Chap. II. TE-AWA-ITI—mCUAUB BARRETT. Sfr 
from the whalers for a long space back. The chief, 
named Huriwenua, and his people, had distinguished 
themselves by their dishonesty and harassing conduct 
towards the Whites, and some of the guns were in con- 
sequence pointed against a stack of wood for fencing, 
which they knocked to pieces. This harmless show of 
strength produced an excellent eflfect ; and the visit was 
so recent that their respect for our flag still existed. 
This fortified island is named Mohio by the natives. 
At sunset we anchored off" the village of Te-awa-iti, 
or " The Little River." The whalers, who have a 
rough way of pronouncing the native language, have 
hardened this name into TarwJdte. 
As soon as we arrived, Mr. Richard Barrett, who 
was at the head of one of the whaling parties, came 
off" in his boat to us. We had been highly amused at 
the comfortable obesity of Williams, and considered 
him a promising sample of the good effects of New 
Zealand feeding. What was our surprise on finding 
Dicky Barrett, as he is generally called, as much 
stouter in person as he was shorter ! Dressed in a 
white jacket, blue dungaree trousers, and round straw 
hat, he seemed perfectly round all over ; while his 
jovial, ruddy face, twinkling eyes, and good-humoured 
smile, could not fail to excite pleasure in all beholders. 
And a merry party it was to look upon, as we sat 
round a bottle of grog on the cabin-table, listening to 
the relation of the wild adventures and " hairbreadth 
" 'scapes " of Barrett and his two fellow-whalers. 
Barrett had been in New Zealand for ten or twelve 
years : first as a flax-trader at the Sugar-loaf Islands 
near Taranaki, or Mount Egmont, where, with ten 
other White men, he joined the native inhabitants in 
their desperate resistance to the invasion of the If^ai- 
kato tribes ; and during the last five years as a whaler 
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