BAY OF ISLANDS AND NEW ZEALAND COAST. 315 



more in clumsy horseplay than real fighting, summed 

 up the casualties among them. By ten o'clock that 

 evening we had them all safely on board again, ready 

 for sore heads and repentance in the morning. 



During the day I had evolved a scheme, which I had 

 great hopes of carrying out when our watch should be 

 let loose on the morrow. "When morning came, and the 

 liberty men received their money, I called them together 

 and unfolded my plan. Briefly, I proposed a sort of 

 picnic at a beautiful spot discovered during our wooding 

 expedition. I was surprised and very pleased at the 

 eager way in which all, with the sole exceptions of Tui 

 and his fellow-harpooner, a Portuguese, fell in with my 

 suggestions. Without any solicitation on my part, my 

 Kanakas brought me their money, begging me to expend 

 it for them, as they did not know how, and did not want 

 to buy gin. 



Under such favourable auspices as these, we landed 

 shortly after eight a.m., making a bee-line for the only 

 provision shop the place boasted. Here we laid in a 

 stock of such savouries as we had long been strangers to, 

 both eatables and drinkables, although I vetoed fire-water 

 altogether. Beer in bottle was substituted, at my sugges- 

 tion, as being, if we must have drinks of that nature, 

 much the least harmful to men in a hot country, besides, 

 in the quantity that we were able to take, non-intoxicant. 

 We also took tea, sugar, milk, and a kettle. Thus fur- 

 nished, we struck for the country, merry as a group of 

 schoolboys, making the quiet air ring again with song, 

 shout, and laughter — all of which may seem puerile and 

 trivial in the extreme ; but having seen liberty men ashore 

 in nearly every big port in the world, watched the help- 

 less, dazed look with which tbey wander about, swinging 

 hands, bent shoulders, and purposeless rolling gait, I 



