Mr. BRUNNER'S LATE EXPLORING EXPEDITION. [From the Nelson Examiner, Sept. 30.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 337, 25 October 1848, Page 3

Mr. BRUNNER'S LATE EXPLORING EXPEDITION. [From the Nelson Examiner, Sept. 30.]

Previous to the planting of the settlement of Nelson, in Blind Bay, the first British colony on the south of Cook's Strait, liitle of the Middle Island of New Zealand was known to Europeans. It ,is true that the greater part of the coast h^d been visi.ed by sealing and whaling parties, and a few individuals had taken up their permanent abodes at therplaces most frequented as. stations, but we have never been able, to discover that these men knew anything of tli,e interior of the island, and we believe that their acquaintance . was confined entirely to the coast. Since this settlement was formed, however, now nearly seven years ago, a number of expeditions have been undertaken to supply that information of the country so much needed ; and cue of our most enterprising explorers, who has contributed most largely to our stock of knowledge, is Mr. T, Brunrier, a gentleman who was formerly attached to the Nelson surveying staff. We have already published notes of two of Mr. Brunner's journeys, -made in company of Mr. lifeaphy, and Mr. Heaphy and Mr. Fox. That with the two latter gentlemen was made in February, 1846, and its object was to ascertain the nature -and 'extent 6f the tract of country lying on the banks of the river flowing from the lakes Rotuiti and Raturoa (to the S.W. of Nelson), to the \VesV Coast and to learn whether a practical ' route existed across that part of the island. The other journey commenced on the I7ih of March of the same year,, was made' with Mr. fieaphy, down the West, Coast of this island, as far as the native-settlement of Arahura, in lat. 43°-, and occupied twenty-two , weeks. As some portions of Mr. Brunner's last journey was over part of the ground he had previously travelled in the two former , trips we have named, end as the particulars of these were published by us, we shall condense those parts of the present journal which ' tfelate to-the country with which our readers ■ are atready acquainted, while all that treats of , districts which are new to us we, shall give complete. , On 'the 3d of, December, 1846, Mr. Brun- > ncr again started on his travels, unaccompanied this' time by any European, but with a party of four natives, two men and two women. Ekehu, one of the men, had accompanied Mr. Brunner in' both his fqrmer trips ; the other was named Ep'.kiwati, a native who was, in some degree acquainted with the country about the lakes, having visited „it a year previously; The women were the wives of these men. Mr. Brunner's object nov; was to explore the river , Buller downwarJs from where he had turned back with Messrs. Fox and' Heaphy ,, in the previous February, and to seek an opening to the eastward, from the lake country, or from the, West Coast. It was evident that this journey would necessarily be a protracted one, though it was scarcely expected that our enterprising explorer would be absent for the long period of , eighty weeks; and the slight .preparations made for the undertaking is not the least remarkable feature oi the'journey, when we consider that there was no chance of recruiting his supplies, however long he might be detained away, and that the greater part of the country he would have to travel was wholly uniuhabited. The total outfit of food and clothing for the whole, party of five persons cost jotily. £33, 9^.. 4d., a sura which must seem, tiuly contemptible compared wij.h the pompous preparations we sometimes hear of for similar purposes. It must he remembered, however, that this journey had to be made on foot, that .every individual of the pa?ty was, his or her own beast of burden, compelled to carry everything, requisite for their individual use, and that no human being could travel overladen in such a wild and broken country as that which Mr. Brunner was now about to encounter. The only provisions taken were ip.Olbs., of flour,) a few biscuits, and a little ! tea, sugar, salt, and pepper. The bulk of the outfit was spare clothing,- to replace .that worn by tli? party at starting, two guns, and a, supply of ammunition. • T,he journey was commenced by easy stages,,and a man employed to assist to carry the, lo^djs a£,far as Mr. Stafford's sheep-station* in y the v M,ptneka vallejj, wbjch was reached .op , thle,Bt|, was at^t^^time^thjejnost tttr^ mote spot where any European resided, and

