JOURNAL.

Wellington Independent, Volume II, Issue 87, 12 August 1846, Page 3

JOURNAL.

Kwe by xwa Dritish Officbrs, on their OVEIIUAMD Rourß FIUM WILLINGTON TO Auckland.— 184fi.

(Concluded from our last) _ Apr. 27th.~A.fter .three miles walking, to our de•light we got outside the wood on to the " mania "' or grassy plain. Tongariro now in full view, covered ■ with «now halfway down. The mania has evidently been cleared, away by fire, as the blackened, stumps of trees are still to be *een in somelplaces j it is covered with grass of sour c arse description, aod' some fern, but not a tree to be seen, nor any birds except now and then a lark. About three -miles from the wood we crossed 'the Tokorua river, about Knee deep, which runs through the centre of the' plain. At about eighteen miles from*he wood we' ■halted'for; the night, at the foot of Tongariro, on the' banks of the Wangaehujwhich is here a mere let. The *« mania " be from four>* fifteen miles broad, bounded by a range of low hfllg on the right, and on the .left by a thick forest. 28th —A.t a mile from the >river we came to a' dreary-tract at the 'base of the mouotain, covered, with shingle and large blocks of stone and scoria', Two small streams of whitish edlour were running • down from the mountain which we had the curio-.I sity to taste and found them strongly impregnated J with sulphuric acid. The natives shewed us a place ,\ where they said a large number of frozen to death. TVy also said the snow sometimes •■ ■lay five feet deep there. We went for about seven, miles along'this waste, which is intersected withseveral bed< of water courses, which, when the snow, melts hvspring, would become dangerous torrents. Came to -some stunted heathy shrubs, and arrived at Waikohororu, about fourteen miles from our Sfcut halting place, amidst pelting rain. Crosssd the. river and halted for the night. 29th.—After an hour's walk, we got thefirst view of Taupo lake, from the hill over Maugatawai river.. It is very like the Bay of Islands,;,coming from Waimate to Kiri Kiri. Fifteen miles from Waiko-. houa, over grassy plains and small hills brmghtjis to Rotorua take. We crossed over a small river, to the pah " Poita." There appeared to be eighty or a hundred inhabitants, who formerly bore a bad name, but as they were -building a church, it. is : to be presumed they are mending their manners'. The natives informed us, on bur arrival, that there was a siok pakeha lying in a warre, and onour proceed. * iogithere we found Mr. C . —n, a settler of Wan. garua, who had come up to see Taupo. before going to England. He anxiously inquired if .'we,had got any medicine, and was dreadfully disappointed when we told him we had none. He informed us he had not tasted anything 5 ' except tea and sog*r for fourteen days, nor did hs feel inclined for any thing else. We gave him the only things we had that he wished for,-—tea; sugar, and got some salts lor hiurfrom the natives. 30th.—Day rainy and cold. Got some of the 'fish the lake is celebrated for,'they are about two or three inches long and are something like trench; .they- ture tolerably goad whea fresh, but J*he» dry. are greasy and tough. The lake is about six miles long by three broad and full of wild ducks. The natives say that there are no eels in Rotorua or Tau'po lakes,-which is remarkable, as they are so common to all the streams and lakes of New Zealand Mr. C. . -n managed to get ap and walk about a little this day, and in his absence, bis rascally boy managed to eat the greatest part of his sugar, which was-a sad [blow to him, as it was theonly nourishment he-could take. He said that the natives were kind enough to him in their way, but he certainly was in a deplorable state. May Ist.—Day-too rainy to stir out. <. 2nd.—Beautiful. morn i n g; saw the steam arising from the top of To ngar i r0) Started for Taupo and marched sixteen miles to the hot springs, which form baths of different degrees of temperature; some boiling'to that degree that the natives cook their food in them, and formerly they used to put their prisoners into them. Some of the waters •taste like Epsom salts. We believe they have all been analyzed by Dr. Bieffenbach. About half a mile further on we came to the pah, and to our surprise there was a party of forty who received us with a war dance, and about the same number ■ on our-side followed their example. We found out the reason of «it was, that one of the chiefs' (Here-. kei-kei ? s) wives had been going astray in his ab-. sence, and that her friends were prepared to protect her in case of her lord taking vengeance on her. However, after considerable talking on both sides, the affair was amicably settled, and the lady received into favour again. The whole scene had a good effect, combined with wild barren hills, hot spings, and the magnificent lake of Taupo. 3rd.