178 
AUCKLAND 
CHAP. 
where chattering gulls were searching for food on the 
ebbing tide. The sunlight danced on the roofs of the 
houses when we anchored beside the old barnacle-hung 
piles of the Russell pier. This little town of Russell 
is the oldest in New Zealand and perhaps the most 
historical. It was here, across the bay at Waitangi, that 
the first treaty with the Maoris was signed by Governor 
Hobson. After we had walked round the “everything- 
gone- to -sleep -looking little town,” and into the first 
English church ever built in New Zealand, we sailed across 
the three-mile bay with Miss W. (who took us in her own 
little boat as captain and oarsman) to the old Residency. 
Here we found the house tenanted by shearers, and 
shearing going on in what was once the old kitchen. 
From here on to Long Island, where we hunted for and 
found two of those rare shells Muresc angasi , said to be 
found nowhere else ; then on to the old mission station, 
where, in the overgrown churchyard is a handsome 
monument erected by the Maoris to the memory of 
Archdeacon Williams. In the garden close by we 
boiled, our kettle and made tea ; here we were charged 
by two cows, who thought better of their first intentions, 
whisked their tails in the air and went off ; two Maori 
girls, riding bareback, stopped for a few minutes and 
chatted to us in broken English. In the cool of the 
evening as we rowed back, a large shark went by, and 
its fins on the top of the water showed us that it was 
as big as our own boat ; and as we approached the shore 
the sun went down behind the indigo-tinted mountains, 
touching up each promontory and rock with a burnish 
of gold. We walked up and down the one primitive 
street by moonlight without our hats, until one by 
one each light went out. 
!> fj We sailed again at three in the morning, and at 
daylight we were on the bridge. And such a morning ! 
