106 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. V. 
abandoned this idea in the hope of either deriving some 
benefit from our purchase of the Ohiere or of fore- 
stalling us by buying it themselves. The fact that we 
had employed a Te-awa-iti agent in negotiating with the 
rival Ngatiawa tribe, had also excited their envy and 
jealousy. *' Gun-eye" and Charley, with their elder 
brother Puaha, and their uncle Ngaharua, a near rela- 
tion of Rauperaha, who was more commonly called 
" Tommy Street," after a merchant whom he had visited 
in Sydney ; a tall bullying chief named " the Big 
Fellow," and several others, came on board and com- 
plained that we had purchased Poneke, as they called 
Port Nicholson, while it belonged to Rauperaha and 
the rest of the Kawia tribe. 
Colonel Wakefield answered, that he had bought it 
from the natives in possession of it, who asserted it to 
be theirs ; and that the Kawia had better ask Ware- 
pori for some of the payment, if they had a real and 
solid claim. He advised them, jokingly, to make haste, 
lest there should be nothing left but the muskets and 
ball-cartridge. This hint, and the hospitality of our ca- 
bin-table, quickly made friends of these chiefs ; and they 
very soon abandoned this subject, and took up that of 
the purchase of the Ohiere, We found Puaha far supe- 
rior to his younger brothers in dignity of manner. He 
was of a milder temper, and moreover evidently more 
capable of appreciating the advantages to be derived 
from a civilized White society. All the others seemed 
to look no further than the immediate payment, and 
the increased market which they might obtain for pigs, 
potatoes, and firewood. 
We found in this harbour the Honduras bark, 
taking in oil and bone from the stations ; and we were 
very busily employed in making up our letters for 
England. 
