A COMPLETE CHAPTER OF COLONIAL HISTORY.

Thames Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 1808, 8 May 1874, Page 3

A COMPLETE CHAPTER OF COLONIAL HISTORY.

In the jear 1862 few people had travelled over the coast liae of this island extending. from ..,the river Grey to Okarita. Major Heaphy and Mr Survey,' or Mr Brunner, had both done so; and later Mr Brunner had .managed to.reach, asifar south as Maitai; It took the latter"gentleman'one year and five months to make the journey from Nelson to Maitai .and back again... He lived on what the.natives with him. eould oatoh—wekas, young Paradise ducks, eels and. other fish, and largely on ferntfoot and ti-tree. Early in the expedition he. killed,.cooked, and ate his dog; by.;this,.means retaining among the Maoris on the coast the sobriquet of Tamai-kai-kuri to the preient day. He suooeeded at length to. his great satisfaction in learning to do almost without clothing or civilised food; content with'a dry shelter by night, and aipaanch full of fern root, or weka for supper.: /Two or three.sailors had passed up the coast from Maitai since Mr Brunner, but no other Europeans. These men; had been shipwrecked somewhere south, and had been forwarded to the Grey, and on to ICaipqi by.the.natives.., ; ,■. I had just returned from my first, trip up the Hokitika river, a month after poor W hitcomb was drowned at the Teremakau, he having, with one companion and a few pounds of biscuit, crossed the main, range at the head of the Bakaia river, traversed the Hokitika to the beach, and got drowned in crossing the Teremakau in a cockle-shell canoe, built for the purpose of easily capsizing, to learn native children to swim. It was a useless journey, illadvised, but pluckily executed.' We nearly got washed to sea ourselves when coming down the river in a .whaleboat, which was sent round to the Canterbury Government and left at the Hokitika. At :this time, there were of oourse no. cattle or 'horses oh the coast. 1 All.the; provisions, required for prospecting or exploration had to be landed at the Grey, and then packed on men's, backs inland or along the coast.'" Iwas.'at that period of which I am writing, staying for. a few days in the. (native, church), on .the south side of the river Teremakau. I had some days previously sent seven or eight ■ white ■ men' south, with- as • large a quantity of provisions as they could oarry, giving instructions to. reaohthe Waitaki river, if possible,,and there cache.. their packs as supplies for the future.. I had kept one white man with me as a companion; the rest had been gone fronrthe previous Tuesday. It is now Sunday and noon. There is a long lagoon close to' the whare where I wasstaying, and while I was paddling Blowly round its edges, looking for ducks and swamp hens, passing away tjie time, and seeking a supply of food.for the morrow,-I,saw at the entrance,of the lagoon a native paddling another canoe,' with a white man sitting in the,bows with his back towards me. i knew it was a white man; a Maori would have taken another paddle. ' I waited with some ouriousity to see who the white man could ba; all mine with one exception, had gone south, and .there were only four others on the coast (that would be three) viz., those'employed by ' Mr, Charlton' Hewitt in. cutting la' bridle track from Lake Brunner to the sea. I knew all the members of Mr Howitt's gang, and found, on our meeting, this to be the sole supposed survivor of the party. A wan, weary, emaciated, half-clad creature he appeared. There was a wistful look in his eyes as though he had gazed onsome horrible sight 1 , whioh could not be understood nor forgotten. He was a man awakoning from a horrible night-mare, He told his. story tersely enough. Amonthpreviouslyhisemployer bad, taken his canoe and gone with his two other companions to the mouth of the Arnold Jftiver for the purpose of fishing for eels. They had never been seen or heard of since; A swag was found on the boaoh, whore it probably had been washed ashore, was the only indication of their past trip to the Arnold, save _the used up bobs they had used in fishing. For three weeks he had been wandering round theN.W. edge of the lake, lighting, fires when possible, signalling, and at intervals calling for his companions. He had been confined in a 1 store to cache their provisions,, for a week by rain, was unable to light a fire or cook any food, subsisting on flour mixed. with; cold water. He said he believed he had:been mad; he looked as though he mjght.have been, for his eye was still wandering and uncertain,, The man, is dead noiv, so I can write of him'with freedom. Ho appeared to feel as,'•though those who were not acquainted with him might feel a doubt of his, story, and regard the' mysterious disappearance of his three companions with suspicion. His weary, woeful-looking, haunting eye will remain' before trie to my dying day, as he implied this fact in his conversation. , He had' .come'to tell>me ; of the 'disappearance of his companions, and consult as to the best 1 course to.pursue. ; He had made up his mind to go to Ohristohurch, he said, aad rooort the, disappearance to the Government, but' he- should take the Nelson, and aot the Teromak.au route,

