Chap. V. WHALING-STATIONS— WAIKANAE. 128 
whale just as we arrived, and struck us by their pre- 
cision and good appointment. The head of the party 
was a determined-looking man of middle age, named 
Tommy Evans. He was obliging and hospitable in 
the extreme to us during our stay ; and was reckoned 
the best niiister at Kapiti. 
On one of the other small islands was a station con- 
ducted by an American, who is a renowned enemy of 
the whale ; and two other stations were situated on 
the northern part of the great island of Kapiti. All 
these stations seemed to us to bear a more favourable 
aspect than those on the other side of the Strait. But 
little of the same brutal jealousy existed between the 
different parties, although there was plenty of emula- 
tion. The whalers were much more united among 
themselves and independent of the natives ; and, 
although frequent drunkenness and fighting went on 
ashore, the duty seemed to be done with more alacrity, 
and the native women appeared to exercise less in- 
fluence in fomenting quarrels between their White 
companions. There were fewer nondescript traders 
and idlers here than at the other places ; and the 
** headsmen" or leaders had less trouble in keeping 
their parties together and maintaining the strict disci- 
pline necessary to ensure good work. 
Evans's party had taken 250 tons of oil, and he told 
us that his own profits alone would amount to 300/. 
On the 17th I accompanied our three surgeons to 
JJ^aikanae, to carry succour to the wounded. We also 
took over E Paiu, a young chief of Queen Charlotte's 
Sound, who had begged a passage from Te-awa-iti, 
and found that he had lost his uncle in the battle. 
We landed on the sandy beach, in front of a small vil- 
lage called Te Uruki, where the tangi was going on 
over the corpse. Having left him among his mourning 