"Mr. waited there until the lltli^tp getihe assistance of a niule as far as tbe-Ito-tuiti Like. This was reached on the 13tb, when leave was taken of Fraser, the shepherd, who had accompanied them, and all .civilized life. The route was now the same as that taken by Mr. Brunner with Messrs. Fox and "Heaphy, in the preceeding February. The Roturoa Lake was reached on the 18th, previous to which the whole party had been afr fected with dysentery. From the 18th to the 30th was spent in exploring the .head of the lake, and in preparing fern root for the journey. Much rain was experienced, which kept the parly idle some days. Mr. Brunner found the head of the lake completely shut in by snow capped mountains, and fed by a large river flowing from the eastward. He ascended a high hill in the neighbourhood to endeavour to get a glimpse of the East Coast; but the snowy range obstructed his view* t On the 31st, Mr. Brunner and party again made a start forward for the Matukituki, and, after experiencing much discomfort from the 'almost constant rain, reached his former return station, at the bottom of the Matukituki valley, on the 16tn Januar.,, 1847. At the termination of the Matukituki, which is a valley of some extent, the Bailer, as it has been named, having received the waters of both the Rotuiti and Roturoa Lakes, and several tributary streams becomes a deep and rapid river. It was here that Mr. Fox was swept away the preceding year in at* tempting to ford it, and the present party found the greatest difficulty in passing over from bank to bank, which the nature of the country sometimes rendered necessary. The Buller at this point enters a rugged gorge, and^ compels the traveller to find his way along the sides of steep wooded mountains, the surface of which is much broken. It was ,the diffiJ culty of proceeding through this gorge which caused the previous party (the first which had even penetrated so far; ta turn back, when Mr. Heaphy estimated th,e distance* from the East Coast little more than twen-y miles. From the 25th January to the Ist February,, Mr. Brunner and party were employed in pushing their way through this difficult country, when they found '.hat their provisions were spoiled, by the rain, w.hich was almost incessant. They were then compelled to retrace their steps as far as the MatukituJ&i, to prepare a fresh stock, for such was the character of the birch wood in which they were entangled, that it afforded them not the slightest sustenance. Having reached their former hut on the 3rd, they found .employment, when the weather permitted, in collecting and preparingjpo'd, untilthe 18th, whßn they crossed the river previous to again entering the gorge." , t / The journey from this place to the mouth of the river has already been shortly! described by Mr. Brunner, in a letter Which \he wrote from the West Coast, and forwarded to Nelson by a native. This was published .Ujb^us on. the 12th of February last. We shall therefore only briefly state a few of the most striking events which we find in this part of the journal. , Mr. Brunner states, that on resuming -his journey through the gorge, his load consisted of a gun, 7lbs. of shot, Blbs. of tobacco, two tomahawks, two pair of boots, five shirts, four pair of trowsers, , a rug and blanket, -arid r at least 30lbs. of fern root. With such loads it was impossible to make much way through a thick bush interspersed with briars, and over rough granite rocks, compelled all the time to search about for the best line of country to get through, and often obliged to. ascend and descend the sides of the steep hills to be enabled to get forward at all. Accordingly we find that two miles in a day is the utmost distance our travellers ever could attain, while sometimes they were unable to make more than half a mile, and were often compelled hy heavy rains and freshes in the river to remain, altogether inactive, or employ themselves in providing food and shelter. ' On the Ist March the handful of flour was consumed to thicken soup.. To render this ; portion of the journey still moreharrassing, one ;of the women now fell sick) and greatly re- , tarded the progress of tbe party. On the 9th, , Mr. Brunner was himself taken ill, and for | two hours suffered the most excruciating pain. ■ Both the female natives suffered in a similar ! way, and also one of the men. The illness Was attributed to theirfern root diet. These delays so retarded tbe travellers,, that on the : 16th nearly all their provisions were exhausted i and they were reduced to one, meal of fern.? root in tw ; ehty-four hours. ,No_ food of any. kind could be obtained in. the birch woods in which they now found themselves, and all they, had to trust to was. an occasional eel caught in the river. > _ Until the 6th April there was but, little change in the sufferings of the travellers, when they reached a better and mere level country, partly covered with pine. Here they obtained plenty of birds, which - gave them , the luxury o,f , v two, jmealSj.-a dayi r Their wajE^BowJajir through/ a valley of rich wooded land, and' on

