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

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CHAPTER XVII.

ON the evening of the 5th I sailed again for Wanganui, in the Sandfly, a schooner of ten tons which had been built on the banks of the Hutt, and which I had chartered for three months for the Wanganui trade. I was accompanied by Mr. John Tylston Wicksteed, a gentleman who had lately arrived in the London, and who, as land-agent for the Church Society of which I have before spoken, wished to examine the district of Wanganui, the Company having granted that society a land-order in the second series entitling them to 4000 acres of land.

I beat out against a fresh southerly breeze, which fell calm when we had reached Sinclair Head. In the morning we were half-way across the Strait, and a light air was blowing from the north-west. On arriving off the entrance of the Tory Channel, I found the tide had begun to ebb, and so anchored in deep water under the lee of the south head. "Geordie Bolts," or Joseph Toms, of Te-awa-iti, who was on

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his way to his station at Porirua, was forced by the same circumstance to anchor alongside. We exchanged news and civilities. I gave him the last Wellington newspaper and some baker's bread; he handed me some fine vegetables out of his garden. He had a nice place at Te-awa-iti, much improved since our first arrival. The seeds out of the Tory which we gave him had served to furnish a very productive garden: he had a flock of forty or fifty goats, and as many geese. Besides his two whaling-stations at Porirua and Te-awa-iti, he had another in Port Underwood, and had taken out licences for public-houses at all three. That at Porirua, especially, promised to yield him profit, as the amount of travelling by land was rapidly increasing on the north side of the Strait since the foundation of the settlements at, Wanganui and Taranaki. At one o'clock the flood made, and we sailed on our respective destinations. As we beat into the channel, and passed Te-awa-iti at a rapid rate, we took a baked leg of mutton and the fresh vegetables out of our stove, and enjoyed the scenery while we ate our dinner on deck. About half-way along the channel we met the Brougham, striving to beat up to Te-awa-iti, where she had to take in oil and bone for London. I went on. board and told the captain that the flood-tide had made, and he therefore anchored in one of the bays till the next ebb. I then gathered from him the particulars of the location of the New Plymouth settlers. Mr. Carrington had at first fixed upon the banks of the river Waitera as the site of the new town. The embouchure of this river is about twelve miles north of the Sugar-loaf Islands, and has a bar nearly dry at low-water, with a rise of twelve feet in the spring-tides. They had found, however, that a bad surf ran there at times

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when it was comparatively smooth at Ngamotu; and after capsizing one or two boats at the entrance, the site had been removed to the coast close to the islands. The captain described the settlers as all well, and busied in preparations of all kinds.

Proceeding up the Sound, we found ourselves becalmed a few miles before reaching Ship Cove, near the entrance of West Bay. Although the bowsprit nearly touched the branches of the trees which overhung the water, we could find no bottom with seventeen fathoms of line; so we lay till morning, lifting on the long swell which rolled in from the north. It was one of those bright clear moonlight nights so highly to be enjoyed in New Zealand; and I sat till a late hour on the deck, listening to the shrill twittering of the night-birds as they flew across from hill to hill, or the gentle washing of the sea on the beaches and rocks, which gleamed in the moonlight, or lay hidden beneath the tufted foliage. When I rose in the morning, we had got a fair wind, and were about half-way between Cape Koumaru and Point Jackson. I here calculated our course for Wanganui, and steered straight for the mouth of the river. Mr. Wicksteed much enjoyed the comprehensive view afforded of the noble scenery of Cook's Strait.

The next morning at break of day, we were off the river's mouth; from which a cloud of mist was drifting out before the cold morning land-breeze. The sea was quite smooth; so I beat up into the fog till the water shoaled, and then anchored in nine feet until I could make out the passage over the bar. The peaks of Tonga Riro, glowing with sunshine, towered over the top of the mist as we advanced, and Mount Egmont's snowy cap peeped out of the clouds to the westward as the sun spread his light that way. I had merci-

