JOURNAL

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 2, Issue 45, 12 September 1850, Page 3

JOURNAL

Of an Expedition Overland from Auckland to Taranaki, by way of Rotorua, Taupo, and the west Coast, undertaken, in the Summer of 1849—50, by His Excellency the Gover-Nor-in-Chief of New Zealand. (Continued from our lait.) Tuesday, Dec. 11.'—Found ourselves, on awaking this morning, lying in a pool of water, having pitched our tent in a hollow place last night. Rose and moved to higher ground as Speedily as possible. It was still raining violently with the wind from the eastward, and the liver gradually rising, so that there was no

chance of moving; that day. Our provisions were found on inspection lo be sadly damaged. Tobacco saturated —flour converted into (unbaked) unleavened bread—sugar rapidly assuming the appearance of molasses, rice threatening to grow, and in short every thing which was at all of a perishable nature, in a most deplorable condition. We got a temporary shed erected over them as quickly as possible, and with the assistance of all the tarpaulins we could muster from our bedding, &c, covered them up as well as we could, and had an enormous tire lit Milder the shed to dry such portions of the biscuit, tobacco, &c , a3 might still be in a recoverable state, as well as our bedding, a great part of which had been completely soaked in the night. The Governor bore all our mishaps very stoically, appearing to care very little what became of that which had been provided for the inner man, but amused himself all day in his tent surrounded by natives, learning their songs, proverbs, ceremonies, &c, &c, in collecting which he takes great interest. For our own part wc amused ourselves as best we might in our own little tent, with songs, anecdotes, &c , in which Symonds, the most agreeable travelling companion as well as the best bushmau I have met with, as usual took the lead. The natives however, seemed happier than any of us; they built themselves houses, or rather large sheds, of flax leaves, and the branches of trees, which defied the rain much more effectually than our thin tents, and had the further advantage of containing a fire under the.roof which kept every thing free from damp, and drove away uiusquitocs, saud-llies, &c Around these fires they sat all day wrapped in their blankets, smoking their pipes, roasting potatoes and talking and laughing as if it were the finest weather imaginable. At four, we had to strike the tents, the river having risen so high, as to threaten lo swamp the encampment ; the little creek had also overflowed its banks, so that wc were attacked in front and rear, and our retreat inland effectually cut off. We were therefore obliged to take to the canoes, and move to some high land on the opposite side of the creek, where we were quite beyond the reach of the river, but had no shelter of any kind to break the force of either wind or rain. Even this defect was not without its countervailing advantage, as the mole plentiful the supply of fresh ail the less were we liable to be pestered by the mosquitues,—of the two evils, which is the least, I leave to lie determined by those who h-ive both travelled in New Zealand in wet weather, and gone through a summer campaign with the Thames mosqui'oes. Towards sunset the weather presented slight indications of clearing up, and the first pait of the night was without rain. This is the anniversary of the first lauding of Captain Cook in New 'Zealand, and is also the first day of the Auckland slimmer race meeting. It was a sort of misanthrope satisfaction to us in all our misery, to think of the state of mind in which the sporting portion of the Auckland community must have been all day. Wednesday, December 12.—1t wa» raining this morning harder than ever, and continued to do so without intermission throughout the day, so as to preclude the possibility of our proceeding on our journey. We spent the forenoon in much the same manner as yesterday/anddined at three; after which, as there was an appearance of a slight relaxation in the torrents of rain, we went about two miles down the river to see a spring called Tc Korokoro o 11ura, which the natives declared to be boiling and of a salt taste, and that it came from the tea on tin; East Coast by a subterraneous passage. It is situated at the foot of Mount Te Aroha, on the eastern bank of the river. On approaching it, Whakarcho who was our guide, instructed nic in a Native ceremony for strangers approaching a boiling spring, and my repeating which afterwards afforded mucfr amusement during our stay at Itolomahaiiaij It consists in pulling up some fern or any other weed which may be at hand, and throwing it into the spiing, at the same time repealing the words of a karakia of which the following is the translation— I arrive where nil unknown earth U muter my feet, 1 arrive where a new ally is above me, I arrive at this land, A resting place for nie. Oh spirit of llic place ilic stranger humbly' offers his heart as food for Ihce. The above ceremony which is called " Tupuna Whcnua" is used by persons on their first arrival at a strange place, for the purpose of appeasing the spirit of the catth, who would otherwise be angry at the intrusion. On examining the spring we found that the water was not hot, and could hardly be culled tepid, although it was not quite cold. Neither is it salt at all, but has a strong chalybeate taste, and is highly odirifcrous of rotten eggs. We found a small quantity of sulphiuous deposit in the mud

