170 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. VI. 
He said that White had given some tobacco and a few 
blankets to the TVaikato as payment for those whom 
they lost at Taranaki, which any one buying this 
land would have to do in accordance with native cus- 
tom. " But," said he, " we have not sold your land ; 
" more than half the fVatkato are missionaries now, 
" and these will join with you, as brothers, against any 
** invasion from their heathen countrymen." 
I ascended Paretutu, or " Obstinate Cliff, " the 
Sugar-loaf Peak on the main, to-day, accompanied by 
Dr. Dieffenbach. It is nearly five hundred feet high ; 
and almost perpendicular on the side next the sea, 
whose sullen roar against its base sounds diminished 
to the ear. The tw^o islands, Moturoa, and Motuoma- 
hanga, or '* Isle of Refuge, " appear like rocks to 
seaward. Inland, a magnificent extent of country 
meets the eye. For some miles from the coast it 
seemed clear from wood ; then were extensive park- 
like glades and groves on the edge of the forest, 
which rolled far eastward in soft undulating lines. 
Mount Egmont's snowy peak towered out of the 
clouds at fifteen miles' distance, and Tonga Biro, 
at least ninety miles distant, appeared more to the 
north, glistening over the most distant forest ridge. 
Cape Egmont to the south-west ran down gradually to 
a point, one gently curved line extending from the sea 
to the summit of Mount Egmont. To the north a 
spacious bay extended to near Albatross Head at the 
entrance of Kawia, dotted in its centre by some re- 
markable white cliffs, called Parenunui, or "Large 
Cliffs." On the top of Paretutu we observed two or 
three pits, the remains of places of refuge of the Ngor 
tiawa from their enemies. 
This evening a strong north-west gale set in. In this 
case the anchorage becomes dangerous, and the cutter. 