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lessly pulled Mr. Wicksteed and another passenger out of their warm beds to admire the strange effect. They had hardly got on deck when we became shrouded in the mist; and a scene ensued which must have combined with the fog, as it drove past us, and retained the shadow of our rigging in gigantic proportions when an occasional gleam of the rising sun penetrated it, to make them think some magic was used in this handiwork of nature. We first heard voices in the fog, which I soon recognised to be those of the natives coming out to fish. Not so my companions; nor was their wonder appeased when the canoes hove in sight. Their hulls and sails were magnified by the fog into huge unwieldy ships, as they rose and fell on the long ground-swell; and their crews appeared uncouth giants. I had engaged in a long hallooing conversation with them even before they appeared; and five or six canoes were soon lashed to our taffrail, while thirty or forty chattering fellows sprang on deck to shake hands and exchange news. They told me that two boats, engaged in a rival trading expedition to Patea from this place, had both been wrecked at the mouth of that river; that the two vessels had arrived safely from Wellington, and had landed their passengers and goods; and that the expected war-party from Taupo had arrived on the banks of the river, headed as had been foretold by old Heuheu him- self. After asking me the news from Poneke, as they abbreviated Port Nicholson, and inquiring, as usual, what goods I had brought for trade, they proceeded to the fishing-grounds, about two or three miles out to sea. Twenty-five or thirty canoes, bound on this errand, passed us or called as they went. The fog now cleared off, and displayed the pretty country about Wanganui, smiling under a warm and cloudless sky.

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When the tide flowed, I beat across the bar, and up to my house, about four miles from the mouth. We passed the Elizabeth, a schooner of 70 tons, aground on a mud-flat opposite Wahipuna; and the old cutter at anchor a little higher up.

Of course the White population of the place was much increased since my last visit; they now mustered fifty or sixty. Nearly all the houses built by the natives had been bought or bargained for by the newcomers; and a large number of Maori found ample and well-paid employment in erecting fences, assisting to land goods, and other initiatory measures of the settlers. Two or three gentlemen with their families were among the number; and I was delighted to see this settlement, which I almost considered identified with myself and E Kuru, in such active progress. Several people had travelled hither by land, in readiness for the first selection of lands advertised by the Surveyor- General, on the 18th of March. But the Assistant-Surveyor was not yet ready for such a proceeding, and several walked back as they had come. Others, liking the place, and finding living very cheap from the abundant supply of food by the natives, determined to remain here until the land should be distributed. Some engaged in the trade with the natives; others wasted their money and their time at two grog-shops established by Macgregor and another person on either side of the river. The Government had not scrupled to grant two publicans' licences for this small population, as it brought sixty pounds per annum into their treasury; but they had provided no police, not even a constable, for the maintenance of law and order.

Among other bad characters who had found their way to this refuge for the lawless, were two prisoners escaped from the jail at the Bay of Islands. They had

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committed the most daring robberies both there and in the Frith of the Thames, and then travelled by the lakes of Rotorua and Taupo, and this river, to the settlement. I did not of course learn this part of their history until long afterwards. One of them, an American named M'Leod, had assumed the name of Mickey Knight, and got engaged by my agent as carpenter to the establishment. He was a first-rate workman, and had excited general praise by the execution of some tables and benches for the house, and a set of gates for the fence of the yard. He spoke the native language very well, had with him a native wife from the Thames, and had been tatued from the knees to the hips at the Navigator Islands. Having an easy address and off-hand manner, he had introduced himself to the acquaintance of Mr. Carrington, the Assistant-Surveyor, and of a gentleman lately arrived from England who was living in his house. They soon began to tell every one that Mickey had received an education far above his station, and possessed an inexhaustible fund of information which merited for him the treatment of a companion. When he had effectually worked himself into their confidence and familiarity, he took advantage of their absence from home and a dark night, to break into a writing-desk which contained nearly fifty pounds in gold. One of the surveying-men, however, who was asleep in the next room, heard the noise, and saw him decamp with the desk under his arm; and Mr. Niblett, the owner of the money, attended by a large number of natives from the pa, where he had been talking with them, gave chase. The culprit was captured, after his arm had been broken by a blow with a paddle from his pursuer, and half the money was found on his track. He was a prisoner in my house when I

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landed. I immediately offered to put him in irons, and send him in the schooner to Port Nicholson; but Mr. Niblett said he had got half the money back and broken the thief's arm, so he did not think it worth while to have the trouble of going to Wellington to prosecute, especially as a conviction must be quite uncertain under the very undefined jurisdiction and authority of the Police Magistrate there. So I told them to give the honest carpenter his bundle of clothes, and bowed him out of the house. He left that night, and I never heard of him again; but his companion pretended to know very little of him, and remained as carpenter to one of the grog-shops, where he had managed to inspire confidence or to meet with kindred spirits.

