152 EXCURSION RESUMED [PART I. 



from the southward. A Waikato chief, with his 

 followers, had come on a friendly visit from Kawia, 

 and there was apparently a good understanding 

 between them and the natives at this place. The 

 abundance of food enabled me to start again on the 

 19th, determined, at all hazards, to accomplish the 

 ascent of the mountain. I persuaded E Kake, one 

 of the chiefs, to accompany me, who took a slave 

 with him, and sent on before a female slave to one 

 of his plantations which lay in our route, with an 

 order to prepare maize-cakes for us to carry as pro- 

 visions. The companions of my last trip again 

 accompanied me, and our party was joined by Mr. 

 Heberley, a European, who had come with us 

 from Te-awa-iti, where he had lived for several years 

 as a whaler, and who was most expert in find- 

 ing his way through all the difficulties attending 

 such an expedition as this. This time I was more 

 fortunate. Although we took a different route, in 

 order to obtain provisions at the settlements of E 

 Kake, in four days we reached our last halting- 

 place at the foot of the mountain. We had to 

 walk for some distance along the rocky bed and 

 through the icy water of the Waiwakaio ; but not- 

 withstanding the force of its rapid current, which 

 often threatened to throw us down, we heeded not 

 the difficulty, as we had the gratification of seeing 

 the summit of the mountain directly before us. 

 We climbed at last up a ridge rising on the left 

 bank of the river, and running in a north-east 



