. They partly forced and partly paid the captain of an English vessel to carry them to the Chatham Islands, which they conquered and occupied. Before they departed, E Mare, their head chief, formally ceded the place to Warepori in exchange for some clubs of green-stone or meri ponamu. The Ngatiawa had since that period been much harassed by parties of the old occupants, and also by invasions from Rauperaha's "boiling-water" allies, who had sometimes come overland down the northern valley which I have noticed.

The two chiefs passed the night on board. They told us that the schooner of which we had heard had left some native missionary teachers, and that, in compliance

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with Mr. Williams's instructions, they had built houses and chapels in readiness for his arrival. They then discussed the merits of the missionary labours. They acknowledged that they would be heartily glad to renounce war and cannibalism, but deprecated the incessant praying and singing, which the younger chief especially objected to, as taking the people from their industrious avocations, and substituting a monotonous repetition, which lasted all day and night, for activity in cultivating their potato-grounds or hollowing out canoes. "We want," said they, "to live in peace, and to have white people come amongst us. We are growing old, and want our children to have protectors in people from Europe. We do not want the missionaries from the Bay of Islands: they are pakeha maori, or 'whites who have become natives,' We have long heard of ships from Europe. Here is one at length; and we will sell our harbour and land, and live with the white people when they come to us."

Epuni also asked us to explain what the missionaries meant by saying, "that all the white men not missionaries were devils."

September 21st. --In the morning the two chiefs renewed the conversation about the land; and told Colonel Wakefield to go and look at the land, and see how he liked it. They did not wish to talk any more about it until this had been done; and Warepori said he should go and finish a large canoe which he was working at, and that in two or three days he should have done, and my uncle would know whether the land was good. A chief named Amahau was appointed to take him up the river which flows through the valley of which I have spoken; and they started, with Barrett and some natives, in a small canoe.

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Several of us landed at a large village opposite our anchorage, and witnessed the ceremony of crying over E Rangi, whom many of her numerous relations had not seen for live years. The village lay, as its maori name {Pitone, or "End of the Sand") implied, at the western end of the sandy beach, which is about two miles long. The main river falls into the sea at the eastern end, about a quarter of a mile from the hills which bound the valley to the east, and is called the Heretaonga. A merry brawling stream, called the Korokoro, or "throat," flows between the village and the western hills. The valley seems to preserve an average width of two miles to a considerable distance, bounded on either side by wooded hills from 300 to 400 feet in height. It was covered with high forest to within a mile and a half of the beach, when swamps full of flax, and a belt of sand-hummocks, intervened.

The tangi, or crying, continued for a long period. The resident natives raised the most discordant whining lamentations, streaming at the eyes, nose, and mouth, and lacerating every part of their bodies with sharp cockle-shells until the blood flowed. This was done, however, with considerable regularity and attention, so as to leave scars rather ornamental than otherwise after the affair was over. Those who wish to commemorate one of these scenes of mourning or rejoicing (for the ceremonies and native word are precisely the same in both cases), apply a black dye to the scar, and thus retain a sort of slight tatu.

The native visitors from Te-awa-iti, who had acquired to a considerable degree civilized ways of greeting one another, seemed anything but comfortable while the ceremony lasted. They had forgotten the art of producing tears at will, and had a decided objection to

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spoiling their fine clothes, donned for the occasion, by any blood-letting. They therefore hung down their heads and looked wretched, patiently waiting for the moment when native etiquette would allow them to laugh and be cheerful, and exchange the important news from either side of the Strait.

We started with a native guide to look for pigeons, strongly impressed with the wish of escaping to a respectful distance from the melodious greeting.

Along the foot of the western hills we passed through numerous flourishing potato-gardens, and were greeted and stared at by those at work in them, who eagerly collected all the news from our guides. We found abundance of pigeons, and returned laden to the pa. The tangi had terminated; the umu, or "cooking-holes," were smoking away for the feast; and eager groups of inquisitive faces were gathered round the proud narrators of our doings in Queen Charlotte's Sound. Our friend Jim Crow found many old friends and relations at Pitone, and his audience was by no means the least numerous or attentive. Nothing can remind one more forcibly of the monkey who had seen the world, than a maori thus relating news. He is an incorrigible exaggerator, and swells each minute circumstance into an affair of state, taking delight in drawing repeated exclamations of amazement from the surrounding badauds, who admire and envy the red night-cap or trowsers with which he may be adorned, with quite as much zeal as they drink in his metaphors and amplifications.

Nayti, who belonged to a different tribe, the Kawia, had not yet had much opportunity of indulging in this universal propensity; he seemed shy and reserved among these people, and they appeared to regard him with more suspicion than respect.

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Enai, the Kawia chief, had taken great pains to depreciate him in our estimation when we were at Port Gore, by saying that he was no chief, and that his name was not Nayti, but Eriki Nono, a term, when translated, expressive of some contempt. We attributed a good deal of this to Enai's envy of Nayti for possessing so many fine things. Nayti, however, who had confirmed us in our supposition that the name Eriki, applied to him constantly by the Ship Cove and Te-awa-iti people, signified "chief," now allowed it to be only a corruption of Dicky, by which name he had served, when a boy, in whale-boats at Cloudy Bay. We also discovered that he was not so well related as he had stated in England, but that the great attention paid to him by people of the highest classes there had very naturally induced him to give a tacit consent to the term "chief" or "prince," by which they often designated him: we therefore attached no blame to him for this assumption. The confused idea which the natives have of relationship, too, had assisted in causing him to make this mistake. A native will often state another man to be his tuakana, or "elder" brother, meaning only that he is of an elder branch of the same family. In like manner, matua, or "parent," implies no direct parentage, but often indicates only a slight relationship of a person of the older generation in the same family. Nayti had told us of his numerous brothers and sisters, having in fact neither one nor the other, but meaning cousins in various degrees.

