A NEW ZEALAND ADVENTURE, 209 



of his ability.) We purchased a boat of them, which, 

 after we were outside, was found to be much worn, 

 and the crevices filled with putty and neatly painted, 

 so as to defy detection. The potatoes, bought for 

 first-rate, w^ere very ordinary ; and the salt-meat, ten 

 tierces of which had been bought for corned beef — 

 being represented as having been but a short time 

 out of pickle — was fairly white with an encrustation 

 of salt, which no amount of soaking would remove : 

 beins^ ten times more saline than that which we had 

 brought from home twenty-four months previously. 

 This meat, when opened, was not, like ours, of a rich 

 red and yellow hue, but of a sickly pink and white, 

 which may have been owing to the absence of salt- 

 petre in the pickle. It was quite fat ; but the fat 

 was like suet, and eatable only whilst warm ; want- 

 ing the rich, pleasaiit taste of the fat on our own 

 meat. The epicure may laugh at my expression of 

 "rich taste," applied to a piece of salt-junk; but let 

 him do, as I have done, after hours of fatiguing 

 night-duty — when his sj^stera is almost prostrated 

 from exposure to wind and weather — go down to 

 his messpan, get a piece of fat beef, a cake of hard 

 bread, and a raw onion, (if he is fortunate enough 

 to possess the latter,) and then go on deck, and 

 munch it, then, I think, he will find the taste of it 

 rich, grateful and pleasant. 



Before I go farther, I must relate a New Zealand 

 adventure, which escaped my notice whilst writing 

 of that delectable coast, and as it is one of the few 

 incidents of my voyage with which a woman is con- 

 nected, it would not be just for me to omit it : it was 

 as follows. One night whilst we lay in Milford 

 18* 



