JOURNAL Kept by two British Officers,on their Overland Route from Wellington to Auckland.-1846. (Continued from last Number.)

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume II, Issue 108, 12 August 1846, Page 3

JOURNAL Kept by two British Officers, on their Overland Route from Wellington to Auckland.-1846. ( C ontinued from last Number.)

April Ist. — Went across ' to the so-called town of Wanganui, which consists at present of some ten or twelve small houses,* v and a rather pretty little wooden church. It seems placed in a good situation, although from there being a dangerous bar, there is little chance of

* This appears to be a mistake ; we are informed there are about sixty houses in the town. — En.

vessels of any size getting up to it. The,inhabitants, however, already talk of cutting a canal, the chances of which, in the present state of affairs, seem very remote. 2d. — Went over to see Mr. B — , a settler, who has a good deal of land in .cultivation. He lives about two miles up the river; and Sy his energy and perseverance has succeeded in overcoming considerable opposition, both from the natives and fiom the nature of the ground he has to cultivate, and has now his farm in a flourishing state, with very little assistance except from his own strong arm. Mr. T spoke to a chief, one of the principal men at Taupo, named Herekeikei, who was going to start next day, and we made -a bargain with him to give us four men to carry our baggage to Rotorua for £5, 4s. He told us he was one of the most deceitful natives he knew, but that fie would treat us well. He ,added, also, that he had been informed that he himself was only going a few miles up the river, and that he -would strike off to the left, by a path which ■leads to a pa called Wai to tar a, on the -coast, ! intending to surprise it. The natives at Waitotara had been informed of his intention, and -were fully prepared for him, and would most likely annihilate him and his people, as they had done his father and .50 of his men some years before. 8d. — Poled up the river about eight miles, the banks on either side level, for a .mile or so inland ail the way, and seemed very fertile — covered mostly with fern and shrubs, and some few trees. 4th. — Heavy rain, the river much flooded. sth. — Continued rain and flood. 6th. — The rain having cleared off, but .still .flood Jn the river, we star-ted,; the river shut in by ranges of high bare hills on either bank.; passed two large pas ; we landed at Kanihini, about nine miles, 'where there was a large pa, and a considerable number of natives,; the pa is built on a very. strong on the top of a hill, 7th. — Flood too heavy to move on. Bth. — Still heavy flood ; the natives had a secret consultation, which we suspected related to what Mr. T told v us at Wanganui. sth. — :Some of the natives asked us this morning for powder and caps, on which we told them that if they went to Waitotara they would most likely come badly off, as they were prepared for them. They seemed greatly surprised, and were every curious to know our informant. After a little talk, they said they would move on, and that by and by they would come -down to Waitotera. T4iey said they would have eaten them, if they got the better , of them, and offered us some of the flesh, which we fancied was an idle boast. They had only four or five guns, but 1 believe they would have got others at the pa ; and we were informed that they had forty baskets of dried kumeras (a favourite food on a war expedition.) We then embarked, -and proceeded on our voyage up the river, still among high hills, which now became wooded, and the scenery very fine. There were several .rapids, which required a good deal of labour to get up. At nightfall we landed at the foot of Taupiri, a mountain visible eighty or ninety miles off. There was a small pa there ; the old chief of which lamented the bad situation of his village between the hills, as he saw so little of the sun, and said he would prefer living on the coast. 10th. — Went about two miles further up, when we halted at a large pa, it being Good Friday. 11th. — The river at this place was running like a mill race, and with great difficulty we got up the rapid ; however, we got seven or eight miles by means of pulling ourselves along by the branches on the banks, and poling, and landed at a potato field, where the whole tribe set to work digging potatoes and building wares, which they did in a very short time. In the night it came on a gale, and blew down most of the wares — ours among the number. 12th. — Heavy thunder-storm during the night ; the old priest praying to. the lightning the greater part of the night. '13th. — Received a letter from Mr. T , who had gone up the river before us, recommending us to return to Wanganui, and go up the coast, as the rivets in the interior were much flooded. 14th. — The. rain having fallen about ten feet during the night, we went on at two miles distance ; passed Operiki, a large fortified pa, from which there is a path ta Taupo. The river is still picturesque and f w.qoded, but, the sameness of the scenery becomes tiresome, as the hills seem never ending. Proceeded fiye miles further to Ikurangi, which appears to have been a large pa; there i& a path to Taupo from tbe v o,pposite side of-the, river. 15th. — Difficult rapid .near, this place.; the, banks now become ,a ( good deal cultivated^ and so on till we reach P.ukeika, a large , settlement, on the spur of a hill over, the river, with a good deal, of cultivation^ all about, it, and would make a fine spot for a European village,' We did not stop there, as the inha-