We found one solitary white man, named Joe Robinson, living in a village near the mouth of the river, having taken a native wife from the tribe. We saw a proof of his industry and ingenuity in the shape of a boat, the planks for which he had cut with a hand-saw; and he had made all the nails himself out of iron

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hoop. This boat earned many a pound in later times by trading round the coast.

Colonel Wakefield returned on board in the evening, having ascended the main branch of the river until some snags prevented the further progress of the canoe. He described the banks as of the richest soil, and covered with majestic timber, except where fertile but scanty gardens had been cleared and cultivated by the natives. He found some fifty people at work there, who had concealed themselves in the bush the day before on hearing our guns when we saluted the New Zealand flag as we anchored. They greeted him on his ascent, and presented him with potatoes cooked in readiness on his return. At one spot they inquired of the guide whether the White men in the ship were missionaries. Upon his answering that they were all devils, "shouts of laughter," Colonel Wakefield afterwards wrote, "betrayed their acquaintance with his allusion," and their opinion of the uncharitable tenet which had "given rise to it."

September 22nd, Sunday. --The breeze of yesterday had increased into a gale, and blew with great violence from north-west. The ship, however, was not affected by it. Several canoes came off with natives, to be present at our Church service One of them, a low skimming-dish thing without topside planks, filled and turned over, ducking six or seven natives, including a woman, who were passengers. They seemed to be perfectly used to such accidents, and some hung on to the bottom of the canoe while the others swam with one hand and gathered the paddles which had gone adrift. One of our boats soon rescued them, and they were furnished with dry blankets and sent to warm themselves at the galley.

In the evening a messenger arrived from abreast of

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Kapiti, with the news that a fight might be expected; the "Boiling-water" tribe having mustered in great strength near to that place, and being set on by Rauperaha to attack the Ngatiawa along the intervening coast. As there seemed some probability that this invasion might reach Port Nicholson, the natives one and all went ashore in defiance of the gale to gather the particulars and consult on measures of defence.

23rd. --I accompanied Colonel Wakefield and Barrett in an excursion to the different settlements round the harbour. At one about half-way along the west shore, called Nga Hauranga, we found Warepori at work with an adze on a large canoe. The bottom of this vessel consisted of a single tree hollowed out, and was sixty feet long. The long planks to be added on to the sides were placed between pegs stuck into the ground so as to give them the requisite curvature. We had not been there long before two large canoes from the southern end of the harbour put in at his call. They were on their way to Pitone, whither two chiefs were going in order to discuss the sale of the land. When they had landed, there were about sixty men assembled, and they proceeded to hold a korero or "talk," on the all-important subject, while the women prepared a feast in the native ovens, and the children gathered round us to examine our clothes and other equipments, and to stare at our white faces.

Warepori put aside his adze, and introduced the matter shortly, saying that this white man (Colonel Wakefield) had come to buy all their land and give them white people to befriend them

A chief named Puakawa, or "Bitter Milk-thistle," now rose, and opposed the intended sale with great energy. He objected to it on the score of the bad treatment which he urged might be expected from the

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White settlers, and represented the folly of parting with the new home of which they had acquired so good and secure possession after the long sufferings and dangers of their migration. He spoke for an hour, most vigorously, and with admirable emphasis and gesticulation. Although I did not then know enough of the language to understand all his words, and only gathered the substance from Barrett at each pause, his expression and action sufficiently explained the spirit and sense of his oration. An old sage named Matangi now rose and favoured the sale. He was once the most influential chief of the tribe, and was a near relation of Warepori's father. His extreme old age and consequent physical debility had impaired his influence, but his experience and venerable dignity still gave great weight to his words. His silver-white hair and long beard, and benignant countenance, gave him the air of a Priam or a Nestor, and he almost wept for joy when he dwelt on the prospect of white people coming to protect his grandchildren against their enemies.

Warepori followed in the same strain; talking, however, about himself a great deal. He said that he was known in Europe, and that the ship had been sent to him. This is the usual habit of a powerful chief, who always seizes upon any opportunity of maintaining his personal consequence among his people. No native ever "bounces," as it is called by the whalers, at one of these public korero, unless he is confident that no other member of the tribe dare contradict or ridicule his assumption. The perfect silence maintained during Warepori's somewhat bombastic speech, proved to how great an extent he might rely upon his authority. He was left, however, with no audience but the leader of the opposition, Puakawa, as soon as the cooks displayed their bill of fare. We also partook of the meal,

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having assigned to us two or three newly made baskets-ful of birds and potatoes cooked deliciously. The maori "umu," or cooking-hole, is a very complete steaming apparatus, and is used as follows. In a hole scraped in the ground, about three feet in diameter and one foot deep, a wood fire is first lighted. Round stones, about the size of a man's fist, are heaped upon the faggots, and fall among the ashes as the fire consumes the wood. When they are thus nearly red-hot, the cook picks out any pieces of charcoal that may appear above the stones, turns all the stones round with two sticks, and arranges them so as to afford a pretty uniform heat and surface. She then sprinkles water on the stones from a dried gourd of which the inside has been hollowed, and a copious steam rises. Clean grass, milk-thistle, or wild turnip leaves, dipped in water, are laid on the stones; the potatoes, which have been carefully scraped of their peel with cockle-shells, and washed, are placed on the herbs, together with any birds, meat, or fish that may be included in the mess; fresh herbs are laid over the food, flax baskets follow, completely covering the heap, and the masses then buried with the earth from the hole. No visible steam escapes from the apparatus, which looks like a large mole-hill; and when the old hags, who know how to time the cookery with great accuracy from constant practice, open the catacomb, everything is sure to be found thoroughly and equally cooked.