The reports respecting the war-party, which were brought down daily by canoes laden with produce for the new market, constantly varied in character. The White missionaries, and the Ngatiruaka tribe who were their more especial adherents, had alarmed the newly arrived immigrants by a description of the ferocity and recklessness of the tribes composing the taua, or "army." Mr. Matthews, especially, denounced them several times in my hearing, as treacherous, dishonest, and bloodthirsty; and predicted the worst consequences from their arrival in the vicinity of so much plunder. My immediate attendants, most of them still rewera, or "devils" (as the missionaries had long taught the natives to call all White men not of their own cloth and all Maori not converted), told a very different tale; and Turoa and other non-converted natives confirmed my belief that the Taupo tribes were ruled by powerful and generous chiefs, able and willing to set an example to their followers of friendliness towards the White man.

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The Ngatiruaka natives, invited to a general conference between the invading party and the inhabitants of Wanganui, were preparing to ascend the river in large numbers; and Messrs. Mason and Matthews determined to accompany them, in hopes of being able to prevent the further advance of the war-party, and to persuade them to return peacefully to their homes.

On a former visit, I had seen the arrival at Turoa's village of a deputation from Taupo, announcing the preparations for the expedition. Mr. Matthews had taken me over to hear their speeches, and had begged me to join with him in recommending the old chief to dissuade his allies from their warlike purpose, and in assuring him that the Governor would certainly interfere to prevent a war, even among themselves, and that if this was done perhaps bloodshed would ensue between the races. Thinking that this was really the intention of the Government, I had seconded Mr. Matthews's views to the best of my power; and had, after warning Turoa of my intention, informed Mr. Murphy of the approaching events when I returned to Wellington; and advised him, when he asked my opinion, to send the detachment of soldiers up to Wanganui, if he really thought it his duty to stop the strife. Lieutenant Best, however, had for various reasons refused to be detached by the Police Magistrate without the authority of his commanding officer at Auckland; and there the affair rested.

Turoa now taunted me very much with my former statement; and told me he heard that the Governor would not even leave the troops at Poneke. I took the best course, and acknowledged to him that I had mistaken the intentions of the authorities. He also, and all his train, prepared to join the conference. I determined to attend it too, and to be guided very much

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in the affair by the counsel of E Kuru, who was at his own settlement a hundred miles up the river.

So I started the Sandfly off to Port Nicholson, and rigged a new canoe for my trip. She was a very graceful, light-looking vessel, without topsides, but with tapering head and stern well peaked up at either end; about thirty feet long, broad in the beam, quick and handy to paddle, and adapted for six people. She was painted a bright red with kokowai, or baked ochre, and from a long staff on the stern I hung an English red ensign. I gave a passage to a trader named Yankee Smith, who was bound to Pukihika with a boxful of goods, and four of my "boys" completed the muster-roll.

Recommending the settlers not to be alarmed till I should return with a report of what was to be expected, I started a day after the missionaries and the body of natives, who were sure from their numbers to travel slowly. The first night we encamped close to Te Kau arapawa, after some trouble in finding a house free from fleas. In villages which have been the longest deserted, these annoying insects always abound most; and the only way to prove the houses is to make one of the native boys put his leg inside the door. In many cases he draws it back perfectly covered. Another canoe, bound to the puni, or camp, of the taua joined us here.

