to watch every step we took, in order to prevent
being thrown down; the supple jacks, suspended
and twining from tree to tree, making
in many places a complete net-work; and while
we were toiling with the greatest difficulty
through this miserable road, our natives were
jogging on as comfortably as possible : use
had so completely accustomed them to it, that
they sprung over the roots, and dived under
the supple jacks and branches, with perfect
ease, while we were panting after them in
vain. The whole way was mountainous. The
climbing up, and then descending, was truly
frightful; not a gleam of sky was to be seen,
all was a mass of gigantic trees, straight and
lofty, their wide spreading branches mingling
over head, and producing throughout the
forest an endless darkness and unbroken
gloom.
After three or four hours of laborious struggling,
we emerged from the wood, and found
ourselves upon an extensive plain, which, as
far as .the eye could reach, appeared covered
with fern. A small path lay before us, and
this was our road. The New Zealanders always
travel on foot, one after the other, or in
Indian file. Their pathways are not more
than a foot wide, which to an European is
most painful; but as the natives invariably
walk with the feet turned in, or pigeon toed,
they feel no inconvenience from the narrowness.
When a traveller is once on the path,
it is impossible for him to go astray. No other
animal, except man, ever traverses this country,
and his track cannot be mistaken, since
none ever deviate from the beaten footpath,
which was in consequence in some places
(where the soil was light) worn so deep as to
resemble a gutter more than a road. We
proceeded for many miles in this unsocial
manner; unsocial, for it precludes all conversation.
Our natives occasionally gave us
a song, or rather dirge, in which they all
joined chorus. Having at length attained the
summit of a hill, we beheld the Bay of Islands,
stretching out in the distance ; and At sunset
we arrived at the Kiddy-Kiddy river, where
there is a Church-missionary settlement.
We had travelled all day through a country
in which every object we saw was of a cha-
d 3