Chap. VIII. NAYTl— PUKE TOTARA. 228 
vented by a natural modesty among themselves. 
Nayti's fellow-villagers, however, and the chiefs of 
the Kawia tribe, were all so much accustomed to brag 
and bully on board the ships, and anywhere else where 
they thought such conduct would be of any profit, 
that they had long lost this dignified habit of shame. 
Rauperaha and RangiJiaeata, and their com- 
panions, had "bounced" him, as the whalers called 
it, out of the best of his possessions ; and the inferior 
neighbours had not been slow to follow the example, 
as soon as the great vultures had been satisfied. He 
was thus divested of everything he had once owned. 
I urged him strongly to return to Port Nicholson, 
where Colonel Wakefield was daily expecting him, in 
order to install him as interpreter to the Company at a 
salary of 50/. per annum, and to receive him, moreover, 
as a welcome guest in his house. I told him that Dr, 
Evans and many of his other old friends were arrived ; 
and he at length promised to go.* 
I paid the repudiating boys some pipes and tobacco,, 
and sent them back with many reproaches for breaking; 
their agreement. 
The free man, however, resolved to go on with me. 
He was a strong, tall, and good-humoured young man,^ 
and seemed to take a fancy to the journey. He was 
named Puke Totara, or " Totara hill." The Mara 
is one of the finest trees of the forest ; and is the prin- 
cipal wood used by the natives, whether for canoes, 
houses, or fencing. Another who stuck to his bargain 
was the same attentive slave who had accompanied 
E Kuru Kanga in the Tory from Kapiti to J^a~ 
nganui. He was of the Ngatikahuhunu tribe ; but had 
been taken captive by E Kurus father during some 
* Nayti paid Colonel Wakefield one or two visits at Wellington, 
but preferred living at his own village in the native fashion. He 
died there, of consumption, in 1842. 