tbe 12th they came to the mouth of a,goodsiz.ed river, flowing down a large valley, named Inakaiona, which opened to the southward. This valley is frequented occasionally by the natives from the coast. On the 10th, another' river was met with, flowing from the northward. By the 20th the travellers had readied the termination of the valley, and again entered a mountain gorge. From this time until tlie party reached the j coast, on the 4th June, their su'ferings were intense. The travelling was of tbe worst kind, and tbe scarcity of food was so great, that after killing and eaiing his dog, Mr. Brunner tells us he was without food for nearly three days. The almost constant rain experienced also added greatly to their misery. Scarcely a day passed but it rained during some portion of the twenty-four hours, more or less, and ofteu very heavily for several days iv succession. Bui: the disappointment of the travellers did not end here. The natives whom they expected to find at tbe pa on tbe coast were absent, nor had they left any provisions behind them. Instead of a good meal of potatoes, as they had fondly anticipated, they were compelled to regale themselves on sea- weed. In a couple ot days tbe natives returned, and after staying with them until the 15th, Mr. Brunuer started for the native settlement of Arahura, about 100 miles lower down the coast. This was reached in safety, and' here, and at the neighbouring settlement of Taramakau, our travellers remained until the following spring before they could procure guides to accompany them in their intended journey through the pass which leads to the grass plains on the East Coast. It was on the 12th of October that this new journny was commenced, never before travelled by an European, and now we shall give Mr. Brunner's own narrative. Wednesday, 12th October, 1847. — With right good will I mounted my load on my back, apd after many shakes of the baud, and much rubbing of noses, I left the Taramakau natives, and for once more felt myself moving with my inclinations. I had the company of the three chiefs here, Te Kauhauke, Tipiha, •and Paeture and his daughter, just in my opinion a nice little party. Reached Arahura and put up for the night, which proved a rainy one. 13th and 14th. — Rain, with a gale of wind. 15th. — Moderately fine. Started for Ohitika, a river of some considerable size, at the mouth of which was formerly a large ' pa, occupied by Enihu and the other natives now living at Waenganui. There is an old canoe here, which the natives told me was once used for Hapuka fishing in fine weather, but the bar is very dangerous. There is some good bush land on ;he banks of this' river, and some tara plantalions of former days. There are four natives living at Okitahi ; one man, two women, and one child. They follow the Church of England faith. 16th. — Launched the canoe, and crossed to the other bank, where we bad to erect a shelter against the wind and rain. 17th. — Continuation of gale. -Went with tbe natives eel fishing. 3 Bth. — A fine dayjbut blowing very fresh. 19th. — A fine day. Soon after daylight we mounted our respective loads, and made a good start, reaching an inshore stream of water, called Paiere, which rung parallel to the shore for five or six miles-. The natives tell me there is a lake and a- grass plain of some size on the banks of this river, and I am too anxious to proceed t» visit them. We took breakfast at a small potato garden here, and again moved on to a small stream called Totara, which is narrow and fordable, but runs very strong. We took a small repast here, waiting for the tide ; and when we could proceed, we walked to another' stream, called Mikonui, which we only reached by dark. We also stopped here some lime for -the "tide, and in crossing had to swim twice over to carry our clothes. The whole distance, about sixty miles, is a dense mass of wood ; on the hills, chiefly rata ; on the flat, pine ; and walking, tbe greater part, a loose shifting sanjJ. Bearing 1 of the wood, about S.W. 20th. — Started with the rising sun, and after walking about two miles came to a.curious headland or cliff, named' by the natives Paramata. It projects