The little birds were chiefly the tui or mocking-bird. This bird has been often described. It resembles a blackbird in size and plumage, with two graceful bunches of white feathers under the neck. It abounds in the woods, and is remarkably noisy and active. Its most common note is a mixture of two or three graduated notes on a flute, a sneeze, and a sharp whistle; but it imitates

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almost every feathered inhabitant of the forest, and, when domesticated, every noise it hears. It is of a particularly sweet flavour, and very tender.

We were struck, during the discussion above-mentioned, with the natural dignity and becoming regularity with which the deliberations were carried on. With the exception of an occasional exclamation of "korero! korero!" "speak! speak!" which was used like our "hear! hear!" in either an encouraging or an ironical sense, or an earnest but low expression of approval or dissent, no interruption of the orators ever took place; nor was there any contention as to the order in which the different chiefs should speak. Even while Warepori was employing each of his feet to rub off the other a cloud of small, troublesome sand-flies which annoyed him while he was speaking, not a smile was to be observed even among the children. No consulting among themselves took place; each speaker seemed to have come with his words prepared, or to rely on his own capacity for expressing the ideas of the moment or meeting unexpected arguments. Puakawa, although far from convinced, seemed to acquiesce partly in the general decision adopted in favour of the sale, and moved off with the rest of the travelling orators to Pitone, where a similar discussion was to take place. We took the remains of our meal with us into the boat, and visited one or two settlements at the southern end of the harbour before we returned on board. It is absolutely requisite, in order to comply with the forms of Maori etiquette, for the guest to take away his dish and all that he has not eaten. It would give lasting offence to leave on the spot any part of what is set before him. A compliance with this custom would cause some astonishment at a large London banquet.

24th. --The discussion was renewed at Pitone

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to-day; many chiefs being present from the other settlements. It ended, as yesterday, in the thorough approval of the measure by a very large majority; Puakawa and a few adherents still looking with a doubting eye upon the transaction. When the speeches were concluded, and the whole nature of the proposed transaction, including the provision for the Native Reserves, had been explained to them, Col. Wakefield asked the chiefs, through Barrett, whether they had made up their minds? They asked in return, "Have you seen the place? how do you like it?" He answered that he had seen it sufficiently, and that it was good: upon which they replied, that it would be for him now to speak, as they had decided upon selling their lands on their own judgment, aided by the advice of their people in the neighbourhood. They referred to Puakawa and his people, who were the only dissenters, and said that they had but little right to speak about the land, and had shown no solid argument against its sale. Their chief one had been that the white people would drive the natives away, as they had done at Port Jackson; and this the others over-ruled by adducing the Native Reserves, and saying that they would live with the Englishmen as with each other.

After the serious discussion had closed, some of the warlike chiefs amused us and themselves by sham-fighting, and their exercise with the spear and tomahawk. One, named Kaihaia, diverted us much by his active menacing gestures and hideous grimaces of defiance, leaping about like a monkey, and bringing a long pointed wooden spear within an inch of our bodies; then retreating with a roar of laughter every time he saw us shrink from the thrust. He is nicknamed Taringa kuri, or "Dogs-ear," and professed great hatred for Rauperaha, whose name he frequently shouted out

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as he brandished his hatchet against thin air. I repaid him his surprise the first day that he came on board. I had got an accordion under a large cloak, and kept time to its notes with my mouth, so as to deceive him and twenty other natives into the idea that I was uttering the various sounds. They showed a profound respect for my oratorical talents, until I let them find out the trick, a day or two after. The accordion in question was called my mouth for a long time afterwards.

25th. -- This morning, the goods which Colonel Wakefield intended to give the natives for their land were got upon deck, in the presence of about a hundred of the natives. Except incessant chattering, they offered no obstruction or inconvenience to this process; but as they filled up a good deal of room on deck, which was wanted in order to assort the various things, my uncle requested Warepori to explain this and get them to go ashore until all was ready. He instantly addressed them from the hurricane-house, and set the example of going on shore himself, which was readily and expeditiously followed by all.

On the 26th, when all the articles had been selected and arranged, a message was sent on shore for all the chiefs, who came accompanied by their sons. They examined the stock of goods strictly and carefully, and approved of the quality and quantity. They seemed, however, embarrassed as to the distribution among the six minor tribes of which the population was composed. It was therefore proposed to them to divide the lots on our deck. Colonel Wakefield also sent for the principal native missionary teacher, a young man who had been christened Richard Davis, after his master and patron at the Bay of Islands, and who had arrived in the missionary schooner mentioned formerly. It was hoped that his presence as a witness to the transaction

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might give it weight and force; but on his arrival, we found him so importunate for presents to himself, and so totally devoid of influence or authority among the chiefs, that we did not regret his returning to tend a sick child at home.

A very ample and liberal compensation, according to the number of native inhabitants and the standard of value assigned to land in all former purchases, had been appointed by Colonel Wakefield. As he was resolved, however, to distinguish this purchase by a freedom from that haggling and over-reaching spirit which we had ascertained to have characterized all former dealings with the New Zealanders, he informed them through Barrett, that he should show them at once what he intended to give, and that he would suffer no bargaining for more or less.