—Got a small warre belonging to Here-kei-kei's brother, a man who professed gteat affection for us, which he showed by generally devouring the remains of our dinner, for which he used to watch like a vulture, and drive any of the small fry away who by chance got a half picked pigeon bone. A few of the people here are missionary natives, some" are pikopo, or catholics, but the majority are heathen. 4 th,—Went over to Te Rapa to see Hue-hea, bsjt he was not at home j the day was beautiful and the-, lake as smooth as glass. We found Te Rapa to be a pretty spot, witb some' beautiful fearaka trees surrounding the houses. Gave the man the gun to • shoot some ducks, he brought in five splendid ones which he killed in two shots. A fowl that they -. were about to kill for us this day happened in the, course of the chase after him to light on the top of" the old priest's warre ; they tapu'd it, and the pot it was cooked in, and none of them would touch either the fowl or the pot for some time after. They, used to burn the priest's warre, whenever he left it after a night's halt," as they consider it was too sacred for profane mortals to sleep in after him. One of us got a scalded foot this morning, in the mud, at thefbot'tom of the river while crossing it to bathe in the hot springs. 6th.—Messenger arrived from Te Rapa this morr/ing'to say that the great man (Te Hue-hue) was ready to receive us.. 'We went over and found a bull-necked old man of about sixtyyears, wrapped. iiija dirty mat,.sitting on a large stone, which no one but himself and principal wife dare sit on, and surrounded by his chiefs and retainers. We looked in vain for the dignity that we had heard distinguished Te. Hue-hue among the chiefs. We gave him Te Rauparaha's letter, which he said was good. He. made us a long speech, which as far as we could

understand, was a theme most people are eloquent upon, viz., himself; aad told us particularly not to go to Rotorua, as the people there were bad, an-d would rob us, to which, we did not .pay much at-' terrtion, as maories are rather given to malign their ' neighbours. He pressed us very much to change, out quarters, and come and stop with him, but me declined, as we intended t» g'art ou our journey in aday or two. Alter giving him,a few pre>euts we went back to our wacre. We. were informed that he bad told the Wanganui natives not to give up tlieiHand without part payment in .muskets and ammunition, aud.also.tbat he laid claim to the land on either side of the eiver, as the river had its sburceon his mountain, Tongariro.. 7th.—Rainy day. The man who robbed Mr. R-—■—n at Manawatu, Rotoraira, favoured us with bis company the greater part of,the day. He told us he had no affection for pakehas in general, but thataß we had come with bis ifriend Heri-kei-kei, he would not molest:us. Heard (that some white man who wasitravelling.through the Taupo comitry, with a pack on his back, had, in. crossing on a .tree over a tmall stream, fallen aad was killed. -- ■■ - Bth.—Heavj;rain all night. This morning Herikei.kei's brother." Te Heti," came into our warre laughing so .heartily that,we thought he had som4 good news to tell as. He informed us that Te Hue Huß and all his people had been destroyed. We found on enquiry that it.was correct, but-could not get over, to see, the. place as it was tapu. not get a canoe to take us over >to Te Rapa, as no natives would go. ■'; *_....; 10tn.—Weather very cold,.snow on the taps .of .the .hills..: The natives -from all parts to have a ".tangV over Te Hue Hue, and said if they got him out j they would not mind <the others. Fifty-four,people, men women aud children were said to have been killed, a number.of muskets, and a quantity of ammunition .buried under the mud. ,11th. —People still aixivjng, many .of them with S ana r> ...... • ,i (I^'th.—Morning -fine and .cold.. We weat orer -to Te Rapa and found, the .beautiful, karaka .trees we had been admiring all ( swept away, and nothing but a mass of mud to be seen on the slope where there ware houses, -trees, and .fences a few | days before. It seemed probable that the heavy rain during the night had swelled the hot springs in the hilt immediately over TeXapa, and that, like •a flow of lava, it had rushed down on the derated places or, there m}sht have .been some-volcanic agency at work. There had been no symptom, of an earthquake that night. There.' was great crying among the assembled natives, and after that, as usual, a feast of pork, fish, and potatoes. Upwards of a hundred men then set to work .to try and.sget the chief-out, but as few of them had any thing better than their hands, it seemed rather doubtful whether they would succeed in removing the enormous miss of I.quid mud. . 13th.—.People all off again to Te Rapa, to resume digging for the chief. . 14th. —Very hard frost. The chief not yet discovered. 