268 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. VIII. 
I then said that I would wait a day for the restitu- 
tion of my blankets ; but that, if they were not then 
forthcoming, I should return to Port Nicholson, and 
certainly get a ship and soldiers to punish them for the 
theft. I then sat down. 
Great confusion ensued. Some went whispering 
about to their neighbours ; the women began to cry ; 
and my boys looked exceedingly uncomfortable. The 
owner of the house in which I had slept took all the 
loads, put them into his ware puni, or sleeping-house, 
and, shutting the door, sat against it. This, he told 
me, was to prevent the other natives from plundering 
any more. 
In the midst of their indecision, a vessel, which had 
been observed in the ofl&ng trying to beat to the north- 
ward, tacked in-shore, and visibly approached. Two 
or three men now came close to me, and asked, '* what 
" ship that was, and whether she were going to land 
" people here ? " 
My real opinion was, that it might probably be the 
Tory, as she was to leave for Sydney in a week or 
two after my departure, and was to land at Ngamotu 
the Mokau chiefs whom we had brought from thence 
in the Guide. I told them so at once ; and the de- 
claration produced an instant effect. They all knew 
the name of the ship, which had spread far and wide 
since the large land-sales ; and some of them murmured 
to each other, that this was " Wide-awake's " ship, 
come to see his child safe round the coast. In ten 
minutes the blankets, and even Ehinas mat, were laid 
on a house close by ; and the natives begged me to 
think that this restitution had been made, not through 
fear of punishment, but on account of the influence of 
the commandment, u4ua koe e tahaey " Thou shalt not 
" steal," which they had lately adopted. I did not tell 