evidently being unwilling- to revisit the scene where his companions had been' 4 lost, and his sufferings had been so acute.: ' After a little consideration there 1 was ■ however one thing very plain; the canoe . in which Howitt and his companions had / gone from their camp must be somewhere' in existence around the lake, down the river, or.swept to sea. The finding of the canoe would bo-a satisfaction. It was of white pine, and would not sink;, and if it had been washed, down the; : '. river and out to sea, it would be found again cast upon the beach.' Of 'this: ' there could be no doubt. , This was all '" plain sailing, and nothing now remained but ; to asoertain where • the canoe could have'gone! The : canoe I determined to find if possible. . V 'In the evening after ffawell, the'bun. ....' vivorof Howitt's party (the Mr Hbwitt" here mentionedwas a brother 1 of theone of Burke and Wills • notoriety), had narrated his story he was despatched to the Grey. Supper.and eel-catching oyer,. •• we were sitting'.round bur fire".pa..the."" whare floor,' smoking our.•;pipes and dozing alternately.' The wind, for ,the s /.; last day or two'liad chopped,round to the north-west, flooding the. rivers;, and giving me miioa anxiety as to the. safety " of the, men who had gono: southwards; My brother was in charge, (he since went down in the' Northfleef) and I was fearful of his rashness and inexperienoe.. In one of those, fitful snatphes.of sleep.id which,l fell while sitting by the fire;.l,' dreamed I said, and told my brother, if the :river Wanganui was high not .to attempt to cross it, but to store the provisions' on the north side, and I would get' them across at a later date. - A few days afterwards my brother ,and his party re« • turned all. safe and sound., I found on, ; : inquiry., they had gone . no' further, thaw " the Wanganui, storing the provisions there, tho river being to high to ford, and" that they were unable to find the canoe., I made no comment, but recollected my dream. .Laterinthe evening; whilo.chatv/ ting over Howitt'a .disappearance, my brother told me he had not gone aoroas the Wanganui 'river, because on the Sunday evening he. had dreamed that I had seon him, and told him if the river was too high not to attempt fording it, but to. plant the provisions and return. The\ciroumstanoe is at least strange'. l -' -■■'■{■} To bring this Bkorfc passage of our colo- v '' nial exploration history to an end, it, mar be stated that the lake, river, and beach were all thoroughly explored, every inlet" and swamp adjoining the lake was carefully examined, the banks of the Arnold" v and: Grey Jiirers" carefully searched, .but D the canoe, like. the men,' had utterly vanished, leaving no' trace' behind. Twelve

months afterwards C agaia .went. round.. 1 .) thelake with the same fruitless result, and and the oanoe and taw mystery remained as dense as ever. Howitt's rolatires

were advised of his death; 1 his friends came orar with the writer to see, tfowitt'gj last oainp, and. obtain some additional in-

formation as to the mystery,, but,their , researches were id vain;'and'this is aU \ that is , known of the matter ' up. to ( - almost the present time.'. r , J . It is astonishing how light gets thrown ■ on even matters so dense as the foregoing*, c . At Nelson last Christmas, I learned, I believe, the solution of the canoe myßtery,. This canoe was ; peculiarly shaped; '"It was short, clumsily''dug out; and had a i '■ broad square stem. In Nelson I met'' several old mining acquaintances from Westland up to enjoy their. holiday. After talking over many,subjects:"the,' river Arnold beoame.a topic of coaVetaa- V i;ion,.and I expressed my wonder , at canoes and boats travelling up and down ~, so rugged a river laden with goods. Some . of the people in the room stated that they were'among the first of those who hadboated or canosd up thestreamas they " imagined, but on their first or. second" journey—l forgot which -rthey had found a canoe driven under a snag by the river side, which had evidently been there, some time-a oanoe that must have got .away from the.lake, and one evidently built by white people,' ak it itas ! short, made clumsily of white pine, and had. a

broad square stern, " 7 ' ■ I immediately .qame to the i conclusion that' the canoe these'men had found wai

the one in whioh, 'ten years previous, Charlton Howitt and his ill-fated, companions went, from their camp to' the'- 1 Arnold to cateh eels, "and for which so patient a searoh had been vainly made.—, Namiyfi.—Southern Mercury; . K J