ti.-n'in'' --|,i,-li il-f v.1.-i ■ -11-- up. Tin juan- /. . ... . ,„.,..; ~ -,ry tma". an'! '!"• . ;..■ ■•..'•-. jr ~ -,ili;. repay.. ' )IIC '*•" tlle •..::.. ; ■■.. -iiii.t it to'dn which it is uecesi • tr.i\eise about .inarler uf a mile of very i,.-.iki« ground, the greater part of which is a O.cp quagiuiie. Tim: December 13.—1t was very squally all night, 'and rained a great ileal. In the early part of the morning, however, the rain became more intern'iltcnl, anil though it still looked very b'aclc we di-tciinincil to <[uit our present bleak anil inconvenient position, and push on a little further up the river. So we started at about half past seven and began a ■weary pull against a very heavy ('."'id. lm' ;<ny thing, we lliuu-h!, v.as better than wasting our time in such miserable quarters as those we had occupied for the last tun days. At a little after eight down came the rain again by huckclsful upon our devoted heads, and continued peppering away in the most merciless manner all day, so that when we slopped at 2 p. m., al a place called Manawani, we were completely wet through, and not only were the clothes we wore soaked, but all our spare clothing excepting that which had been packed in waterproof tin cases and tarpaulins. As to the provisions they were—i. e. the perishable part of them —totally and irrecoverably ruined, with the exception of one package of tobacco and a baa, of sugar which were stowed carefully underneath a large pile of other things. We pitched our tents on a hill by the bank of the river, and tumbled into bed as quickly as possible, with wet fern spread upon the soaking earth for our beds ; and our blankets, &c, though not completely saturated, still so damp as to be very uncomfortable. Clarke and I having our wardrobe packed in carpet bags, without tarpaulins, we found on inspection that we had not a solitary article of dry raiment to put on. As for the clothes we had worn during the day, we threw them outside the lent, and left Hum there till the natives, having finished their houses, could take them away to dry them at their fires. The Governor and Syniunds had the laugh at us here, as being experienced bushmen, they had all their clothes packed in water-proof tin cases, and were well supplied with tarpaulins. The weather was so dismal that even the natives could not keep their spirits up, but worked away at their huts in silence, a very unusual mood with them. Upon the whole, the general appearance of the canvas was wretched in the extreme. We had a tremendous lire lit in front of our tent, and being so closely packed (literally three in a bed), our blankets were not long in drying upon us, and we soon got warm and quite comfortable, and began singing and chatting, in the intervals of smoking and refilling the pipe, till our spirits rose to their na.ural pitch. It is on such occasions as this, th.-.t the real comfort of a pipeful of tobacco is 'felt ; and it cannot be denied that a pipe is in New Zealand an almost indispensable travelling companion. A good smoke has a soothing and comforting effect, after one has been thoroughly tired by walking, or exposed to the pitiless pelting of a New Zealand rainy day, which can only be appreciated by those who have h«u such an opportunity of testing its efficacy. Friday, Dec. IS Finer, but still looking rather black, with slight showers occasionally —wind about north, with some appearance of veering to the westward. As the day wore on, the intervals between the showers became loiter jniithe sun began to get the upper hand in with the heavy clouds, and to alToid ".:. oo v oual glimpses of the light of his countenance ; so we spread our wet clothes out upon the fern lo dry and get some of our lliiti.;s w.isheit by the native women. On calling for our boots, we found that the natives, being anxious lo have them nicely dried for us by the morning, had last night placed them rather too close to the lire ; the consequence was, that though they certainly had succeeded in drying them to perfection, we discovered that they were all burnt, much ttyjimJii-mMh and dismay, as it happened mlfo 'fl l W l the whole paity was rather badly f wifH' that particular article of drc.-.s, ami a iresh "supply could not be procured until our arrival at Taranaki. We contrived however, by paying them well with grease, and hammering at the shrivelled parts till they were battered into something like their original shape, to get them on at last, and they appeared alter all as if, with care, they last a few days yet. The river rose still higher last night, and swamped out some Matainata natives, (whose canoe —returning homeward from Mr. Thorpe's had overtaken us yesterday), who had encamped by the side of the river just below us, obliging them to come up to our settlement. Wenvere highly amused this morning by a furious disturbance amongst the natives. We had, in the parly which had been engaged in Auckland, two or three natives of llotorua, one of whom named Tarawa™, was, though young, a man of some consequence amongst his own people; he had two younger brothers, named Wharekino and Malena, the former, a lad of about sixteen, being an extremely impudent

