Southland Institute. 461 



valleys so much as to make them troublesome to be traversed by horses. The native 

 quail was also at that time abundant, rising before you at every hundred yards. The 

 several species of duck, including the paradise one, were plentiful in all the streams and 

 lagoons, wliile the pigeon was to be shot in all the clumps of the forest. There were no 

 paths or tracts to be seen, and the explorer in threading Ms way over the country had to 

 be guided by his own experience —either ni avoiding the swamps, or in crossing the fords 

 of the mountain torrents. 



Such is a short account of the interior of this district in 1856-7, at which time I un- 

 dertook the reconnisance survey of Otago, of which at that time Southland formed a 

 part. 



The settlers under the Otago scheme, the iirst of whom arrived in 1848, were at that 

 time locating themselves along the coast line from Oamaru to Popatuna, and in 1856 a 

 few stragglers were finding their way as far as Waiopai and New Eiver. It is true the 

 whalers had, here and there, preceded them by many years, probably dating as far back 

 as the beginning of this century, but these held their locations by sufferance, at the will 

 of the Natives, and not for permanent colonization. Their object was whaling, and all 

 they at that time coveted was in each case, a site suitable for looking out for the fish, and 

 for boiling it down when brought in. In the late Mr. John Jones' settl^nent at Waiko- 

 waite, I know the only exception to this state of things. 



In the old maps of Fouveaux Straits (there called Favorite Strait), we recognize the 

 presence and influence of the Sydney whalers and sealers. Thus the Waiau is named 

 the Knowsley Eiver ; Jacob's Eiver, Port Macquarie ; the Bluff, Cape Bernardine, etc. 

 The Bluff Harbour was not at that time known, and the New River is just indicated. 



On this subject. Dr. Arthur S. Thomson, in his story of New Zealand, states of the 

 sealers of this district, that " these men commenced their intercourse with the Natives in 

 the southern parts of the Middle Island about the beginning of the century, being landed 

 from whaleships for the purpose of killing seals, then very numerous all round the coast. 

 Disputes at first arose between the sealers and the natives relative to property and 

 women, and in such conflicts the sealers adopted the New Zealand war custom of slaying 

 the first native they encountered, but both races soon became sensible of the benefits of 

 peace, and the savages, to promote this great object, gave the strangers wives and Codfish 

 Island as a residence. Here they built houses and cultivated the soil, and when their 

 numbers increased they spread themselves round the coasts. Between 1816 and 1826 100 

 sealers were permanently settled in New Zealand, and in 1814 a vessel of 150 tons 

 burden was built by them at Dusky Bay. 



Sealers in character resembled whalers, and Stewart, who first discovered the 

 insularity of the Southern Island, was a good specimen of the sealer class. By birth he 

 was a Scotch Jacobite, who had seen the world and drunk Burgundy. After residing 

 many years in New Zealand, he returned to Scotland to see his forlorn wife ; but she, 

 conceiving him dead, had long before wedded another, and now denied his personal 

 identity. 



" Danger, long travel, want, and woe 



Soon change the form that best we know." 



Affected with this reception in the house of his fathers, he returned to New Zealand, 



took up his abode amongst the natives, and in 1851 died at the age of eighty-five years 



in a destitute state in Poverty Bay. To the day of his death Stewart wore tartan of his 



royal clan, and was occasionally seen sitting among the natives passing the pipe from 



