434 Transactions. 



continued to call, after Cook, Massacre Bay. That basin de- 

 mands a further exploration, and one might think that it offers 

 better anchorage, because the seas from outside cannot enter 

 from any side. 



It results from the observations of M. Jacquinot that our 

 observatory in Astrolabe Bay was situated — 40° 58' 22" lat. S., 

 170° 35' 25" long. E. (of Paris), 14° 25' variation N.E. 



(End of Chapter XII.)" 



[With regard to the Natives met with by Captain D'Urville 

 in Tasman Bay, they belonged to the Ngati-Apa-ki-te-ra-to 

 Tribe (or Western Ngati-Apa), a branch of the tribe of that name 

 which have occupied Rangi-tikei, Turakina, &c, on the North 

 Island, for many centuries. These people, about the end of the 

 seventeenth century, migrated from the North Island, and 

 conquered the original inhabitants of Tasman Bay, known as 

 Ngati-Tu-mata-kokiri. Most of the men were killed and the 

 women taken as slaves. Those people who, D'Urville remarks, 

 appeared to be slaves were in all probability some of the de- 

 scendants of the conquered tribe, still in a state of vassalage. 

 When these people mentioned the fact of their having suffered 

 through the tribes from the N.W., who were armed with muskets, 

 they refer to Ngati-Toa, of Kawhia, and Ngati-Awa, of Taranaki, 

 who occupied Kapiti Island and the adjacent shores in 1822. 

 But it was not until 1828, the year after D'Urville's visit, that 

 Tasman's Bay was conquered by Niho, Takerei, Te Puohu, and 

 others of Ngati-Toa and Ngati-Awa. Therefore, the collisions 

 these people referred to must have been when they, together 

 with all the other tribes of Cook's Straits, attacked Te Rau- 

 paraha at Kapiti Island, and at the battle of Wakapaetai suffered 

 a very severe defeat at the hands of the Ngati-Toa chief. This 

 was in 1824. For full particulars of these times see " History 

 and Traditions of the Taranaki Coast," by the translator hereof.] 



Chapter XIII. — Traverse from Astrolabe Bay to Houa- 



houa* Bay. 



22nd January, 1827. — A good part of the night the wind blew 

 with force, with squalls and rain. At 2 a.m. the wind suddenly 

 ceased, but rain continued until 5 a.m., when the wind set in 

 from the south. Immediately the stern anchor was raised, 

 and the corvette got under way. Seeing our preparations for 

 departure, all the Natives embarked in one of their canoes with 

 their women and children, to the number of thirty, to pay us a 

 last visit and obtain a few more trifles from us. Their per- 



* Houahoua is the nearesl D'Urville could ^et to I'awa (or Tologa) Bay. 



