JOURNAL.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 2, Issue 44, 29 August 1850, Page 2

JOURNAL.

Of an Expedition Overland from Auckland to Taranaki , by way of Rotorua, Taupo, and the West Coast, undertaken in tha Summer of 1849—50, by His Excellency the Gover-Nor-in-Chief of New Zealand. (Cunlinued from cuir latt.) Saturday, Bth.—Rose at 5, and the first thing done was to cool our burning skins, still aching from the effects of the mosimilo onslaught, in the limpid waters of the Thames, during which time breakfast was in course of preparation. We were drlayed til' 0 o'clock this morning, having to wait for the turn of tide, when we started for Opita ; here wc hmded and found that one canoe only, of the two we had bespoken the previous day, was ready for us, the other being on shore and could not be launched without delaying lis longer than wc could afford to wait. Here the Kawcraniia canoe left lis, after we had paid for her iissislauce Bs. and 0 tigs of tobacco—this payment, however, in ■ eluded a basket of potatoes which had been sent on aflc r us in the afternoon. Wc had great dilliculty in making arrangements to get ibe natives to go on with the canoe which was ready, and as for the other we had to give it up a'togelher. So much dilliculty had we, that to avoid unnecessary delay, it was determined that two of us should remain behind to make arrangements about the canoe, while the boat proceeded upon her journey with the rest of the party. Our principal dilliculty was owing to the absence of Te Ainu, the Chief of this settlement, who wa3 somewhere down at lluuraki, and in consequence the natives were more exacting and les.i manageable than if we had had' the assistance of their chief. After a delay of] about an hour, we succeeded in obtaining the ' services of a line stout young fellow named | Opita, and half a dozen others, who as tne sequel proved, turned out to he the very best men we had in our party, being not only strougei and better travellers, but also better tempered, and in every way more agreeable and useful men than any others we engaged on the journey. We hurried them off without making any definite arrangement as to pay, and I imagine our .success was mainly attributable to the presence of Te lieu lieu, before whom—(being a chief of so much importance)—the natives were ashamed to appear too hard or exacting. We found that our canoe, though not u large one, was capable of containing a very fair load, and that she was moreover very fast, and we pulled merrily along through some extremely pretty scenery, till we arrived at a small mahinga or plantation of potatoes at a place called l'ulakiua. Here we found that the boat had stopped a short while before our arrival, and that some lea was being prepared by way of lunch. This place ; is inhabited by a few monstrously wild looking savages, headed bv atallman called Whakareho, | he had small pair of twinkling black eyes, with j a very peculiarly formed mouth, and an im- j mense black beard, which upon the whole gave > him a very remarkable expression of conntenancc. Wc obtained a canoe and ctew from : this gentleman and then pushed on for lloki, a place about 20 miles from Opita, where we ar- , rived at about 5. This place, like Putakina, is ; not a settlement, but only a small potato cultivation, with about ten natives living on it. We encamped here and made all as snug as possible for Sunday. Weather still very line, | but slight indications of an approaching change ' are observable. Did not forget Saturday night, , but drank "sweethearts and wives" witli the usual honors, which being done we prepared our beds and set to work to regale the mosuui- j toes with as great a quantity of tobacco smoke J as we could conveniently raise. The Thames , mosquitoes must however have differently con- j stituted lungs from others of ilie species, as . they seemed rather to enjoy the smoke than ' otherwise, or else perhaps they bit us all the j harder in revenge—he that as it may, we scaicely had a wink of sleep the whole night. I Sunday, Dec. 9th.—Still superb weather, i almost 100 hot if anything. We had some eels for breakfast, cooked in a way which was new to most of us, called kohe or kope, and which is done in the following manner:—fern stalks are run down the whole length of the fish (which is not skinned or in any way prepared for cooking) from the mouth to the tail—then two eels thus skewered are wrapped in leaves of the raurekau tree, and tied together with (lax, when they are roasted befote the lire with one end resting on the ground and the other leaning against a stick supported in a horizontal position in front of the lire for the purpose. When cooked in tlii3 way, they are eaten leaf nndall, the leaf serving as a relish, and are consideicd by the natives a great delicacy, though they proved rather too rich for our huropeau stomachs. At noon we had native service, and a very fair sermon from an old native teacher named Marakai (Malachi) who had followed us on from Opita, after which the Governor, Symoiids, and I, ascended a high hill called Te Papa at the back of the settlement, about half j a mile from the river. Hence we could trace j almost the whole course of the Thames from |

