JOURNAL

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 4, Issue 67, 17 July 1851, 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 Int.] Sunday, January Cth, 1850.—The weather ontinues beutifully fine but very hot j after breakfast we sent for Pirikawau, who with the other natives left behind yesterday at Tokanu, had returned late in the evening. He reported that the Tokanu natives seemed not to have the smallest intention of changing their minds in the least degree, but that on the contrary they were making the most determined preparations for action, and had already broken open a cask of powder, which they intended that night to convert into ball-cartridge. The other party were also equally obstinate, so after some consideration it was decided that the best course for us to pursue, would be to abandon for the present the idea of ascending the mountain, and proceed to Taianaki by some other route. This was of course a very ureal disappointment to us all, as the ascending Tongariro had been with the whole of us, the main object of the journey. It was however plain that no other course was open to us, as, had we persisted in our first intention we should inevitably have found ourselves in the midst of a native war, and the Governor in all probability be considered by many persons as the chief cause of the quarrel. The only point then, which remained to be determined was, by which route we should proceed, whether down the Whanganui river by way of Mokau ; or, returning northward, make for the Waipa at Kakepuka, cross to Kawhia on the west coast, and thence follow the coast line down to Tarannki. Af'er some discussion the Mokau loute was decided upon as being the shortest and the most interesting, as the Mokau river passes through a country little travelled, and very imperfectly known by Kuropeans, and containing numerous limestone caves in which have been found bones of the Moa. Jt was Uierefore we slioulU stall ior naki by that route early the next morning, under the guidance of a native who ar-j rived thence yesterday bringing the news of| the death of Te Rauparaha. Te lieu Heu and his party of course remained behind,—but the old man very kindly promised to give us as many natives as we squired for bearers, at-' though just at that time he could ill spare any. I<" was necessary, however, for us to have some, afca large portion of our baggage had been earned thus far by his slaves, but we contented ourselves with two, one of whom named Harm, was the best traveller, and carried the heaviest load of any in our party; he had been in all the engagements in the north, at Ohaeawhai, Ruapekapeka, and all the minor skirmishes, fighting on the part of the rebels, and beuig a good humoured chatty fellow had often entertained us with accounts of his '■ Hair breath "scapes i'tli« imminent deadly breicb." and of " Cannibals Ibat do cat men." " The anthropophagi." so that we loved him for the many dangers he had run, and his remaining behind would have been looked upon by all the party with great regret. , Monday, January 7th Rose at five, and by

six had taken an affectionate leave of all our friends, and started again on our travels. After climbing a precipitous hill from which we obtained a line birds - eye - view of the whole of the lake, we came upon a table land beyond, over which we travelled for a distance of some eight or nine miles, until we arrived at nine o'clock at a small cultivation, with a few huts, called I'oaue, situated at the skirt of a dense wood lying to the S., and S. W. of us, and through a portion of which our road lay. Here we halted for breakfast, and whilst this was in course of preparation we had some conversation with our guide upon the subject of the ron'e we had to travel, when it appeared that we were marching direct upon I Tuhua a settlement on the Whanganui river from which point our course diverged towards Mokau. Here it was known that Te Herekiekie's taua had made its head-quarters, and was at that moment in all probability lying. For various reasons it was deemed extremely improper if not dangerous to throw ourselves in the way of this party, the principal of which was that the chief Maheku with a large number of his followers was known to be with them. This man.had throughout the late rebellion been one of the ring-leaders on Rangihaeata's side, had been most active in the affairs at the Mutt, and afterwards at Pautahanui and Whanganui ; and had been the instigator of the murder of the Gilullans at the latter place. He still continued a staunch and bitter opponent of the Government, having refused the amnesty at the close of the rebellion to which Rangihaeataand the other ring-leaders were admitted. Whilst we were at Poaue,one of the natives offered us for sale an account book and carpenter's rule which had fallen to his share at Whanganui, but the prices he asked were so preposterous that none of us could purchase them, more particuarly as the book contained no evidence to shew to whom it belonged, so that it would probably have been impossible to return it to the owner, to whom alone it could have been of any use. Our Mokau guide of course left us here, and his load had to be divided amongst our already overloaded natives, but that did not make a great deal of difference as we calculated on getting additional bearers at the next settlement we should pass upon the road. By this time it began to rain slightly, with every appearance of a decidedly moist afternoon. When wc had travelled about a mile and half over a very broken country we were stopped by a tapu on the toad, where it crosses a small river called Kuratau, down the banks of which, therefore, we had to walk until we came to a ford, after which we passed by a small swampy lake, or rather pond called Itotoawa, and before we got fairly into our road again, had made a detour of about live miles over a swampy ground where we had to scramble through wet fern, manuka, &c , without any pathway, and all because of this stupid tapu over about one quarter of a mile of our proper road. All this time it was raining as hard as possible so that when we arrived at about one o'clock, p.m., at a small cultivation at the skirt of the wood we called a halt, piched the tents and proceeded to make ourselves as comfortable as circumstances would permit, the first thing done being to get as (liiickly as possible between the blankets, where we set to work to make up the arrears of our journals.