TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 265 



Entering the Kaipara Harbour, the " Tory " took the bar and 

 sprang a leak. With infinite trouble Colonel Wakefield made 

 his way overland to the Bay of Islands, and there chartered a 

 small vessel about to sail for Sydney, in which he retraced his 

 steps to Port Nicholson, to prepare for the arrival of the first 

 band of settlers, then daily expected. 



At Taranaki, Dr. Dieffenbach had not been idle, his sojourn 

 there being marked by hardship and perilous adventure. He 

 was joined here by his friends Dr. Dorset and Jerningham 

 Wakefield, who had made the best of their way down from the 

 wreck of the " Tory " in an ancient and tublike vessel, greasy 

 with whale-oil and swarming with cockroaches. 



Owing to some fear of a Native outbreak, the party took up 

 their abode on one of the well-known Sugarloaves, very steep 

 and almost inaccessible, and used by the Natives for this 

 reason as a place of security. With young children on their 

 backs, the Natives walked along the dizzy and precipitous 

 heights with the utmost unconcern. 



Dr. Dieffenbacli's first exploration was the ascent of Mount 

 Egmont, and he was the first European to accomplish this, in 

 company with Hebberly, a pilot. The first attempt was a 

 failure : after three weeks' laborious travel through rain and 

 swamp he only succeeded in reaching the foot of the mountain, 

 and then had to return in rags and half-starved, a potato per 

 diem, washed down with boiled fern-leaves, being latterly their 

 only food. On the second attempt he was quite successful, 

 reaching his home on the rocky island within ten days. The 

 snow commenced at a point about 1,500ft. below the summit. 

 It was very steep and frozen hard, necessitating the cutting of 

 steps. The summit consisted of a field of snow about a square 

 mile in extent. The view was magnificent and extensive, 

 stretching north to the Waikato, and to Cook Strait in the 

 south. Dr. Dieffenbach calculated the height of Egmont at 

 -about 8,800ft. — about 500ft. more than the true height. 



On his return to Port Nicholson, Dr. Dieffenbach proceeded 

 to the Chatham Islands, which the New Zealand Company, 

 unable to secure recognition by the Government of their land- 

 claims, desired to annex. Here he remained three months, a 

 full account of his explorations being published in the old 

 Ne^v Zealand Gazette newspaper of 1840. He then made a very 

 •extensive series of operations through the North Island, com- 

 mencing at the North Cape and going south as far as the hot 

 lakes and Taupo. Here he in vain endeavoured to gain permis- 

 sion to ascend Tongariro. The irate chief Te Heuheu was on a 

 war expedition, and had issued his mandate that no pakeha 

 should climb the mysterious mountain. 



Dr. Dieffenbach was accompanied on this journey by Captain 

 W. C. Symonds, of the 96th Eegiment, agent of the Manukau 



