232 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. VIII. 
canoe ; and we poled out of the river, some delay being 
occasioned by the necessity for steering clear of the 
numerous sand-banks. While on the beach waiting 
for the rest of my party, E JV'iti, one of the prin- 
cipal parties to the sale in East Bay, Queen Charlotte's 
Sound, addressed me. He reproached me strongly with 
having bought Taranaki ; which, he said, belonged 
to him and the other Ngatiawa at this village. I told 
him that they ought not to have run from it ; and that 
we had paid the people who had maintained possession 
through great troubles and danger. He grew gradu- 
ally calm on this subject, and ended by asking me when 
White people would go to live at Queen Charlotte's 
Sound, and by entrusting me with a letter directed to 
Huri Patene, a missionary chief, as he assured me, 
at Otumatua, a village on the coast between l^Vaiiganui 
and Taranaki. I had with me several letters from 
natives at Port Nicholson to their friends at Taranaki ; 
among others, one containing a shark's tooth as a 
present from Tuarau to one of his friends at Ngamotu. 
These teeth are held in great estimation for ear-orna- 
ments. The root of the tooth is covered with red 
sealing wax, and a piece of black tape passed through a 
hole in order to suspend it, so that the pointed end 
hangs on the cheek. 
We at length hoisted our sail before a fresh 
southerly breeze, amidst the discharge of muskets and 
shouts of haere I " go ! " about an hour before noon. 
Our vessel was a strongly-built canoe, with niore beam 
than they generally have, and an extra top-side plank 
to keep out the sea. E Ao, or " the air," a son of 
E Rangi, and half-brother of Kuru Kanga, was in 
command of the craft. Besides him, six young men, 
among whom was Puke, worked their paddles; and 
Konatu steered with a paddle, whilst another man 
