CHAP. IV. Off to New Zealand. — A Gale.—Bream Bay.—Bay of Islands. - Kororarika. Paihia. River Waitangi. - River KawaRoadstead of Warakaihika. Roadstead of Rungatukaia. — Abandoned by the Schooner. Overland Trip to Warakaihika. — Selfish Conduct of a Chief. - A Musical Cargo. - Return to the Bay of Islands. Sojourn on one of the Islands. "The wind was fair, the sea was blue, The sky without a speck, As the good ship o'er the waters flew, My worldly wealth not having much increased after a sojourn of upwards of two years and a half in New South Wales, I determined on proceeding to New Zealand, to try the unexplored resources of a new country, and on February 14th, 1840.-I shipped goods and took passage in a small schooner bound to the Bay of Islands. February 27th.- Sighted a cluster of islets to the north-west of the North Cape, called the "Three Kings;" a few natives reside upon these hummocks, as "we could discern the smoke of their fires in passing. February 29th.-A violent gale commenced from the northward, which increased to such a height, that we were compelled to lay to under a balanced-reef mainsail. It seems as if we had sailed into the very centre of its encircling fury, and had no power subsequently to escape from it: being deeply laden we were completely drenched with the sea breaking over us, and hail and salt drift drove in our faces with such resistless force, that there was no turning your head to windward. The vessel laboured violently as if she had been subject to the influence of a succession of whirlpools: suddenly the mainsail being blown from the bolt ropes she was cast on her beam ends, and buried with her lee coamings in the water. I thought she was gone: the mate called to the captain to cut before it was too late; but he very coolly replied, "If she wasn't fit to carry her masts she wasn't fit to float." The hatches and scuttles were well secured by battens, and fortunately nothing started the vessel, though small, had great beam, and was very stiff, and she gradually righted, the worst of the gale having spent itself; and though it continued all that night and through the greater part of next day its violence had abated. I narrowly escaped being washed overboard in the height of the gale; for desirous of witnessing the battling of the elements I stripped to my trowsers, and went on deck. The captain advised my lying down in the lee scuppers to avoid taking cold, and I had just taken a bath when the schooner was thrown on her beam ends. I clung to a spar that was made fast to the bulwarks, but the rushing of the water had caused the lashings at one end to give way, and I was swept overboard, but as I did not abandon my hold I came in again with the recoil, when I lost no time in scrambling to the weather rail. The wind gradually veered round to the south-east, but before it had reached this point we had drifted to the southward of the Bay of Islands, and as we had had no sights we mistook the Poor Knights, small rocky islets off the main, for the Caralle Islands, and took a cruize in Bream Bay, thinking we had reached our port, the Hen and Chickens and Barrier Islands being mistaken for the islands which gave rise to the name of the bay we were bound for. We had been three days without observations, and no one on board had visited New Zealand before, which is some excuse for our error. Discovering no signs of man or his habitations, we began to fancy all was not right; the miserable outline chart that we had gave us no assistance; but what helped us to our conclusion was the hundreds of red bream we met floating on the water, supposed to have been killed during the gale which had just subsided. We therefore tacked, and next day at noon we were still to the southward of our port. Its approach is very romantic, numerous small islands are grouped about with rocks of singular and grotesque forms, particularly one at the north head, called from its shape the Ninepin Rock, and another off Cape Brett, the south head, which has a natural arch completely through it. There is also another peculiar rock called the Whale rock, which is only observable at low water, and then betrays its dangerous proximity like the back of a whale. On reaching Kororarika, the commercial settlement which is about nine miles from the Heads, I felt myself a disappointed man. The land rises abruptly on every side in steep irregular hills; there is no inland communication from the township, nor is there reasonable ground, from the features of the country, to hope there ever will be. A narrow sandy beach in the form of a crescent with a swamp at the back, a few hundred square yards of higher ground shut in by abrupt surrounding hills, is a faithful portraiture of Kororarika. The only level spot available has been seized upon for the township, which does not exceed in extent a good-sized kitchen-garden. There are thirty or forty wooden houses of European construction, which have arisen in the style termed higglety-pigglety, no attention having been paid to any thing like order or regularity: a "pah" or native village occupies a prominent part of the beach, and "Maori" huts are interspersed amongst the houses of the English residents. I do not see how it is possible that commercial transactions to any extent can be conducted here. The place has no exports, and the whale ships are ceasing to make it a harbour for refreshing, &c., as they find the increase of white faces has raised the price of native labour and every commodity to such a degree that they are all seeking for other harbours, where they may procure shelter during the season of retirement from the whaling grounds, and obtain refreshments at their former easy rate. Such a rush has been made to New Zealand that the place is crowded with Europeans; and when I first landed, I heard some of the idlers about the beach saying one to the other, "here come more victims." Every house has got more than threefold its complement of inhabitants: tents pitched here and RIVER WAITANGI. 67 there supply with some the deficiency of house room, The market is glutted with goods. Auction bells are going all day long, and, notwithstanding the government proclamations, land is daily being bought and sold; a monomaniacal plague or land fever is abroad, and the whole atmosphere is infected with it. I have mentioned the precipitous character of the land generally at the Bay of Islands, and in some places where a level spot has tempted an individual to fix his residence, the only communication to or from it is by water. Opposite Kororarika is Pihea, the missionary settlement. It is not very large, nor, owing to the nature of the land, will it admit of much greater extension, that is, in the direction of the bay, for the missionaries lay claim to extensive tracts of country as "Church property;" their site possesses more level soil than that about the commercial township, and it also communicates with the interior; but a great drawback exists in the heavy surf that plays upon the beach, which renders it impracticable to construct wharfs or jetties. Kororarika is open to the same objection. The only way they have of landing goods is by rolling them on planks from boats, whereby much damage is at times occasioned. February 29th. The river Waitangi on the missionary side of the bay takes a very sinuous course; at high water vessels of from forty to sixty tons burthen might enter its channel, but at low ebb there is not sufficient water for the entrance of a boat. The banks in many places are under agricultural improvement, and I noticed corn, potatocs, |