It was plainly, however, contrary to the custom of the Maori to dispose of so important an affair without plenty of talking; so they debated in due form as to the course to be adopted in distributing the goods; and Warepori, as he had been repeatedly urged by us, used his best endeavours to prevent the occurrence of one of those fierce and sometimes fatal scrambles which Barrett and the other white men told us were the universal consequence of a large present of goods to any of these tribes. He entreated the different chiefs to exert their influence towards preventing such an event when our boats should land the goods at the different settlements. Some of them seemed half inclined to protest against this reform of their customary habits, and appeared to look forward with some interest to the excitement of a scramble, in which they knew that personal prowess obtained the better share. Puakawa took advantage of this slight difference of opinion to address another violent harangue to the assemblage,

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dissuasive of the whole measure. He seemed most earnest and wilful in his opposition, and used the energetic action suited to his words. His attentive audience cried "korero! korero!" as on shore; and seemed to humour his love of contradiction while they differed from him in opinion.

After enumerating the articles of which the payment consisted, he described with great vivacity the rush which would be sure to take place for them on shore, and dwelt upon the fact that there would not be enough of everything to go round among all, and that many would remain dissatisfied. He said that everyone had cleared a bit of land, and that many would find themselves deprived of that, and without anything in exchange. "What will you say," urged he, "when you find that you have parted with all your land from the Rimarapa to the Turakirai, and from the Tararua to the sea?"

These were the boundaries which had been pointed out by Warepori from the deck in the hearing of the assembled chieftains. He had followed with his finger the summit of the mountain ranges mentioned, and told me their names, in order to their insertion in the deed, which I had been employed in preparing in the course of the day. Tararua is the name of a high snowy range, at the head of the great valley, from which the two other ranges branch off to the sea.

It was extremely difficult--nay almost impossible--to buy a large and distinct tract of land, with fixed boundaries, from any native or body of natives of this part of New Zealand, perfectly unused as they were to any dealing in land according to our notions. These people had no distinct boundaries marked when they received the cession from the Ngatimutunga, and would have been puzzled to walk round or point out accu-

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rately any particular limit between the waste land under their jurisdiction and that at the disposal of another tribe. The Kawia tribe, indeed, laid a claim to this whole neighbourhood, also without exact boundaries. The Ngatiawa chiefs knew that they had a right to occupy any portion of the land near Port Nicholson, because E Mare had told them to do so, and because they maintained by their own gallantry and strength their right to clear new patches where they pleased and to live unejected by their enemies. But they knew not of any further right to a district covered with primaeval forest, far too vast for the use of any descendants of their tribe whom they could look forward to, and likely, as far as they thought, to remain both unvisited and useless for ages to come. No hunting ever led to disputes concerning limits in the forest, there being no beasts to hunt; and the only disputes respecting land which had yet occurred between the natives themselves arose from the invasion of lands already cleared or likely to be wanted soon, or the taking of trees from a forest already marked out by another savage for a supply of canoes or house-timber. The first clearer became the acknowledged owner of a tract of hitherto intact land: the first axeman in a primaeval forest laid claim to the surrounding trees. But a claim to waste land beyond this natural one of seizure and occupancy was unknown among them at this time. It may be safely asserted that Warepori considered himself to be making over to Colonel Wakefield this vague right deduced from proximity, together with that over the more actual possessions of the tribe near the sea, when he pointed with his finger along a line of hills forming the horizon of sight all round, on which he had probably never been, and concerning which he could have no certain knowledge

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whether they were inhabited or not by other owners. And he had acquired the idea of ownership to this wild and desert district by the wish which we had expressed, of paying a larger sum than he had yet seen for a larger tract of land than any for which he had yet heard treated, in order to receive a population beyond his imagination of numbers, and to be made available with a rapidity beyond what he could conceive. It was probably the first time that he had thought of the boundaries to the waste land over which he claimed dominion; and the haughty way in which he pointed out, on being asked the question for the first time, that he was "monarch of all he surveyed," had some affinity to his former assumption that the first ship he had ever seen from Europe was come out expressly to him. They were both rapid adoptions of new ideas, which our suggestions and offers of a new state of things induced him to seize and confirm.

Colonel Wakefield was accordingly obliged to buy of the natives, not certain lands within certain boundaries, but the rights, claims, and interests of the contracting chieftains, whatsoever they might be, to any land whatever within certain boundaries. Such were the terms of all the deeds afterwards executed, and such were the terms of the Company's purchases as explained fully to the chiefs themselves.

"What will you say," continued Puakawa, "when many, many White men come here, and drive you all away into the mountains? How will you feel when you go to the White man's house or ship to beg for shelter and hospitality, and he tells you, with his eyes turned up to heaven, and the name of his God in his mouth, to be gone, for that your land is paid for?"

I was sensibly affected by his earnest depiction of this scene, and the sincerity which his face reflected as

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he held up so discouraging a prospect to his fellow men; and when Barrett had interpreted his words, I glowed with pleasure at the thought that the day would come when he would recognize that there were White men different from those he had yet seen, who would make use of their superiority, and even their legal right, only to afford the most extended hospitality and kindness to such as himself, and to raise him up to a level with themselves.

These long and repeated discussions were most interesting and satisfactory; as they proved how thoroughly the most dissentient natives understood the force of the transaction, and how gratefully they would welcome the subsequent disarming of their suspicions.

Puakawa wound up his oration by declaring that there were about half the goods now shown that had been on the deck the day before. His audience, however, who had carefully examined the heaps, expressed the same frank dissent which never failed to attend upon any of his statements which exceeded the bounds of truth, or seemed improbable as conjectures.

The debate had lasted till sunset; and all but the elder chiefs returned to the shore for the night.