someway into the sea, and, from its position and appearance, must be a bold head. I could take no latitudes, my sextant being spoiled by the wet. Here is found a strata of very fine slate on a bed of inferior coal, and under a kind of blue clay. The slate is bard, of a fine grain, splits freely, and is of a kind of reddish brown, resembling Welsh slate: About six miles further we came to a good sized stream, named Waita, about half a-mile across, ahich was forded, chin deep. There is but little land on the banks of this river ' available 'for cultivation before reaching the minor hill, from which rise tbe chain of'snowy mountains that bound tbe West Coast. We made a long march, and a little after sunset came to the mouth of a large stream, called Waenganui, when we

camped for the night at a pa, the natives of which were absent, but found some potatoes, from which we took our supper. From Waita to this place, the coast is chiefly bounded by cliffs, with a beach of alternate sand and rocks. The Waengamri is a pretty river, with little level land, and all wooded. It was here George Darnwell and party beached their boat. There is a peculiar headland off this river, sketches of which I have made. Very fine day. 21st. — About mid-day, when the tide permitted, we crossed the Waenganui, and came to another river called Poeru, a sharp running stream, about 150 yards wide, which is noted for a pond of water on its banks, abounding in eels of a fine quality, and is a summer residence for the natives. The coast is still bounded by a range of cliffs ;' and in all directions a dense mass of forest, chiefly rata, on the hills ; and on the banks, of all the streams, either large or small, the pine tribe presents itself. The walking from Taramakau to Poeru, is a series of small sandy bays, with rocky points dividing them. The' ! "bearing of the coast, S.S.W. by compass, i Rain towards evening. I believe I may now assert that I have overcome the two greatest difficulties to be met with by bushmen in New Zealand, viz., the capability of walking barefoot, and subsisting on fern root.- The first the want of shoes, had been a dread to me for some time, often fearing I should be left a bare-footpd cripple in some desolate black birch forest on | this deserted coast ; but now I can trudge along barefoot, or with a pair of native sandals, called by the natives parai rai, which is made of the leaves of the ti, or flax tree. I can make a sure footing in crossing rivers, ascending or descending precipices, in fact I feel I am just commencing to make exploring easy work. A good pair of sandals will last about two days' hard work ; they take about twenty minutes to make. 22d. — Made an early start this morning, and, after walking along a rocky beach about four miles, came to a mountain torrent, called Wairoa, falling over a large granite bed of rocks. This is a very ugly and dangerous stream to ford ; and the natives told me that four young men were lately drowned trying to cross it. '' However, we got safely over, and walked to Okaritu, passing another stream, called Waiiaki. Here we found some natives. It is-about ten' miles from Wairoa to Okaritu. There is no level land, the coast being boun-, ded by the snow-capped range. At Wairoa is the wreck of a large sealingboat among a lot of underbusb, about a quarter of a mile from high water. The growth of the bushes, and appearance of the wreck, show that the sea is fast receding from this coast. This also appears at the mouths of all the rivers of this coast. Okaritu is the pa where Enihu captured and killed many of the natives of the Ngaitau tribe, and also took Te Uru, the chief, prisoner, whom he has since released to return here and work gieenstone for him. There is the remains of a very large pa here, which was resorted to for fishing and bird catching ; and that it abounds in eels I had full proof during my visit here, our diet being nothing else, and was served out in liberal quantities, to dogs as well as Christians, three times a day. There are six natives living here : two men and four women. They are of the Wesleyan Church, and apparently very punctual and zealous in their worship. This pa should be celebrated for the number of dogs kept here. The natives never kill a dog unless for its skin. Commenced wearing my third new shirt, my wardrobe now sadly diminished in bulk. 23rd. — Staying at Okaritu, the wind coming from north-east, and bringing its usual companion, heavy rain. Okaritu is a large mud flatj of at least 10,000 acres in extent, nearly all covered at high water, and is only of note for Its quantity of fish. The timber here is very small, and appears of recent growth, I think to the foot of the mountain range was recently washed by the ocean. At high water, and at this time of the year when ! the rats is beginning to bloom, this place is one of the most beautiful pieces of scenery I j have seen in New Zealand* It is a great resort for all kinds of water-fowl, «nd the Paradise duck comes here from all quarters i for the moulting season. 