A small drizzling rain prevented us from starting till about ten o'clock the next morning; but it partook of the character of the fog at the bar some days before, for the rest of the day was calm, warm, and cloudless. I shall not attempt to dilate upon the scenery, which was of the same lovely kind as that which I have described during a former excursion here. The whole way up, it was the same. The river winds, or glides,

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or rushes through a mountainous but fertile country, of which the luxuriant monotony is relieved by cunningly-placed native fortifications, or isolated huts among rich gardens. Canoes, laden with the various kinds of native produce for the sea, met us occasionally on our way; the occupants generally allowing their bark to drift listlessly with the current, except where a rapid required skilful pilotage. They basked idly in the sun, or ate, or smoked, or played with the pet parrots which are generally perched on a pliant stick overhanging the water, swinging themselves up and down, flapping their wings, and screaming in shrill discord. The kind greeting was never omitted; I was now generally known among all the denizens of the river; and the naumai, "come hither," or tena koitou, "hail to ye all!" was often accompanied by the present of a cooked pigeon or parrot, or a basket of kumera, or a melon.

About noon we overtook the fleet of the mihanere natives, lying at the foot of a moss-covered cliff, which was crowned with the stockades of a moderate-sized pa. On the top of a wooded mountain about a mile inland of this, another stockade surrounded the last refuge of the inhabitants in case of assault. I ascended to the village, where a large assemblage were busily engaged in doing justice to a feast prepared for them. Te Ana-ua (otherwise called E Tu), Mawai, and several other chiefs of Putikiwaranui, were among the throng. A basket of food was placed before me on my arrival; and I ate some, and took the rest into the canoe with me, according to etiquette. We now proceeded in company, and the scene became most enlivening. There were about twenty canoes, varying in size from the stately war-canoe in gala dress of clean feathers and oiled carving with its crew of forty warriors, to the low shell

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in which five little naked urchins pushed along, screaming and yelling with delight whenever the pakeha admired their efforts, and laughing at the upsets. which attended them at nearly every rapid. Good-humour prevailed among the throng; merry jokes and jeers passed from canoe to canoe; and the thoughts of all seemed to be brightened by the delicious weather, which continued sunny and fine, without any great heat.

Nothing more pleasant than such a journey. Reclining on a platform covered with soft mats just forward of my steersman, under the shade of a broad-brimmed Panama hat, now smoking, now sketching, now noting some name, or legend, or genealogy of a tribe as related by Konatu, who always held the steering-paddle; now handing my pipe to be filled by one of the other boys, and then seizing a paddle or a pole and raising a canoe-song to encourage my crew, as some old acquaintance came up alongside and challenged me for a race, I entered heartily into the spirit of our expedition. The Maori himself is all excitement when in action, and enjoys nothing better than to see a pakeha in the same high spirits as himself. On such occasions, the loudest laugh, the sharpest repartee, the wildest cheer, the most skilful use of the paddle, may be said to win their hearts; and accordingly, whenever my canoe got puzzled by a severe rapid, a dozen of those who had passed it would leave theirs above, and jump screaming into the water to lend a hand. The old chiefs even, however calm and dignified at a korero, or discussion, make it a point to relax during a journey.

The only chill cast on the innocent gaiety of the throng was the cold and untimely gravity of Mr. Mason, the head missionary, whose large canoe kept up with the rest. I was surprised to see him maintain a face of which not a feature moved, a posture in which

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not a muscle changed, for miles and miles together. And his dress and attitude made me feel quite uncomfortable, from my certainty that it was all forced and annoying to himself. The black tail-coat, trousers strapped down, waistcoat and stiff cravat, black beaver hat and rusty kid gloves, could not possibly be agreeable in this weather; for I was quite warm enough in my shirt-sleeves, white duck trousers, and open collar. Then he sat on one of the thwarts of the canoe, not above three inches in breadth, perfectly upright, looking straight ahead, with his two hands leaning on a cane well before him. He seemed to keep his crew at a distance. No one sat or stood within a yard of him, and he hardly ever spoke. A bare "good morning" was the only answer to my greeting the first time we passed; and during the whole of this, to me, highly exciting journey, neither jokes, laughter, nor songs, neither the scenery nor the weather, not even the nervous passage of some of the dangerous rapids, which made me look about for a place to swim to in case of upsetting, had the least effect upon Mr. Mason's automaton stillness. I could not help thinking how much more permanent an effect might attend the teaching of a man of education and discernment, who would have joined to a certain degree, on such an occasion, in the playful humour of these grown-up children.