September 27th. --This morning the distribution on the deck of the goods commenced; Warepori superintending it with much formality, and several of the chiefs addressing the numerous spectators at intervals. Some trouble arose from the desire not to open the cases of muskets, of which there were only five, that some might be sent to each of the six settlements. In these large acquisitions of property, the natives always like to receive a bale, a case, or a cask whole, as the transaction assumes a more opulent appearance in the opinion of the other tribes among whom the news travels. For instance, more pigs can be obtained for an unbroken

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cask of tobacco, than for the contents divided into many small portions, and exchanged against single pigs. My uncle, on becoming aware of the difficulty, at once gave them a sixth case, which made things quite smooth.

Warepori placed equal portions of all the other goods on each of the musket-cases, till they were expended. He reserved but little for himself; keeping some powder and cartridges, in order to be ready for war. Several of the other chiefs showed equal disinterestedness, and declared that their principal object was to get white people to live among them. A handsome young man, named E Tako, who was nearly related to Mrs. Barrett, received the share for his father, the chief of Pipitea and Kumu toto, two contiguous settlements at the south-west end of the harbour; and he arrayed himself in a good suit of clothes selected from the heap. He had taken an active and eager part in promoting the agreement, and bringing it to a conclusion. Old "Dog's-ear" received the share for his settlement, which is called Kai Wara Wara; Epuni received that for Pitone; Warepori himself took charge of the portion assigned to his immediate followers at Nga hauranga, and dispatched a share which had been made purposely smaller to the pa Te Aro, the most southerly of the settlements, where a tributary tribe, called the Taranaki, had their habitation. The sixth share was assigned to Puakawa and his followers, who had determined, when they saw the others receiving their shares satisfactorily, to desist from any further opposition. He accordingly took charge of the goods, and, though in silence, followed the example of the others.

I had prepared a deed according to Colonel Wakefield's instructions, nearly in the words of some deeds

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which we had on board, that had been drawn on the model of those used by missionary land-buyers in the northern part of the island. The boundaries and native names being inserted from Warepori's dictation, the deed was brought on deck, and laid on the capstern. As I read it through, sentence by sentence, in English, Barrett interpreted into Maori; and he was repeatedly urged by Colonel Wakefield to explain fully each important provision contained in it. The Native Reserves were especially dwelt upon. Although the natives had repeatedly discussed every point, and this was therefore only a repetition of the agreement to which they had all given an ample assent on several occasions, and though they were anxious to get the goods on shore, and the distribution there ended, they listened with great attention and decorum to the recapitulation of the deed in both languages. The chiefs then came up in succession to the capstern, in order to make their marks. As each one's name was called, I wrote it down, and held the pen whilst he made a mark opposite. They all brought their sons with them, in order, as they suggested, to bind them in the transaction, and to prove that they looked forward to the future.

The boats were then sent away with the goods to the settlements; the chief of each accompanying them, and undertaking to distribute them at his own place. The officers in charge of the boats reported on their return, that not the slightest tumult had attended the landing, and that the greatest quietness and order had prevailed while the chief apportioned the lots of each head of a family.

Warepori and Epuni appeared at our dinner-table to-day, dressed in their newly-acquired suits of clothes, and looked very respectable. The former, however, soon came into my uncle's cabin to undress, as he found

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the coat and shoes made him very uneasy. Both these chiefs had been to Sydney, and were exceedingly desirous of becoming like an English gentleman.

During the time taken up in discussions, I had acquired a great many words of Maori, and began to understand a good deal and make myself understood a little. I had become very good friends with the natives in various excursions ashore, and was designated by a nickname while here, which remained from this time my only name among them till I left the country. Some of the young people had made many attempts to pronounce "Edward Wakefield," on receiving an answer to their question as to my name. The nearest approach they could make to it was Era weke, and some wag immediately suggested "Tiraweke," the name of a small bird which is very common in the woods, and known for its chattering propensities. As I had made it a point to chatter as much as possible with them, whether according to Maori grammar or not, they agreed that the sobriquet would do, and reported their invention at the pa. The old men and chiefs were not a bit behind their juniors in their hilarity and fondness for a joke, and never called me otherwise afterwards. They also christened Colonel Wakefield "Wide-awake," after some chief who had been so called by the flax-traders in former times; and this name also has clung to him ever since.

Dr. Dieffenbach and Mr. Heaphy engaged some native guides one day to go and look for some birds called huia, which were said to abound in this part of the country.

The huia is a black bird about as large as a thrush, with long thin legs, and a slender semicircular beak, which he uses for seeking in holes of trees for the insects on which he feeds. In the tail are four long

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black feathers tipt with white. These feathers are much valued by the natives as ornaments for the hair on great occasions; and are highly esteemed as presents from the inhabitants of this neighbourhood to those of the north, where the bird is never found. Near the insertion of the beak, a fleshy yellow wattle is placed on either side.

Our sportsmen crossed the mouth of the Heretaonga river, and ascended a steep ridge of the eastern hills. Among the forests on the top they remained ensconced in the foliage, while the natives attracted the birds by imitating the peculiar whistle, from which it takes the name of huia. They only shot two or three, which had followed the decoy almost on to the barrels of their guns.

I had formed one of several shooting parties and fishing excursions. The former were generally conducted in the different creeks into which the river divides from a kind of tidal lagoon inside the sand-bar, and we fell in with numerous pigeons and wild-ducks while exploring their courses as high as our boat could proceed. The grandeur of the forest which overshaded these clear creeks, the luxuriance and entanglement of the underwood, and the apparent richness of the soil, could nowhere be exceeded. We longed to see the time when the benefit of the latter should be reaped by industrious English yeomen.