-young fellow, whose education had been completed by a residence of some few months in [ Auckland. This young gentleman, it appears had grievously insulted Whakareho, who had lost, in the confusion yesterday afternoon, some of the paddles of his canoe, and on discovering ■he loss in the morning, said, that whoever had been to blame should pay for the paddles. Upon -this, Wliarekino, who overheard him, said in a jeering tone, " Your heard shall be payment for the lost paddle," when immediately before the words were well r.t of his mouth, he received a bio-. •>:; tile side of the head and another on the arm, from a log of firewood whieh the insulted owner of the beard had taken up, which floored him on the spot, lie jumped up and ran howling and blubbering to his big brother and the pakchas for protection. Then ensued a scene, which no pen can adequately describe, in which Tarawa™ and Whakareko were the principal actors. The rage of each knew no bounds, and they both rushed up and down, each armed with a huge bludgeon, jabbering and gesticulating furiously, yet neither parly liking to be the first to commit a breach of the peace. The principal point at issue, seemed to be whether the beard is a part of the body so I sacred as to constitute what Wharekino had [said, a curse, according to the old native custom. If it were, Whakrtrcko was held to be justified in taking summary vengeance, but if, as Tarawaru contended,such were not the case, the bloodshed, war, and other direful calamities which would ensue were beyond the mind of man to conceive—the famous Hotorua vtatrwhich, ten years ago, caused such devastation among the Thames people, was nothing to the consequences, which, judging from his thieals, would flow from this rash act. When they had gone on in this absurd manner for about half an hour, the dispute was put an cud to by a word of interference from the Governor and Te llcuheu. It seemed indeed, as if the belligerents were rather pleased than otherwise, at the interposition of authority to put a stop to their warlike denunciations. About noon some natives came from a settlement lower down the river, amongst whom was a man named Matiwhare, who is next to Te Haia, the principal chief on the Thames. He told me tint a strong pa had once existed on the top of the mountain opposite to us, (Te Aroha Ata), called Nga lukiluki a llikawera, which had been built by a famous chief, his .mcestor, called Kuinga, and had been considered almost impregnable. The posts of it still remain. As an instance of the great distance at which the sound of the palm* or ancient native gong could be heard, he informed us that the palm in this pa had been heard at Matamata, which is not less than eight or ten miles in a straight line from our present position, which again must be at least four fiom the top of Te Aroha Uta, making the whole distance which the sound travelled not less than twelve or fourteen miles. The weather cleared up towards evening, and gave us some hopes of further improvement to-morrow.

* The piliu or n:itive g ng was a hrge piece- of ov.il wood, hollowed out loinelhing in the shajie of a shallow howl, and male ns thin as po.sible upon (ho principle of the sounding board. 'I his instrument was hung to a post in the centre of the pa, and was sounded (l>v "inking it with a heavy picoe of wood,) as mi al inn ill ea,e of attack ill lime of war, on which occasions only it was used—mill in order to prevent it being soutKli'il by children, or otherwise without reason, it wa< hung at a great height, so tint the person saiiiiiling it had to mount n surt of platform or scaffolding, in order to reach it. [IV, bC CMltllllKd.J