The passage up the rapids, some of them having a fall of six feet in a short space, excited my admiration as soon as I had got over the nervousness. It was a good instance of the excellent time which the natives keep in their songs and dances, although perfectly ignorant of and unable to appreciate music.

On reaching the foot of a rapid, the crew abandon the paddles, stand up in the canoe, and handle long poles made of manuka, toa toa, or other hard wood,

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and charred at the lower end. They now push against the bed of the river in perfect unison, the poles plunging and lifting, while the canoe foams ahead, as though by clock-work. The helmsman also steers with a pole, balancing himself in the high peaked stern, and guiding the canoe by poling under or away from it. The silence is only interrupted by the grating of the poles against the sides of the canoe and the foaming of the water, or by an occasional brief word of direction from the man in the bow, --ki uta! "towards shore!" or ki waho! "outwards!" The canoes follow each other in single file, with scarcely two feet between the stern of one and the bow of the next; and though a collision would in most cases render the capsizing of both inevitable, such is the skill of the natives, that an accident rarely occurs in going up the rapids. The natives of Wanganui have a known reputation for this peculiar exercise; and men of other tribes poling on this river are much laughed at for their awkwardness and the numerous duckings they get in consequence. A crew of experienced Wanganui natives poling up a strong rapid is a very pretty sight. As it is hard work, they generally strip, leaving only a shirt or mat round the waist, and the exercise throws them into the most graceful attitudes and develops their muscular energy. A byword, much used all over the islands, alludes to the known practice in poling, while it mimics the uncouth dialect of this tribe. After I became as it were identified with them, it was often shouted after me by the Kapiti or Ngatiawa natives, --Ira! ira! e weke, e toko kituhua! "Hallo! hallo! old man, pole away inland!"

We stopped for the night at a settlement called Oawitu; where we overtook many of Turoa's followers, who own extensive cultivations hereabouts. Towards

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dark the weather got cloudy and threatening, and I was busy making a tent on the bank of two blankets, when a small canoe came dashing down the river; and I soon recognised E Kuru's manly voice in the loud chorus which accompanied the sharp stroke of the paddles. He had come to meet me, in order to kawe or "escort" me to the conference. One of his brothers and half a dozen of his young men accompanied him.

I found that he still kept a strict neutrality. He told me that he should take no part in the conference, but would recommend me to the friendship of his hungawai, or "relations by marriage," among the Ngatipehi. He assured me that Heuheu was a very noble-minded chieftain, and advised me to ask him frankly about his intentions to the White people, as he was known for a strict adherence to his word.

Fortunately, the night proved fine; and the next morning we started at peep of day. About twelve miles brought us to a pa called Operiki, consisting of two fortified villages, one on each bank of the gully, from which a stream falls about thirty feet into the river. The land on either side of the gully runs level, at an elevation of sixty or seventy feet above the river, for a considerable distance in all directions, and the level is covered with luxuriant crops. On a shingly beach opposite the pa we all stopped to breakfast, and two messengers from the Taupo party came down to meet us. They said little about the intentions of their comrades, but seemed to look about them well, and form a good estimate of our numbers and arms, while manifesting great indifference to the peaceful exhortations of the missionaries. Both White and Brown began now to fear that our journey would end in a rupture of some sort; for E Kuru sent a

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canoe back to my house, and asked me to send a note for all my guns, flints, bullet-moulds, lead, and powder. A canoe containing one or two White traders joined us here from the settlement.

