66 ADVENTUKE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. III. 
the descendants of some given to the Kapiti natives a 
few years before by a Sydney merchant, in payment for 
a cargo of flax. The estuary is about a mile wide at 
the entrance, but immediately expands. For forty 
miles we continued to advance along this magnificent 
arm of the sea, which only differed from Queen Char- 
lotte's Sound in the grander scale on which are the 
mountains, the woods, and the spacious bays and har^ 
hours branching out in every direction. So numerous 
and varied in their forms are these ramifications, that it 
would be easy to mistake the track to the fresh-water 
river. The whole scene forms a labyrinth on an 
immense scale, in which you may lose your way 
among tortuous paths of water two or three miles 
broad, and between hedges composed of mountains 
from 2000 to 3000 feet in height, clothed to the sum- 
mits with the most luxuriant and majestic timber. 
Even our pilot guided himself in some of the most in- 
tricate passes by watching the set of the tide. Having 
reached at sunset to within a mile of the spot where 
the Pelorus anchored, we again encamped on a shingly 
beach in a bay on the east side of the Sound. At this 
spot there were some ten or fifteen acres of level 
ground, on which we were shown the remains of a 
large ^^«, once the head-quarters of the tribe conquered 
and almost exterminated by Rauperaha. Our friend 
Charley borrowed one of the fowling-pieces to shoot a 
pigeon which was perched close to us. He would not 
fire until he had got the end of the gun six yards from 
it, and consequently blew it to pieces. He seemed proud, 
however, of his dexterity in having crept so close with- 
out disturbing the bird. The wood-pigeons of this 
country are as stupid as the tree-partridges of North 
America, and, especially in these unfrequented parts, 
are not easily disturbed. We therefore indulged in 