Waiha'rakeke to its mouth We could also see a great portion of the i'tako, ivilli the whole of the country lying between the two rivers, which is a dead flat and very swampy- it U :n fact a.i immense valley, a »i:lgc of hills run • mug on the east, between the Thames and the coast (of which ridge Tc Papa is "lie) and another to the westward of the Pia&i. The valley extends f;.r beyond Matamata, .unl may indeed he said 10 reach as far as the high land at Patelere, a distance of about 100 miles from Ilauraki. 'Hie land between the Thames and Piako appears f.ir the most part unavailable, at least at present, and until a considerable sum has been expended in diainage, which from the flatness of its surface, would he a diilicult as well as an expensive operation ; but on the right bank of the Thames, i. e. between the river and the range on which we were standing, is a large extent of very valuable land, drained and watered by several streams—sonic of them indeed considerable creeks—running from the the main river. This belt, as it may be called, of land varies very much in breadth in different places, the result of the winding of the river and the irregular course of the range, which is in some places at a distance of perhaps from live to ten miles from the river, and at others cither the main ridge or spurs from it run close to the hanks of the stream. The valley of the Thames contains a considerable quantity of valuable timber—there is one lan;c wood on the Thames in the shape of a nearly regular parallelogram of perhaps 30 miles by 8, through which the river runs j it extends from Ilauraki to a little beyond Mr. Thorpe's station, and contains quantities of Kahikatea, Totara, and other valuable timber. Above this the river runs through low swampy ground, with small patches of rugged wood here and there on the hanks. We saw the peak of Tongariro and several hills on the Waikato, Waipa, and the West Coast, and Symonds took the following bearings with Catoi's Compass, viz.:—Pirongia, 203°; Maungakawa, 195°; Tongariro, 163° ; Maungalaulari, 339'* ; Thorpe's Station, 315°; Kaweranga, 339° ; Taupiri, 3373 30". Monday, December 10.—Rose at half past four. Mosquitoes in thousands, and sundry othei appearances indicative of an approaching change in the weath- r. It was still very line, however, and by six we had breakfasted, packed up our traps, loaded the cauues, and were ready for a start. This being the highest point on the river to which the boat could conveniently reach, we took leave of Mr. Rough, and started in our Maori conveyances. The liver is rather dull in this part, being so thinly inhabited, but the scenery is nevertheless very pretty in many places We were nearly all day under the foot of a magnificent hill, called To Aroha, the highest peak of the range on the right hank of the river. It is wooded from the top nearly to the base, and from it run several spurs and minor hills, which add greatly to its appearance. Beyond (farther south) is another peak nearly as high, called Te Aroha Uta, but of this we could not obtain a good view to day. Halted at nooii for lunch on a level spot on the left bank, where stands by itself a large totara tree, on which we cut our names and the date. Started again in about half an hour, the appearance of the weather every moment looking more and more threatening, and landed at four p. in. at Mangawhenga, a little creek with a patch of wood at the mouth. About this time it began to rain pretty smaitly, so we lost no time in pitching the tents, and preparing for a wet night. When the tents were pitched and we had had some dinner, the Governor and I went out with Whakarehoand some other natives in one of the canoes to witness the sport of eel-spearing. They have a bayonet! fastened on the end of a pole about eight feet long, which they thrust into the banks, as the canoe drops quietly down the stream, in places where they know by experience that there arc eel-holes in the mud. When the man with the spear has transfixed an eel, he calls out " ka tu ! ka tu !"—he is struck ! he is struck ! and while he holds on by the spear, another man jumps out of the canoe witkajargejiuakin his hand, about the si/e&fJQT shark-hook, 1 with which he pulls the eel out of the mud! after grubbing for it with his hands, in which I operation the nat.ves often get severely bitten I by the large fish. During the time that the' canoe is going down the stream, and the spearer I is thrusting his weapon into the banks in search of sport, one of the other natives, generally the man who steers the canoe, repeats the followor religious ceremony, for the sUflCcss of the fishing— . "3'he liilcs of Rangiriri flow and ebb, I Anil breezes fan her sandy shores, while wa»e I On ware rolls on. By man's beguiling am I You're laken, nor does your bed of waters 1 Shield you from his snares. Tho 1 rudely 'capture! And degraded, tho' placed before him as Hii evening ineal— revinge, reFcngo Is yours, Von eat him In return. Man's tins betray Him, and sin is ever punished ( but 10, I bunch me on tho sea, regardless of My future destiny. Hence, hence my sins, And hence ill omens too. Now seise my hook i Conic Wilier if you will—but if you will—retire.';' Si ,'6 ~'

This karakia, however, being a remnant oftheir former slate of heathenism, lias, it must be! understood, like all their other ancient cere- I monies, fallen, wince the introduction by the Missionaries of the Christian religion, almost entirely into disuse. The sport to day was not • very good, even with the assistance of the above ; karakia, as they only caught one eel, but it was an enormously large one, so large indeed, that they were obliged to use a knife to sever the vertetree of the back before they could draw : him out of his hole. Towards nightfall the ' rain increased, and tjave every appearance of a decided change in the weather, to the great danger of our provisions, for which we had brought no tarpaulins, not having calculated upon encountering such bad weather at this season of the year. (To be continued. J