We now proceeded to Ikurangi, a pa about six miles further on, where it seemed resolved that we should all wait until more news were heard from the puni or resting-place of the Ngatipehi. Accordingly, all the canoes were hauled up, and tents built, on an island facing the pa. The Patutokoto people, whom we had passed at their resting-places last night, also arrived and took up their quarters on the island. It was altogether an animated scene. In the midst of lofty mountains, whose sides are diversified by wood, plantations, tracts of fern land, and cliffs peeping out here and there, on a level point which slopes gradually down to a sudden bend in the river, is situated the pa with its double fence and fighting-stages towards the river, and a perpendicular descent towards that reach of it in which the island lies, formed by a rapid foaming on each side. Between the island and the pa, all the canoes were either hauled up or moored to poles. A fishing-weir is built in the midst of this rapid, and the little children were swimming and splashing in the most dangerous part of it. The natives belonging to the pa were sitting outside their fence on the top of the cliff, watching the people on the island, which was quite gay with the little flags and banners of different colours that most of the canoes had hoisted in imitation of mine. Two canoes went up to the taua, and returned again this afternoon. E Kuru, who went in one of them, told me he had not landed, being afraid that the Ngatipehi might owe him a grudge for assisting their enemies on the former occasion. Two or three of the Ngatipehi people came down in one of

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the canoes to see their friends among the Patutokoto; and a tangi, or crying-match, and speeches from both parties, lasted till I was asleep.

Starting again at break of day, we ascended about six miles, when a cry was raised to keep the canoes close together; and in this order, with perhaps fifty canoes and three hundred people of all ages and both sexes, we doubled a point, and came in full view of the Ngatipehi encampment. From the edge of a bank, rising very steep for forty feet from the eastern shore, the ground was cleared of wood, and rose gradually in the form of an amphitheatre, backed by a forest. Five hundred warriors were disposed in rows about this clear space, according to their tribes and families, each with his musket or two-barrelled fowling-piece. After a few shots had been fired from our flotilla, by way of greeting, I saw a chief running up and down haranguing the others; and immediately they answered by a regular discharge of musketry, backwards and forwards, along each row, which lasted for nearly five minutes. I was much surprised to find them so well armed; each man had a musket, and some two, and slaves to carry them. Our party all encamped exactly opposite to them, and some time passed in silence. Some of the Ngatiruaka canoes pushed on to Pukihika, which is but a few miles further up. In the course of an hour, during which I was much amused by the perseverance of a Taupo dog, who earned presents of tobacco for his master by swimming across the river and back, the chiefs of the Patutokoto tribes, attended by all their people, pushed across to see their relations. They had dressed themselves out in what they considered "full fig." Many of the men were dressed a l'Europeenne, with the exception of shoes and stockings; several of the women wore caps or bon-

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nets, adorned with gaudy ribbons and albatross feathers; and those that had neither gown nor other European luxury to show, of which there were but few, donned their cleanest blankets or mats. The missionaries and I also went over. A tangi by all hands lasted nearly an hour, during which I walked about the encampment, and could not help admiring the well-formed limbs and clean skins of these natives, compared to most of those whom I had before seen. Quite free from the cutaneous disease which prevails to so great an extent among the inhabitants of Cook's Strait, they were moreover the strongest and best-built natives that I had yet met with. I was told that this was owing to their constant bathing in the puhia, or "hot springs," near their settlements; from which they have earned the sobriquet of the Waikorapupu, or "boiling water" tribes.

To the tangi succeeded speeches, many of them energetic and well-worded, by both parties, in purport as follows.

An orator spoke from either party alternately, and every speech began with nearly these words--"Come hither, come hither, my relations; come hither, my fathers, my brothers, my sisters, and my children; welcome!" The speakers on the Taupo side seemed to wish to sound the feeling of the others towards them; and urged their friends to send them canoes to descend the river, and also to join them in obtaining a revenge which both must desire over their mutual enemies at Waitotara. The answers of the Patutokoto were to urge them to return quietly, for various reasons: some said that they had no canoes to spare; that the Ngatipehi had lost all their young men, and that old men and women and children would be all slaughtered at Waitotara, - others, again, said that they had turned miha-

