Chap. VII. ARRIVAL OP THE SQUADRON. 013 
and the work of squatting went on as cheerfully as 
ever. Some, however, who had learned by the flood 
in how low a situation their first dwellings had been 
placed, determined to remove in time. About thirty 
or forty people, chiefly followers of Mr. Molesworth 
from Cornwall, erected a long row of reed and flax 
cottages on an elevated shingly ridge to seaward of 
the small creek at the south end of the bivouac, and 
christened it Cornish-row. 
On the 5th, the boiler of the steam-engine was 
towed up the river, the different vents having been 
first plugged, so as to make it float. On the beach a 
speculator from Sydney attempted to sell some goods 
by auction in the open air, and collected a goodly 
throng of gaping emigrants ; but he wanted an ad- 
vance of 50 per cent, on Sydney prices for bad Sydney 
things, and could find no buyers. 
On the 6th, the Aurora sailed for Hokianga, to 
get a cargo of kauri spars. One of the colonists de- 
parted in her with a saw-mill, being led to believe 
that he should be able to work it there with more 
advantage than here. Vessels had been seen outside 
the harbour during the last two days, prevented froni 
reaching the heads by calms and light land breezes. 
About four in the afternoon of the 7th, Colonel 
Wakefield and I were sitting outside Mr. Moreing's 
tent, enjoying a cigar and the genial weather, when 
we made out three large vessels at once at the entrance 
of the harbour. I soon recognized the old Tory as 
one of them. Just as it fell dusk, they brought up a 
sudden storm of southerly wind, lightning, and rain, 
which made us retreat under the tent as the squadron 
emerged from behind Somes's Island under full sail. 
We had not been very long under shelter, when Dr. 
Evans, one of the earliest members of the Association 
