CHAP, xxii.] 299 



CHAPTER XXII. 



River Waikato Wainga-roa Aotea Kawia. 



IN Kauwitu, on the south side of the harbour, we 

 fell in with a number of natives from the river Waipa, 

 who were returning from a visit to Waitemata, 

 and who agreed to carry our baggage from Manukao 

 over the portage to the Awaroa, where they had 

 their canoe, and thence to the Waikato. Lieutenant 

 Best accompanied them, but I started for the em- 

 bouchure of the river Waikato, round the southern 

 head of Manukao, and along the beach. I was 

 anxious not to disappoint Captain William Symonds, 

 who had arranged to accompany me into the in- 

 terior, and I therefore walked during the night, as 

 it was moonlight, and the air balmy and agreeable, 

 from Manukao. The distance to the Waikato is 

 thirty miles, and the coast, which consists of a broad 

 and hard sandy beach, with soft sandstone cliffs of 

 a moderate height, runs nearly north and south. 

 There is only one spot which is impassable at high 

 water. My path took me near a few poor native 

 huts, and during the night I met a great number of 

 natives quietly returning from a great Missionary 