24th. — Continuation of rain. 25th. — Rain all day. 26th. — To-day somewhat better, but a i fresh in the river prevented my proceeding, or enjoying a ramble from my shed. ! 27th. — Still confined to Okaritu by the fresh. | 28th. — About mid-day, at low water, we constructed a raft of the blossom stalks of the flax, and crossed the river, when we walked about four miles to a small stream called Tqtara, pretty in the shape of scenery, but otherwise of no value. Irom Okaritu to this place is a range of low cliffs, with a sandy Mn'd rocky beach, and only pamblt at low

water. Stopped here for the night, the tide preventing onward, progress 29th. — Walked about two miles-farther to another also called Totara, and much like its namesake. Here we were obliged to erect a shelter against « regular tempest of wind and raiu. 30th. — Rain continuing. 31st. — Showery. — The natives proposed our leaving our loads here, and returning to Okaritu to attend. Divine Service on Sunday. To this I gave consent, knowing I should get a good dinner and more comfortable lodging. I am much astonished to find, that even in these distant parts so much should be said by the natives belonging to the Church of England and the Wesleyans, relative to their forms of religion. Although in some places there are only 6ix or eight natives, yet they have two places of wotship, and two schools ; and are always'quarrelling about religion, each party asserting its own to be the proper service to God. There are some few who have been christened by the Rev. C. L. Re ay, and a few also by Mr. Aldred, the ministers of the two churches in Nelson. Nov. Ist. — At Okaritu. Showery. 2d. — Fine day, and went with the natives spearing eels on the mud fiat. 3d. — Made another start, and reached our shed and burdens. ■ 4th. — Proceeded about four miles along a rocky and shingle beach, when we came to a large mountain rapid, running over a granite bed. The place is called Waihau, and I found it so flooded as to defy my onward progress. There being, from the situation, no means of ascending it on the north bank, or any way of lodging there to wait its falling, I was obliged, though very reluctant, to return again to our shed at Totara. ■ -sth. — At Totara, sketching and looking over the country. 6th. — At Totara. Day showery. 7th. — Made a resolute start to cross, if possible, over the Waihau, which with great difficulty, and at the risk of our lives, we managed to accomplish. It is here that the wekas had been caught that I had been feasting on at Taramakau. They resort here, dogs being unable to cross the river after them. Moderately fine. Slept at a native ware. Bth. — Staying at Waihau. 9th. — After making southing, aud reached a stream called Waikukupa, deep and not fordable, but of no other note and worthless. Passed on to another stream called Miroroa, where we took up our lodgings for the night, having spent much of the day in constructing a raft to cross the former river. About eight miles of walking over sand and rocks. 10th. — Proceeded forwards and rounded a headland called Kohaihai, a low rocky point, and managed,' after difficult walking, to reach a river called Waiweka, where we made a raft ready for crossing in the morning. 11th. — Crossed the river, which is a very dangerous stream, flowing from the mountains over a rocky bed. Proceeded to another small stream, which we crossed, when the rain compelled us to erect a shelter. 12th. — Rain. 13th. — The weather permitting us to proceed, we walked along the base of a low range of cliffs, called the Parapara, and on to the Uturaoa, a small headland, the terminus of the cliffs, when a short sandy beach bruoght us to the mouth of a small stream called Matakaihau, where we stopped for the tide and the night. From Kobaihai headland to this place the distance is about sixteen miles. Bearing, S.W. 14th. — After walking about three miles along a rocky beach, we came to a small point called Makawiho, on rounding which we crossed the Waitaki, a mountain stream, and proceeded to a potatoe garden at Porangirangi, where we put up for the night and the Sabbath. Distance, about nine miles. (To be continued J