Our fishing parties were generally directed to a snug cove about a mile south-east of the river's mouth, which we christened Lowry Bay, after the first mate, who used to be head fisherman, and direct our bungling exertions in the management of the sean. In this place we generally had a fine haul of plaice, sole, and several other kinds of fish. On the beach near Pitone we obtained several immense hauls, whenever a shoal of

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kawai came into that part of the bay. The kawai has somewhat of the habits of the salmon, entering during the spring and summer into the bays, rivers, and fresh- water creeks in large shoals: it resembles the mackerel in appearance, but is not equal in flavour to either of those fish. The natives catch large quantities of them with a bone hook at the end of a fish-shaped piece of wood, inlaid with the shell of the mutton-fish, or haliotus, which bears the lively colours and brilliancy of mother-o'-pearl. This hook requires no bait, and a dozen of them are dragged along the water by a canoe which pulls at full speed through the shoal.

There are many other sorts of fish, including the tamore, or snapper; the manga, or barracoota; the mango, or dog-fish, of which the natives catch and store large quantities, by drying them in the sun; and the hapuka. This last fish is caught in pretty deep water, near reefs and rocks. It often reaches a great size, weighing as much as 112 lbs. It bears a considerable resemblance to the cod in form, but is, however, of far finer flavour. The head and shoulders, especially, when cooked, seem a mass of jelly. The moki is also a well-flavoured fish, weighing 10 lbs. or 12 lbs.

Sunday, 29th. --After prayers, Colonel Wakefield went round the harbour with Warepori to visit the different settlements, in order to see how the people were satisfied, and to invite them to a sort of festival which was to be held on the occasion at Pitone on Monday. At the slave settlement, Te Aro, Warepori addressed the occupants, who had the same abject dependent appearance which we had remarked in the Rangitane at the Pelorus River. He told them what benefits would accrue to them, and excused himself for having sent them a smaller share of the goods, as the free settlements had required a large proportion; but

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encouraged them by reminding them that they were now armed, and in a position to defend themselves, should they he attacked by Rauperaha and the "Boiling-water" tribes. He dwelt on the promotion in caste which they would by this means obtain, as "each man that fell would now be buried with his musket and cartouch-box, and be mourned over as a warrior that died with arms in his hands." He thus eloquently conciliated those who had been a little jealous of the unequal partition; and when one of the missionary teachers came forward to reproach him for not having kept half the land for the White missionaries expected from the north, he administered a severe rebuke to his assailant, which was loudly applauded by the listening multitude.

"How can you," retorted he, "who are a child, reprove me for anything that I have done? If I had sold the land to the White missionaries, might they not have sold it again to Wiwi 1(Frenchmen) or Americans? This rangatira-hoia (soldier-chief)," he continued, "will bring many English from their country, and how could they live with a hostile tribe? They are not all Englishmen that come from Europe: there is a White man on board the ship who is not English: I know him by his tongue. This was in allusion to Dr. Dieffenbach. We were rather surprised to find so much knowledge of nations and preference for the English in Warepori's mind; but he had most likely acquired it among the flax-traders, and during his visit to Sydney.

He concluded his speech, after getting into the boat, by saying that his wish had been to satisfy everybody, and that he had kept nothing for himself; that he should learn English, and go to England. He laid

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his head on Colonel Wakefield's knee, and said that if the natives were discontented with him, he should live with the White men, and that the tribe of England should be his fathers.

At this place Colonel Wakefield proposed to pay for the chapels and houses which the missionary delegates had built on a piece of flat land where he intended to fix the site of the town; but Warepori objected, saying that he had already paid for the whole of the land and everything upon it.

At each of the other settlements Colonel Wakefield engaged the natives to be active in collecting provisions, clearing land, and bringing timber for building to the site of the town. Warepori supported the request, and then asked the young men to collect at Pitone, in order to join in a war-dance to be given in the morning. Colonel Wakefield was universally treated as a benefactor, and we had the satisfaction of hearing on all hands expressions of contentment at the purchase-money, and eager hope for the speedy arrival of the settlers. The chiefs repeatedly impressed upon the people that their land was gone for ever, with the exception of what the White people would allow them for cultivation and residence; that they would never receive any further payment for it, but would be paid for any labour which they performed for the White people; and that the contract would be considered tapu, and as inviolable as any of the reservations of holy places which are often made among themselves.

30th. --This morning we observed the natives gathering from all parts of the harbour. Canoes and parties on foot, glittering with their lately acquired red blankets and muskets, were all closing in upon the place of rendezvous; fresh smokes rose every moment on shore as a new oven was prepared for the feast; and

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Warepori and the other chiefs who had slept on board went on shore early to make the necessary preparations, accompanied by our carpenter, who was to superintend the erection of a small tree which the natives had procured for the purpose, as a flag-staff, close to the Pitone pa. In the afternoon, on a signal from the shore, we landed in our boats with all the cabin party, and all the sailors that could be spared, to take part in the rejoicings. We were joyfully received by the assemblage, which consisted of about three hundred men, women, and children. Of these, two hundred were men, and had armed themselves with the hundred and twenty muskets they had received from us, spears, tomahawks, pointed sticks, stone and wooden clubs, &c. Even a dozen umbrellas, which had formed part of the payment, figured in the ranks as conspicuously as the Emperor of Marocco's son's parasol has figured in more recent battalions. Every one was dressed in some of the new clothes; their heads were neatly arranged, and ornamented with feathers of the albatross or huia; handsome mats hung in unison with the gay petticoats of the women and the new blankets of the warriors; the latter were bedizened with waist-coats and shirts, and belted with cartouch-boxes and shot-belts. It was high holiday with everybody; and a universal spirit of hilarity prevailed among the excited multitude.

