H^ ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEA^ND. Chap. VI. 
loaf Islands, to a river called Tf^angatawa, south of 
Cape Egmont; and inland, to the summit of the 
mountain, and thence to a spot on the banks of the 
TVanganm river, high up its course. Had we been 
provided with a handier vessel and good crew, we 
should have proceeded to extend the transaction by 
treaties at Mokau, and at Patea between Cape Eg- 
mont and TVanganm ; the chiefs of those places 
having been prepared for such an arrangement by 
deputations which had travelled to Ngamotu in order 
to treat with Barrett during our absence. We were 
forced, however, by the inferior sailing- qualities and 
appointments of the Guide, to renounce these expedi- 
tions on a dangerous lee-shore ; and turned her head 
towards Port Nicholson on the evening of the 16th. 
The whole menagerie from Moturoa was transferred 
on board ; three Mokau chiefs accompanied us, in 
order to urge upon Colonel Wakefield the purchase 
of their country ; and we bade farewell to our friends at 
" the Islands," promising that they should soon have 
pakeha to live amongst them. 
We met a south-easter at the mouth of the Strait, 
and were detained by that and a calm until the night 
of the 19th. During the calm, Worser amused us by 
an exhibition of his skill in catching manga, or bar- 
racoota. This is a long fish without scales, exceedingly 
voracious, and generally found in shoals, like the 
kawai. The presence of either of these fish is easily 
detected in a calm, when the shoals rush along the 
surface of the water at intervals, marking it like what 
sailors call a cat!s-paw, or breath of light wind. A 
school, as Worser styled it, having appeared, he 
fitted his machinery, and slung himself in the main- 
chains. At the end of a stick three' or four feet 
long, which he held in his hand, there was fastened. 
