CHAP. II.] WHALES AND WHALERS. 39 



throughout its extent from ten to fifteen fathoms 

 deep. The history of this settlement is not without 

 interest. About twenty years ago, a Mr. Guard, 

 who visited the shores of New Zealand on a sealing 

 expedition, discovered the southern entrance of 

 Tory Channel. As the seals rapidly disappeared, 

 he turned his attention to the whales, which he 

 found to visit the channel in great numbers. He 

 built a house on Te-awa-iti beach, which was then 

 uninhabited ; but he suffered much from the natives, 

 who had just been driven from their possessions in 

 Cook's Straits by Tupahi and Rauparaha, and who 

 lived in a straggling manner farther to the south- 

 ward. Guard soon quitted Te-awa-iti, but was suc- 

 ceeded by other adventurers, especially Messrs. 

 Thorns and Barret. These persons, being without 

 resources, as their property consisted perhaps at first 

 only of a whale-boat and some whaling-gear, made 

 chase on the whales, which they killed for the sake 

 of the baleen only. Afterwards speculators at Syd- 

 ney gave their support, advanced merchandize to 

 them, and annually sent vessels to transport the 

 oil. In the train of the Europeans arrived a tribe 

 of the Ngate Awa natives from the neighbourhood 

 of Mount Egmont, in the northern island, and with 

 their protection the settlers could more effectually 

 resist the attacks of the original natives of this part 

 of the country. 



There are three whaling establishments in Te- 

 awa-iti, and in a small bay a short distance from it, 