As we landed Colonel Wakefield ordered the New Zealand flag to be hoisted at the staff; and the same was done at the main of the Tory, which saluted it with twenty-one guns, to the great delight of the natives at the noise and smoke.

Warepori then asked if we were ready; and told us that many men were absent, some at their distant gardens, some on an expedition to the westward, and

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some deterred by the bad weather which had prevailed during the morning. He then took his station at the head of one of the parties into which the fighting-men were divided, "Dog's-ear" having marshalled the other at a little distance. Warepori was dressed in a large hussar cloak belonging to my uncle, to which he had taken a fancy, and brandished a handsome green-stone meri. His party having seated themselves in ranks, he suddenly rose from the ground and leaped high into the air with a tremendous yell. He was instantly imitated by his party, who sprang out of their clothes as if by magic, and left them in bundles on the ground. They then joined in a measured guttural song recited by their chief, keeping exact time by leaping high at each louder intonation, brandishing their weapons with the right hand, and slapping the thigh with the left as they came heavily upon the ground. The war-song warmed as it proceeded; though still in perfect unison, they yelled louder and louder, leaped higher and higher, brandished their weapons more fiercely, and dropped with the smack on the thigh more heavily as they proceeded, till the final spring was accompanied by a concluding whoop which seemed to penetrate one's marrow. After this preparatory stimulant, the two parties ran down to the beach, and took up positions facing each other at about two hundred yards' distance. They then repeated the dance; and at its conclusion the two parties passed each other at full speed, firing their guns as they ran, and took up a fresh position nearer to each other.

A small reinforcement was now brought up from Puakawa's, village at the mouth of the river to one of the parties; and we were much surprised to see at the head of it Richard Davis, the missionary teacher, dressed in warlike costume, and his head bedecked with

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huia feathers. He took an eager part in the proceedings, and was the bearer of a sort of sham challenge from one party to the other. They now for a third time went through the pero pero, or "war-dance;" but dispensed with any sham-fighting, as the day was nearly at an end, and they wished everything to terminate in an amicable way. Many of the women had joined in the wildest part of the dance, yelling and grimacing with as demoniacal a frenzy as any of the men. We were shown some natives from Wanganui, a settlement some distance north of Kapiti, who distinguished themselves by their ferocious appearance. They had blackened all round their eyes with charcoal, and painted themselves copiously with streaks of red ochre and oil; they performed their part with excessive vigour and gusto, and looked, when in the ecstasy of the dance, like demons incarnate. Barrett and Warepori told us that these Wanganui natives were looked upon as the most savage and warlike even by the other tribes, and that they spoke a different dialect from the Ngatiawa. They were closely allied, at this time, with the latter.

A haka was now performed by about one hundred and fifty men and women. They seated themselves in ranks in one of the court-yards of the pa, stripped to the waist. An old chieftainess, who moved along the ranks with regular steps, brandishing an ornamented spear in time to her movements, now recited the first verse of a song in a monotonous, dirge-like measure. This was joined in by the others, who also kept time by quivering their hands and arms, nodding their heads and bending their bodies in accordance with each emphasis and pause. These songs are often made impromptu on various subjects; but those selected for the present occasion were principally ancient legends.

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At the conclusion of the haka, we were served from the ovens with the joints of a pig, which had been sacrificed for the occasion, and the whole assemblage partook of an ample meal. We drank the healths of the chiefs and people of Port Nicholson in bumpers of champagne, and, christening the flag-staff, took formal possession of the harbour and district for the New Zealand Land Company, amidst the hearty cheers of the mixed spectators. The whole scene passed with the greatest harmony, and we were sensibly struck by the remarkable good feeling evinced towards us by the natives.

This disposition continued unabated during the three days more that we remained at this place. The natives, whether chieftains, inferiors, or slaves, treated us with the greatest kindness and affection. Warepori suggested that a deputation should proceed in the ship to assist us in buying the district of Taranaki, from which they were driven, and of which all who had been there, whether natives or White men, spoke in the highest terms. He also spoke of a flat and fertile district to the eastward, called Wairarapa, which opens into Palliser Bay. He declared it tapu for Colonel Wakefield, and swore by his head that no one else should have any of it till he had been to see it. Barrett told us that it answered his description, and had a fresh-water stream running through it into Palliser Bay.

Epuni's eldest son, E Ware, and a young chief named Tuarau, nephew of a former head chief of the Ngatiawa tribes, were selected to go with us to Taranaki, and took up their berths on board. E Ware had accompanied Captain Chaffers in a surveying expedition in one of the boats during the last week, of which an excellent chart of the harbour was the result. As

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soon as this was drawn, Colonel Wakefield proceeded to name the various points and bays. The south-western bay, where the most secure anchorage exists, and where the town was to be built, was named Lambton Harbour, in honour of the Earl of Durham, who was Governor of the Company, and had been a warm patron of the project in England. A piece of level ground, over which the town was to extend, was named Thorndon Flat, from Thorndon Hall in Essex, the residence of Lord Petre, who had also forwarded with his unceasing support the intended colony. The river Heretaonga received the name of Mr. William Hutt, another of the most energetic friends of the undertaking. The large island Matiu was christened Somes's Island, after Mr. Joseph Somes, the then Deputy-Governor of the Company. The most remarkable headlands at the entrance were named after Mr. Francis Baring, Sir George Sinclair, and Pencarrow, the residence of Sir William Molesworth; and the names of other places were selected from among those likely to be respected and honoured by the future inhabitants as memorials of the disinterested founders of the colony. Barrett's Reef must not be omitted in this list, as commemorating our worthy and honest co-operator.

