Chap. VII. MASSACRE OF PUAKA WA. 193 
as well as an additional number of emigrants. They 
had selected the banks of the Hutt river, about a mile 
from the sea, as a temporary location, and set to work 
on tents and houses. On the 7th of February, a sail 
being reported outside. Colonel Wakefield had gone 
out to the Heads in the Cuba, and brought in the 
Duke of Roxburgh, the third emigrant ship, whose 
captain had been lost overboard accidentally in a gale 
of wind off Stephens Island. 
On the 10th, in the midst of the bustle attendant 
on the disembarkation from these three vessels, some 
alarm was produced among the new comers by the 
report of a native attack. A smart firing of muskets 
was heard in the evening on the ridge of hills east of the 
valley, near the native village at the mouth of the Hutt, 
occupied by Puakawa and his people. Colonel Wakefield 
started along the beach for the scene of action. He gave 
a vivid description of the confusion caused among both 
natives and White men. Both came running to him, 
with arms in their hands, seeking from him guidance 
and assistance, and the women and children screamed 
in chorus. On arriving at fi^aiwetu, or "Star-river," 
as the village is named, after the stream which flows 
under the eastern hills, he heard that the firing pro- 
ceeded from our own natives, who had been up among 
the hills in search of Puakawa, This chief had shown 
himself as eager in his friendship for the White people 
as he had been violent in his first opposition to the 
sale, and had gained the respect and esteem of the settlers 
in the few days during which they had known him. 
The captain of the Oriental had received him very 
hospitably on board his ship, and Puakawa had gone 
out to his gardens that morning in order to dig up a 
small present of potatoes for his newly-made friend. 
He had been accompanied only by a woman and a 
VOL. I. o 
