on this subject, all of whom have acknowledged
the propriety of so doing.
A few miles after leaving this beautiful
village, we came to a spot covered with heaps
of cinders and hillocks of volcanic matter.
I found all these hillocks small craters, but
none of them burning; and for miles our
road lay through ashes and lava. These fires
must have been extinguished many ages since,
as there is not the slightest tradition among
any of the natives of their ever having been
burning.
After passing over this lava, our journey
lay through a very swampy country, intersected
with streams. I got completely wearied
with stripping to wade through them, so that
at length I plunged in clothes and all. At
the close of a most fatiguing day’s march, we
arrived in sight of the bay; having travelled
over an extent of about fifty miles since the
morning! No canoe being in sight, and we
being too distant to make signals to our brig,
we had to pass another night in bivouac on a
part of the beach called Wy-tanghe; and as
it did not rain, we slept pretty comfortably.
The next morning I procured a canoe, and
went on board our vessel.
The day following, the brig took her final
departure from New Zealand, and we bade
farewell to Captain Kent. We now formally
placed ourselves under the protection of King
George, who seemed highly pleased with his
charge j and in a few days three good houses
were ready for our reception, — one for ourselves,
a second for our stores, and a third for
our servants. But our pleasant prospects were
soon obscured by a circumstance totally unexpected,
which placed us in a most cxitical
situation, and which we had every reason to
fear would lead to our total destruction.
• I was roused one morning at daybreak by
my servant running in with the intelligence
that a great number of war canoes were
crossing the bay. As King George had told
us but the evening before that he expected a
visit from Ta-ri-ah, a chief of the tribe called
the Narpooes, whose territory lay on the
opposite side of the bay, and given us to
understand that Ta-i’i-ah was a man not to
g 4