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nere, and could not join them, and, urged the anger of Ihu Karaite as a reason why they should give up the idea of fighting, and that the White mihanere said the puka puka or book, would be strong against the heathen. But the tone of irony in which some of these reasons were stated, particularly by Turoa, who had never ceased to be a warm and zealous ally of the Ngatipehi, was highly amusing, and showed plainly that none of the Patutokoto had any idea of stating their real feelings in open assembly. Old Turoa, who alone of all his tribe appeared in a ragged mat, which, together with every part of his body, was well encrusted with kokowai, or red ochre, and a night-cap which partook of the same rusty hue, began with the usual plaintive greeting, comprehending, however, his grandchildren also in the list. "You ask for canoes," said he; "how can I give them to you? You see I have but one, full of women, and boys, and children. How can you think that I have come to join you? Besides," he added, looking with a most comic grin at Messrs. Mason and Matthews, "I am just becoming a missionary; I have the book in one hand, and a cap on my head, which I never wore before; and the anger of Ihu Karaite will come upon me if I go to fight." He ended by urging them to return in peace. Some of the Taupo chiefs expressed their determination to go on, whether assisted or not; and after a Wanganui man had asked them to go across the country, in order to spare the Wanganui plantations, old Heuheu concluded the conference.

Above six feet in stature, but so Herculean in limb as to disguise his height, he rose proudly from a spot of elevated ground where he had been sitting among a knot of his wives and children, shook his mats from his right arm, and began his speech with slow and

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distinct articulation. The most perfect silence prevailed among the hundreds assembled. Children who had been playing on the edge of the crowd; young men and women who had been renewing old acquaintances and exchanging the latest gossip; warriors who had been examining each other's arms en connoisseur while the great number of chiefs spoke; all were now hushed and still. Stragglers might be seen pressing close to the scene of conference; whispers might be heard that "the kau matua, or 'patriarch,' was going to speak;" and then the whole audience held its breath. This was evidently the great speech, --the lion of the day.

Like the others, he began by hailing his relations; and then proceeded with an oration full of majesty, terseness, and emphasis. His words must have been heard across the river by the men of Putikiwaranui, E Kuru, and others who had not crossed over. "You have all been speaking crooked," said he, "and hiding your words in lies. Listen to me! I am going to speak straight. I go to Waitotara, to avenge the death of my people, and to bring their bones home. I have not come to beg canoes, or food, or assistance. If you lend me no canoes, I can walk along the banks with my children; and we will cross at a ford when a cliff is in our path: we shall find our way to the sea. I can help myself to food; my children see the plantations, and they gather with a gun in one hand and a basket in the other. I want no help but that of my own meri ponamu, which my arm knows how to shake." And he lifted it high over his head and brandished it haughtily before them.

"As to the missionary words," he continued, "who cares for them? What is the anger of Ihu Karaite

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"to us? Were they missionaries who shook hands and gave the hongi (salute) to my people, and then put them to death? Why, I am a missionary at that rate; but my creed is my meri. Will that not be stronger than your puka puka tapu?" He then blamed the missionaries and all White people for being the cause of much disagreement among the Maori, and severely censured those chiefs who had signed away their power to King George. "You are all slaves now," he said, "and your dignity and power is gone. But mine is not: --just as there is one man in Europe, King George, so do I stand alone in New Zealand, the chief over all others, the only free one left--look at me, for I do not hide while I say so; I am the Heuheu, and rule over you all, just as my ancestor Tonga Riro, the mountain of snow, stands above all this land!"

He wound up by a spirited address to the Patutokoto, which brought tears to many an eye; and I could see the young warriors clutching their weapons tightly while every muscle quivered with excitement, when he shouted, in the wild yell to which he had gradually increased the tone of his voice, "Where is Tauteka?" where are all your parents and brothers? their bones are at Waitotara. Will you not join us in gaining possession of the bones of our ancestors? Will you not release your sisters from being slaves? A fight for your fathers' bones! Be brave! be brave! be brave! There has been enough of talk." And he sat down, while the assembly dispersed.

In the course of the afternoon I brought some tobacco over as a present to the old chief, and gave him some more to distribute among his people, who had scarcely any. I then asked him whether he intended any harm to the pakeha; promising their friendship

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should he behave well, but assuring him that we were fully prepared and determined to resist any attack on our houses and goods on the sea-side. He answered, that he had seen White people in his part of the country too; and that he knew what great advantages he should lose by quarrelling with them: for instance, he said, he should not get tobacco, as he had just now, blankets, or powder, or any of those things which the Maori got by letting the White man live quietly among them. He assured me that no harm was in- tended to the White man, and that all his party were bound on no other purpose than revenge for their tupapaku, or "dead:" and I told him that I thought he was quite right; for he forced me to acknowledge that the White people of my country would do the same, should the Wiwi, or French, kill any of our chiefs. I felt now convinced that there was nothing to fear; although the missionaries persisted in assuring me that there was no trusting these natives, and that they knew no such feeling as gratitude, and had the worst reputation of any natives in the islands.