The utmost satisfaction prevailed among all on board, at the conclusion of all the arrangements, as well as among the natives. We felt that we had secured, by an honourable bona fide transaction with the natives, an unexceptionable harbour and site for a town; and although the neighbouring land, with the exception of the valley of the Hutt, was rather rugged, we considered this as no lasting obstacle to the fitness of the place for a colony. Indeed, compared with the land on the Middle Island, the hills here appeared both low and easy of cultivation. We were moreover con-

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vinced, by the numerous accounts which we had gathered from White adventurers as well as natives, that this was the only harbour accessible to large shipping between Manukau on the west side of the North Island and the Thames on the opposite coast; and that the shipping and trade of that extensive coast-line must be sure to centre here.

But a far more satisfactory circumstance was the peculiarly agreeable way in which we felt sure of dealing with the native population. Their contentment and thorough appreciation of our good intentions in their favour, their spontaneous approbation of the whole transaction, which gave it more force and solemnity in our eyes than the most binding legal forms, and their pleasing eagerness for the arrival of our companions, all combined to induce in us great hopes of success. We felt how fortunate we had been in finding a population so uncontaminated by the vices of irregular colonization, so free from any prejudice for or against any class of strangers. We were therefore sanguine in our hopes that the colonists would be happy among a people so well disposed to greet them, and that the warm feelings of benevolence which we knew to be entertained by the principal intending settlers would be exercised upon a genial soil, when they should encourage the natives to co-operation with them in measures conducive to their own benefit and improvement. We relied much on the fact that this people acknowledged the powerful influence of one or two chiefs; and we hoped, by maintaining these latter, as persons entitled to respect and authority among their own people as well as among the emigrants, to work, through them, a beneficial change and speedy amelioration of the moral and physical condition of the natives.

If this inferior race were to be raised to our own level,

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it could only be done by means of a process analogous to their own customs. It seemed, therefore, reasonable to suppose that their institutions might be most effectually improved by means of the very men whom those institutions had set forth as the heads and guides of their fellow-countrymen. We looked upon Warepori, Epuni, and Puakawa, as capable of being admitted amongst the leading men of the colony; and as certain, when stirred by emulation and worthy ambition, to take pride in propagating by their influence a reform, easy and gradual because its successive steps should be appreciated, recommended, and adopted by those whose advice would obtain the greatest respect, and whose example would be followed with the most implicit confidence.

We confessed to ourselves that the apparent hostility of the native missionaries seemed to augur some difficulties; but we persuaded ourselves that they had exceeded their mission. They were all men who had been taken in war as slaves by the Northern tribes, and who had returned, upon their emancipation by their converted masters, to spread the doctrines which they had imbibed from the European missionaries in that part of the island.

Being debarred by native custom from resuming their previous caste after having been once enslaved, they were evidently very jealous of the authority of the chiefs, which they longed to overthrow, as opposed to the recognition of themselves as the guides of the tribe in matters temporal as well as spiritual. To this jealousy we attributed an undue dislike of such as, like ourselves, recognized the chiefs in actual authority as the only fit movers of the people. And we felt convinced that their hostile aspect was in excess of the instructions which they might have received from their Christian and

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civilized teachers. We were sanguine, at least, in our hopes that those among the latter who should candidly examine our proposed measures, would end by cordially co-operating with us in employing the chiefs as most apt instruments, while made equals with ourselves, in the work of civilization and conversion.

It must be remembered that the projectors of the colony had invited the coalition of the Parent Missionary Societies at home in this scheme. It was calculated to shield their flocks from the consequences of the irregular and vicious colonization which had already exercised a very deteriorating influence on the worthy efforts of the missionaries in the north of the islands, and which was daily increasing in extent and danger, unrestrained by any law or authority. It was in part with a view to the removing numerous scenes of contamination, such as that which I have described at Te-awa-iti, that the plan of a regular and orderly colonization was first put forth by the Association in 1837, and persevered in by the Company.

We remembered, too, Mr. Dandeson Coates's undeviating course of hostility to both the Association and the Company up to the moment of our embarking for New Zealand. His evidence before the House of Lords' Committee in 1838, and his refusal of the request made by one of our party for a copy of the grammar and vocabulary of the Maori language published by the Church Missionary Society, remained as proofs of Mr. Coates's determination, declared in words and published in pamphlets, that "he would thwart us by all the "means in his power."

The secretary of the Wesleyan Missionary Society had joined Mr. Coates in this course; and the Committees of both Societies had recorded their opinions in condemnation of our proceedings.

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We trusted, however, that these bitter feelings would not be continued long in the colony; and that no controversy or partisanship would be allowed to over-rule the conviction of our benevolent intentions which we felt sure of impressing on the Christian missionaries in New Zealand. We felt sure that their interest in the cause of religion, and their appreciation of a body of respectable settlers as co-operators and supporters in their work, combined with a knowledge of the ways in which example affected change in the native mind, would soon outweigh the opinion prejudicial to the colonists which they might have imbibed from their correspondents at home.

In the meanwhile, the slave teachers were not likely to exercise much influence over the disposition of the great body of natives towards us; and we hoped that the White missionaries, when they did arrive, would come as friends and brethren in the great work.

Colonel Wakefield left with Warepori Mr. Smith, whom I mentioned above, with a stock of garden-seeds and carpenter's tools, and a few goods with which to encourage the natives in the work of preparation for the arrival of the settlers. Warepori promised to put him in a new house at his own settlement, and to take care of him till our return. We also landed some pigs of a superior breed before we sailed. Some boards bearing the words "New Zealand Land Company" were put up in conspicuous places on the shores of the harbour.