15th—Found that the character Mr. T ■ - t had given of Heri-kei-kei was quite correct, as we had : ,§<*iji, we. agreed to -give hwa »ai Wuigarai. to famish men to, Rotorua. Three of the, four men who we're togo were not to be found this morning, when we wercabout to start, and he seemed quite iadiffeient about it, not withstanding all his former professions. We got three men, however, aud embarked-in a canoe, ou the lake, and after going three miles, landed at Wai-ta-nui, a deserted pah, the largest weaver saw in the country, extending one-fourth of a mile'along the shore 4 three miles from which is & small, pah, named Wai Marireo, where we slept. . 16th.—Two of our men said they did not like to go to Rotorua, but on our offering to carry our baggage, they started off with it, and carried itso Mota-teire, six miles further on. There was little cultivation about these two pahs, the natives' principal subsistence seemed to be the small fish of the lake. 17th. —Two of our men would not go on. One of our friends from Qtaki, E Kumi, or as we*called him, the■ •' Ogre," and a man named Peter, who •seemed to be very religious, and spoke a little • English, which he had learned oa board a whaler, happened to be going in a canoe up the lake : we took advantage of their offer, and embatked oh the lake, which was as smooth os glass, in about an hour a stiff breeze arose, and with it a-heavy cross sea, on account of which this lake is considered very dangerous. We scudded beforethe wind for some' time, till a suddeo gust blew down the sail, and the canoe became like a log in the water, and was filling fast, with nothing better to bale than a frying pan. Luckily, as we were just preparing for a swim, we got the sail up, and managed in the nick er" time, to get under shelter of a point at Rotongato, where we landed for the night.—Got a fine view of Tongariro this day at the south end of the lake, which was one of the finest we ever saw.' 18th.—Went 8 miles over the lake toßmgatri pah, which we found empty; this appeared to hare been once a large pah. The people owing to the scarcity of fish, had gone farther off to a wood. The shores of Taupo seemed almost devoid of trees, and the soil, except a few spots indifferent. On the western side are bold cliffs, and the natives saw some few pahs. The population around the lake is reported to be about 1,500 which we should think a good deal exaggerated. An excessive panic had seized them, on accouut of the death of Te Heu« Heu, as tkey were afraid of the Maniapoto tribe coming to attack them. Some of them said they would move down to Kapiti, where they would be anything but pleasant neighbours to the Port Nicholson people, and others to Rotorua. Not finding any people in the pah we sailed three miles farther to the Waikato,river, which is even there of considerable depth and breadth; we went down about two miles to some hot springs called Waiareki where we slept. 19th.—Crossed the river to the left bank and proceeded through a desolate country, for seven miles, to a wood called Oruanui, where there wete several natives who were going to build a pah. 20th.—Several people arrived to day, many of them had come up with us from Otaki and were the people who stole our tobacco 5 they pretended to be delighted to see us, but, qualified their affection by asking for tobacco; towards evening they shouldered our baggage, and went two miles off to the Kueni's pah. j ' 21st,—The natives at this pah seemed a bad set. The Chief, who called.himself a great rahgatira, asked payment for water this morning. We at last

got away, and went two miles through a wood' of Hue totara to a plain covered with thick f.trn through which we proceeded for four miles t> a new pih on rising ground, at the e<(ge of the wood. Here also the natives appear to eonstrucfc their own canoes, as we passed a new one, seventy-two fert long, concealed among the fern; There were not more than a dozen natives at this place, who seemed poor, but civil. "We had now been some days without salt, our sugar being expeuded long ago; the only luxuries now remaining to us were a little tea and chocolate. 22nd.—The weather too severe to start. 23rd.~Had a loor talk with " Ogre " about payment, as he was incited by Peter, and wanted to extort more, although we were almost too liberal 'to them ; at last we settled with them, and started. On leaving, we gave a small piece of tabaceo to a little .queer-looking old old man, a native of East Cape, like ourselves a stranger, who ran after us with some sugar wrapped in a leaf, which, we refused j the " Ogre," however, was not so scrupulous, as he snatched it immediately out of his hand. -This was the only instance of; gratitude we experienced in a maori daring our journey. Went six miles to Waikato, over bills and plains, without a tree or shrub of any size to be seen, then struck off along the bank for about-four miles to a village named Takapao, situated at a bend of the river. We found this place deserted, the inhabitants hav- \ ing gone some miles off to the wood to their colli- | vations. 24 th.—The" Ogre " was detected this morning stealing tobacco out of our box, which he hastily put back when discovered, saying that be merely wished to see whether we really had sufficient to- ; baci;o to pay him or not; he however managed to hide some-. After a long search among the rashes, a canoe was found but so leaky it would not fl.