We remained two or three days in our encampment opposite to theirs, frequent visits being paid on both sides. During this time the old chief showed the most violent feeling of enmity towards the doctrine of the missionaries. Whenever he heard their followers sing one of their discordant hymns on our side, he would come out of his hut and muster one or two hundred to drown the sound by a native song. When they visited his camp, he pursued the same plan to drown their exhortations, though he treated them in other respects with dignified politeness.

I visited the pa at Pukihika, about six miles above the encampment. A young slave, Mr. Matthews's head teacher, poled me up in a light canoe. He was

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very cautious of talking politics on the road; but I could not discover whether this arose from his consciousness of the little weight which attached to his opinion as a slave, or whether he thought that I was one of the enemy. He was a willing lad, and used to work hard enough in digging Mr. Matthews's garden, cleaning his shoes and knives, and grooming his horse, for the sake of his own station at the head of the native class.

Pukihika is a very extensive pa, or rather a collection of seven or eight detached ones, on a hill at a bend of the river to the westward. It is about seventy miles from the sea, and well chosen as a mustering-place for the Wanganui tribes living within that distance from the coast, in case of attack from Waikato, Taupo, or the Strait. I found nearly all the missionary population gathered here, apparently to consult over Heuheu's avowed determination. Messrs. Mason and Matthews had pitched their tent in the middle of the courtyard in the principal village. I returned to my encampment after a short look round. Here I found that the war-party had been supplied by their relations with an ample fleet of canoes, and that they would proceed the next day, by easy stages, towards the settlement. E Kuru and I preceded them in my canoe.

On arriving at the settlement, I reported my opinion that no danger was to be feared, and advised the colonists to receive the travellers kindly and hospitably. One or two were nevertheless persuaded by the missionaries when they came, to carry their valuable goods over to the pa at Putikiwaranui, and leave them in charge of the chiefs; the pa having been newly fortified for fear of an assault.

The taua, to the number of five hundred, arrived

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some days afterwards, and built their huts close to the houses of the settlers. But during the period of their stay, not a single instance occurred, to our knowledge, of misconduct on their part. On the contrary, their presence had the effect of overawing many troublesome fellows among the missionary natives. The most perfect discipline reigned in the camp, and the chief evidently prided himself on the strict fulfilment of his promise.

One night, when he felt suspicious of a small body of Rotorua allies in his train, who were really of doubtful reputation, and who were said to have plotted a night-attack on our houses, he placed guards of his own followers at every house along the beach. On that night, twelve stout warriors lay round the fire in the midst of my house, with their arms in their hands, ready for any emergency. We were also on the alert; and I had arranged signals by bells and gongs so that we could all assemble at short notice in one spot. These precautions doubtless awed the conspirators, and no alarm was given. After remaining among us four days, during which they made themselves very useful in assisting the settlers for small payment, they had a grand war-dance and some more speeches, and then started off along the beach, joined by many Wanganui natives, and among others by E Kuru, who had ended by deciding finally for his Taupo allies. During their stay, I always had an ample quantity of rice, flour, sugar, and other food ready for visitors, and a seat at my table for the chiefs. I afterwards found that hospitality shown to a war-party on its path is the very strongest claim to the affection of the natives among themselves.

Before the arrival of the taua, a good deal of annoyance had already arisen to the surveyors from na-

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tives who tried to obstruct their proceedings. These were generally persons of no authority as chiefs, and often of no fixed residence. When traced they always turned out to be missionary natives. During the stay of the war-party this annoyance was never met with.

A few days after the departure of Heuheu, I went on board the Sandfly, which had made a trip in my absence, and arrived at Wellington on the 19th of April.