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Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 116, 28 August 1877, Page 2

•A NARRATIVE OF TfiE VOYAGE AND SUBSEQUENT LANDING AT AKAROA, OF THE 'FIRST DIRECT ENGLISH SETTLERS IN CANTERBURY, FROM 1849 TO 1850. It is now twenty-eight years ago since, we first turned our thoughts towards New Zealand* The idea speedily . ripened into resolve, and finally- we .took" 1 our passage in a small barque, riained the " Monarch," of 375 tons fegisle*, the owners, Messrs Robinson and Smith, coming out with her. The crew consisted of the captain, David Smale, three officers, sis A.B. seamen, and an apprentice, while the passengers; numbered fifty-two,' including a doctor, with a small vessel, a short crew, arid a, few 'adYentiVew, for siich We might Ite

termed in those days, we set sail for Auckland, but Akaroa was to be our destiny, and there vte proved to be the first direct English ( settlers in what is now called Canterbury. Tlie town of our adoption, Akaroa, now boasts of a periodical publication, and it has been thought, that an epitome 6f our voyage, and the subsequent career of -some of those ante-pioneers to the Canterbury settlement, ante-deluviana as we liave been jocosely termed, might; prove interesting to the readers of that journal. We left Gravesend on the 22nd day of November, 1849, putting into Cowes, Isle of Wight, whence we resumed our voyage at (5 a.m, on the 27th, and, with a fine liglit breeze, ran down the Channel that day, losing sight of laud as the shades of niglit closed in, and hid it from our gaze. With Madeira came our next view of terra firrh'a, but we were not able to indulge in more than a fleeting glance, as our captain deemed it advisable to keep as near midocean as was practicable. So, onwards in our course, until about three days sail from " Rio," when we fell in with a smartlooking craft, the " Pilot Fish," bound to that port from Liverpool. The breeze was ligli t,.and enabled us to sail in company for two days, during which, by. nautical means we held a long conversation with her captain, who, on changing his course, promised to report us, a promise which we afterwards ascertained he had faithfully fufilled, and, with one other exception, his was the only vessel we sighted on our passage out. All went well, until, having rounded the cape, a fine wind favoring us Vye sailed from there to the meridian O£ Hobart Town in 21 days, which was con. sidored a smart trip. A few days previou g to pur reaching this longitude, it was dis_ covered we were getting short of pro visions To be continued.