4* ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. III. 
CHAPTER III. 
The Whaling-town — Try-works — Joseph Toms — History of Te- 
awa-iti — Foundation — Hardships — Progress — Wages of whalers 
. — Summer life — Jealousies — Lawlessness — Hospitality — Clean- 
liness — Native whale-boats — Wretched houses and food — Boat 
expedition — Tide-rip — Jack Guard — His perilous adventures 
in 1834— H. M.S. Alligator— Port Gore— Admiralty Bay- 
Wild cattle — Estuary of the Pelorus — Bivouac — Ducks — Tree- 
ferns — Teal — Tributary Natives — Pigeons — Precautions — 
Rapids — Canoe — Horror of brandy — Old Pa — Phormium tenax 
— Scraping — Guard's Island — A sacred Chief — Gale — Arrival 
at the ship — Climate — Illness of Natives — Departure for Port 
Nicholson — Shores of Cook's Strait, 
September 1, Sunday. — After prayers on board, we 
landed and visited the whaling-town of Te-awa-iti. 
Dicky Barrett's house was on a knoll at the far end of 
it, and overlooked the whole settlement and anchorage. 
There were about twenty houses presented to our view; 
the walls generally constructed of wattled supple-jack, 
called kareau, filled in with clay ; the roof thatched 
with reeds ; and a large unsightly chimney at one of 
the ends, constructed of either the same materials as 
the walls, or of stones heaped together by rude ma- 
sonry. Dicky Barrett's house, or ware as it is called 
in maori or native language, was a very superior edifice, 
built of sawn timber, floored and lined inside, and shel- 
tered in front by an ample veranda. A long room was 
half full of natives and whalers. His wife JE Rangi, 
a fine stately woman, gave us a dignified welcome ; and 
his pretty half-caste children laughed and commented 
on our appearance, to some of their mother's relations, 
in their own language. He had three girls of his own. 