-iat. They managed at last to caulk it with grass and mud ; in performing which Peter stole a knife, that was lent to him, saj-ing that it had fallen into the river, and he wa3 seen dexterously to stick it to the •' Qgre*s " slave. They now put our baggage into the canoe and the slave paddled us across leaving our two friends on the other side. The slave on landing us, went back, and we waited patiently for sometime, expecting to see the others come across when sudden'-y Peter got np and ran off, pursmd by the slave and the" Ogre," shouting, £ouri«hing his tomahawk and saying, he would kill him. We looked quietly on while this farce was acting, not exactly knowing the meaning of it, when our patience being exhausted we shouldered our baggage and. carried it out of sight.about two miles off, thinking that they would come over to us bye and bye. After a short time one of us went back to have a parley, when after some demur the "Ogre " <Same across with his slave; he pretended great love for Us and said that although a very great chief, he together with his slave would carry our baggage to Rotorua. He said that Peter would not come across, as he was afraid that we would shoot him.— While one of as was talking to him, the other, who remained with the .baggage, appeared at a short distance off carrying the gunj his countenance suddenly changed, as he no doubt expected instant his sl<we, saying that he would go to his village for more provisions and retnrn in the evening.—The reason of his so suddenly decamping was in consequence of one of us coming up with the gun, which his guilty conscience thought was for his instaat execution. Wa now went back to our baggage, which we opened.' when the cause of Peter's desertion became apparent.. In packing up our things in the morning, he had abstracted a new blanket and left a worthless one in place of it, hence the fear of being shot, as he thought we had discovered it before, seeing us open our packs on the bank of the river. We bivouacked for the night on the river's bank. We now recollected that Peter had borrowed the gun the day before, as he said, to shoot a duck, and on returning the qua discharged, we found one barrel stuffed with mud, which with difficulty got out, on which the " Ogre"" asked us to load it again for him to shoot, he returned it with the nipple stopped up, as wtj afterwards found out. The other barrel would not go off, which they well knew of. These circumstances persuaded us that they intended a mora extensive scale of robbery, but had not the courage to carry it out. 25th.—Waited till ten o'clock, wheu their being no sigas of the •' Ogre,*' (in fact, we had little idea of his returning,) we left our box and Peter's blanket hid under the bank, aad started with upwards of sixty pounds each on our backs, amidst alternate showers of hail aud rain. Went across the plain to a high range of bare hills at the top of which is an extensive table laud of very barren soil, where it came on to snow heavily, which made the path very indistinct. After a fatiguing march of ten miles we baited, but were unable to procure water, and obtained very little wood for our fire. In the night it froze hard, and was extremely cold. 26th. —In about half an hour we came to a small stream named Te-pueto. which luckily .had a temporary bridge across it. Marched about twelve miles across the plain till we came to the Rangataika river, where we halted :,here we received an addition to our small stock of provisions, which, whea we started from the Waikato, consisted cf about two pounds of pork and forty potatoes, in the shape of two whios, a bird of the goose kind about the size of a duck, which lit on the river just as we halted, and were killed at one shot. However, they fell into a deep pool, where the eddies kept whirling them round iv a most tantalizing manner for about an hour, till just before dark we managed to fish them ashore27th.—Waited till the sun was well up, as it had froze hard during the night, and we had two trips to take across the river, which was. twenty yards wide, five feet deep, and icy cold. Proceeded the foot of a range of high hills for about six miles, when the path led up some excessively steep hills. We here found about ten or twelve cold potatoes in a basket, which we soon demolished. After very severe work, ascending and descending the hills for two and a half hours, we arrived at a pah on the top of the highest, named Tutu-tara-tara, which we considered to be the highest inhabited place in New Zealand. Here we found three old women, who speedily cooked some potatoes. They said the men of the pah were coming home next day, which we were glad to hear. We now found out that we had missed the path to Rotomahaua, and had gone a long way out of our course. 28th. —Very hard frost. The chief, named Harehare, his wife, and one of his men arrived this afternoon. We engaged the chief and his wife to assist