Pigeon Bay. Cape Campbell. 

 Cloudy Bay. 



NEW ZEALAND. 



Robolua, his dress. General infor- 

 mation about New Zealand. 



175 



other volcanic minerals. At the base of the hill, 

 the rock was frequently a coarse cellular lava, and 

 the beech was covered with boulders of all these 

 varieties. 



They next stopped at Pigeon Bay, but remained 

 there only a few hours; the passengers who were 

 in search of a position to esjtablish themselves, found 

 this quite as unfavourable as either of the two pre- 

 vious places. 



In passing to the northward, towards Cape 

 Campbell, the coast is high and broken, with no 

 level land in the vicinity of the sea; but notwith- 

 standing its abruptness, they found only fourteen 

 fathoms of water at a distance of four miles from 

 the shore, with sandy bottom. They had a fine 

 view of the snowy peaks, called the " Lookers On," 

 about twenty miles to the southward. These are 

 supposed to be nearly as high as Mount Egmont, 

 and tower up in sharp peaks, covered with snow 

 for fifteen hundred feet from the summit. The 

 land along this part of the coast is very rugged, is 

 apparently unsuited for any kind of cultivation, and 

 has no harbours. Off Cape Campbell, a line of 

 rocks was seen extending to the eastward about a 

 league, which do not appear on the charts; they are 

 partly above and partly below water. 



They then anchored in Cloudy Bay, which, con- 

 trary to the representation of the charts, proved a 

 good anchorage. The wind here sweeps down the 

 gullies in strong squalls, but the water is at all 

 times smooth. There are five whaling establish- 

 ments in Cloudy Bay, each employing from twenty 

 to thirty hands, chiefly New Zealunders. The kind 

 of whale taken here is principally the right whale, 

 and the quantity of oil collected the previous year 

 was four thousand five hundred barrels, which was 

 sold on the spot to Sydney dealers, at forty pounds 

 the tun. In addition to this quantity, five thou- 

 sand five hundred barrels were taken in the bay, 

 by whale-ships, principally Americans, from which 

 some idea of its value to our countrymen may be 

 formed. The establishments on shore have con- 

 nected with them stores for supplying ships, where 

 articles may be had at one hundred per cent, ad- 

 vance on the Sydney prices; potatoes are sold at 

 thirty dollars the ton, and pork at twelve and a half 

 cents per pound; boards and planks may also be 

 obtained at fifty dollars per thousand; wood and 

 water are purchased of the natives for muskets, 

 powder and ball, blankets, pipes, and tobacco. It 

 is also customary to make a present of two muskets, 

 or an equivalent to Robolua, the chief, for harbour 

 dues. A Mr. Williams, who was one of the esta- 

 blishment, furnished the above information. 



Two American whalers were found here. A 

 number of chiefs came off to the vessel, in the 

 course of the day; they were fierce-looking 

 savages, with coarse matted hail', tattooed visages, 

 and bodies besmeared with red earth and oil ; some 

 of them were clad in coarse mats, others in blan- 

 kets, and all exceedingly filthy; most of them had 

 the heitiki ornament about their necks, and some 

 in their ears, which were also decorated with red 

 and white feathers, and the holes pierced in them 

 were also made the receptacle of their pipes; others 

 had necklaces of human bones, polished, trophies 

 of the enemies they had slain. 



Their manners were uncouth, exhibiting none of 

 that amenity so remarkable in the natives of the 

 other Polynesian groups; yet there was a rude 



dignity about them, that evinced a consciousness of 

 their rank and consequence. Three or four women 

 came on board, but not one of them could be called 

 good-looking, and they appeared to care less about 

 their appearance than the men. 



The noted Robolua made his appearance at the 

 breakfast-table, unannounced and uninvited ; he 

 most unceremoniously took his seat next the cap- 

 tain, remarking, " Me, Robolua !" In person, he 

 is above the middle stature, powerfully built, and 

 rather ill-featured. The usual expression of his 

 countenance is not bad, but when enraged, it is 

 truly fiendish, and his small deep-sunk eyes, which 

 betoken cunning, gleam with the ferocity of a tiger. 

 His head is of enormous size, covered with long 

 matted hair, sprinkled with gray; his eyebrows 

 were long and shaggy; he had a bad expression of 

 the mouth, resulting from the loss of his teeth, a 

 circumstance of rare occurrence among these na- 

 tives. He seemed in feeble health, and his figure 

 was slightly bent by age; he wore a filthy blanket, 

 and over it an old-fashioned plaid cloak, the colours 

 of which, like those of his under garments, were no 

 longer distinguishable. All the chiefs wore their 

 dress so as to cover their left arm, and leave the 

 right bare, which Mr. Williams said was for the 

 purpose of concealing their meara, or stone cleaver 1 , 

 which is constantly suspended to the left wrist, 

 ready, at a moment's warning, for use, and which 

 they take particular care never to expose to view. 

 With Robolua was his principal warrior, Oranga- 

 dieti, a fine specimen of a savage chieftain, about 

 fifty years of age, with a noble though fierce test of 

 countenance, nearly six arid a half feet in height, 

 and as straight as an arrow; his long hair Ws tied 

 up behind, a la Grecque, the knot being secured by 

 two long black feathers stuck through it; altoge- 

 ther he had more the appearance of a chief- than 

 Robolua; the latter, from the account Mr. Wil- 

 liams gave of him, owes his ascendancy more to 

 his powers of persuasion in council, and his talents 

 for strategy in their system of warfare, than to his 

 warlike achievements; and he seldom risks his 

 person in battle. The chiefs, in their figurative 

 language, say, " The breath of Robolua can turn 

 them round and round, and his tongue is more 

 powerful than any of their weapons." He was 

 originally a petty rangatira (landholder). Of late 

 years his power had very much declined: five or 

 six years ago he could number more than six 

 thousand warriors, but now he has not over four 

 hundred. His rapid rise is imputed to the intro- 

 duction of fire-arms, for he was long the only chief 

 who possessed any number of them ; and the decay 

 of his power is attributed to the acquisition of this 

 weapon by others, and the inactivity arising from 

 his advancing age. Several of the natives who 

 were met here could read, and a portion of the 

 Testament was seen in their possession; two women 

 in particular were desirous of showing their ac- 

 complishments, and remarked that the missionary 

 religion was not made for New Zealanders; it was 

 too good for them. Drunkenness and dishonesty 

 prevail, by their own confession, among the white 

 men, who are at times entirely beyond the control 

 of their masters; they all have native wives, who 

 are taken and discarded at pleasure. 



The whalers stated that the prevailing winds at 

 Clou'ly Bay in summer and the beginning of au- 

 tumn, from November to March, are from the 



