Smith. — Exploration of Tasman Bay. 425 



of the shore. The land near here arose in elevated escarped 

 bluffs, fairly well wooded. [This was Mackay's Bluff, seven 

 miles north of Nelson.] Two canoes, from the head of the 

 bay, were approaching us, and as the wind was very light they 

 were not long in arriving near us. I laid to, and hailed them 

 in their language to come on board ; but these Natives rested 

 a long time on their paddles, with an air of distrust. From time 

 to time one of them addressed us in a short harangue, to which 

 my sole response was each time, " Aire mai ki te pahi, e oa ana 

 matouP (Come to the vessel ; we are friends.)* Tired at last 

 to see my efforts inutile, I bore away, when they came alongside, 

 and soon after climbed on board without distrust. One of the 

 canoes carried ten Natives and the other nine. Half of these 

 people seemed of a superior rank, to judge by their tattoo- 

 ing, their fine forms, and distinguished expression of their 

 faces ; the others, without tattoo, and features common and 

 insignificant, were slaves, or belonging to the lower classes, 

 and might easily have been taken for men of another race, 

 so much thev seemed to differ from the chiefs at the first 

 glance. 



These savages appeared to know of the effect of firearms, 

 but very little of iron, or instruments made of that metal, for 

 they attached no value to anything but cloth. They brought 

 with them no lands of arms, and their mats were all made of 

 rushes or the thick mouka [muka] (Phormium tenax) [pi. xli], 

 one only excepted, of a fine and silky texture, which its pos- 

 sessor gave up in exchange for an indifferent shirt of blue cloth, 

 after having refused to exchange it for a fine axe, or even a 

 sword. 



After some trials I soon recognised that the language of 

 these islanders was, radically, the same as that of the Bay 

 of Islands, with some little differences, which were more in 

 pronunpiation than the nature of the words. Thus I was able 

 to understand fairly well what they said by means of the words 

 I had learnt from the vocabulary of the missionaries. During 

 four hours the calm permitted them to pass with us they ceased 

 not to comport themselves with the greatest probity, and an 

 admirable reserve for a people as warlike and as advantageously 

 treated by nature in the way of physique. 



At 11 a.m. the breeze increased a little from the N.N.E., 

 and the Natives, finding themselves already two leagues from 

 their village, which they showed to us on the borders of the 



* I have before remarked the facility with which D'Urville seemed 

 to pick up the Maori language. The above sentence is good Maori, except 

 that Aire should be haere ; e should be he ; and oa, hoa. — (Translator.) 