b,itants were not very friendly to the Taiipo people, but went across to Patearebo, another large settlement on the opposite side. April 16. — Went over to Pakeika and saw the native church now building of totara wood ; it will be 64 feet by 34 feet. They are building a much larger one at Pikirike, of brick, which is a novelty in New Zealand architecture. There are about 800 natives at these two settlements, and about 4,000 along the course of the Wanganui river, most of them are missionary natives. 17- — Halted. The natives along the banks, seem to have abundance of provisions, judging from the quantities they supplied to the Taupo j people all the way, for at every halt, they had i as many pmmpkins, kumeras, vegetable marrow, and potatoes, as they could eat, which, considering that they are not on friendly terms with the Wanganui natives in general, is very praiseworthy, but they say themselves, that they are told to feed their enemies. 18. — The people of the pa gave a feast to our natives, who consisted of about one hundred men, women, and children, and after gorging themselves with pork, they left the pa, and went about two miles and then halted on a hill over Pa-te-areko, on the way to Taupo, where we bivouacked for the night 19th. — Moved on about a mile, when a report reached us that a war party had arrived from the Waikato country, to join Rangihaeata when our natives .halted to hear the news. They told us that two hundred men had come down to the river to drive all the pakehasfrom Wellington.; to which, of course," we gave the credit that maori stories generally deserve. We then went about a mile further into the wood and halted. 20th. — Had an early start and got fairly into the dreary wood, leading to Taupa. The path was hardly visible, and we were compelled to resort to creeping, rather than walking, as the wood was full of vine or supple jack, which obliged us to look out fof both head and feet ; besides, tremendous hills were to be ascended, and ravines descended, so with difficulty we got about eight miles. 21st. — Heavy rain all day and night. Had to send back some men to get more provisions as there was a likelihood of us being stopped at a river on account of a flood. Our gun was a good friend to us, and pigeons were both fat plentiful. ': .22nd. — Men not returned with provisions on account of the heavy rairu A pipe that was lit at, a fire kindled by the old chief became immediately tapu, and no one would • smoke out of it. A boy in scraping up the : ground found a large earth worm, about eight \ inches long, which he was proceeding to cook, j when it was snatched from him by an old wo- \ man who immediately put it on the fire, and when wellfrizled, doubled it up in four pieces, and ate it up with great relish, saying it was excellent food, which all the others agreed to. The large white grubs in rotten wood they also eat wherever they come across them. 23rd. — Heard this day that our friends that I came from .Otaki had robbed us of sixty stacks of tobacco. One of them, a chief who we had named " red blanket," came into our ware, when we taxed him with it before a number of natives and told him his behaviour was anything butchieftain-like. He seemed very much ashamed and slunk off. The men came back in the afternoon with provisions, when we ascended a high range to the north-east, the path still of the same rugged nature. From the top of one of the hills we had a view of Tongariro, capped with snow, at seven miles distance. Halted at the bottom of a deep ravine, the ground was very damp from the conI tinued dripping of the trees. [ 24th. — Crossed a deep and rapid stream six yards wide, by means of a large tree laid across, aud then ascended a precipice, and got to the top of a range which leads towards the north. Three miles further on, arrived at the edge of a deep ravine, where the path joins Ikurangi, and becomes rather better for four miles on to the Manguiwero which is thirty yards wide, full of large stones, and very rapid, and which very little flood would make impassable. Passed through some small patches of fern and grass and halted iv the wood. 22th. — Heavy rain. 'The natives went out pig hunting, but only killed a small one ; some of them got lost, in the wood, on which there was firing of guns kept up all day : they returned in the evening. 26th. — Our march this day was very disagreeable on account of the wetness of the wpod, and the slippery path. We walked, ahead of our people, and got on too far, as they did not come up at dusk/however three Maqries came up belonging to the parly, that came from, Otaki with iis, who built, a ware, lit a fire, cooked, potatoes, and two Kaka.we had shot, and also lent us blankets, so we were not so badly off, although wet to the skin. We marched about sixteen miles this day. 27th. — After three miles walking, to our delight we got outside the wood on to the mania, or gras»y,plain. Tongariro now in full view, covered wjthjsnow half way down. The mania

has evidently been cleared away by fire, as the blackened stumps of trees are still to be seen in some places ; it is covered with grass of a soar coarse description, and 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 the wood we halted for the night, at the foot of Tongariro, on the banks of the Wangaehu which is here a mere rivulet. The mania appeared to be from four to fifteen miles broad, bounded by a range of low hills on the right, and on the left by a thick forest. 28th. — At a mile from the river we came to a dreary tract at the base of the mountain, covered with shingle and large blocks of stone and scoria. Two small streams of whitish colour were running down from the mountain which we had the curiosity to taste, and we found strongly impregnated with sulphuric acid. The natives shewed us a place where they said a large number of maories were frozen to death. They also said the snow sometimes lay five feet deep there. We went for about seven miles along this waste, 'which is intersected with several beds of water courses, which, when the snow melts in spring, would become dangerous torrents. Came to some stunted heathy shrubs, and arrived at Waikohororu, about fourteen miles from our last halting place, amidst pelting rain. Crossed the river and halted for the night. 29th. — After an hour's walk, we got the first view of the Taupo lake, from the hill over Mangatawai river. It is very like the Bay of - Islands, coming from Wairaate to Kiri Kiri, Fifteeen miles from Waikohororu, over grassy plains and small hills, brought us to Rotorua lake. We crossed over a small river to the pa " Paito." 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 our arrival, that there was a sick pakeha lying in a ware, and on our proceeding there we found Mr. C n, a settler of Wanganui, who. had come up to see Taupo, before going to England. He anxiously inquired if we had got any medecine, and was dreadfully disappointed when we told him we had none. He informed us he had not tasted anything except tea and sugar for fourteen days, nor did he feel inclined for anything else. We gave him the only things we had that he wished for, — tea, sugar, and got some salts for him from 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 tench ; they are tolerably good when fresh, but when 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 Taupo lakes, which is remarkable, as they are so common to all the streams and lakes of New Zealand. Mr. C n managed to get up and walk about a little this day, and in i his absence, his rascally boy managed to eat 1 the greatest part of his sugar, which was a sad blow to him, as it was the only nourishment he could take. He said 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 morning ; saw the stream arising from the top of Tongariro. 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. Dieffenbach. About half a mile further on we came to the pa, and to our surprise there was a party of forty who received us with & 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 absence, 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 favor again. The whole scene, had a good effect, combined, with, wild barren hills, hot springs, and the magnificent, lake, of Taupo. (To be continued .)