97t ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. XIIL 
They disappeared immediately on my shouting to 
them ; but when I had called out that it was " Ti- 
" raweke and his White people very hungry and tired," 
a small canoe glided out of the rushes a little higher 
up, and they were soon sitting by our fire smoking a 
welcome pipe. They were of the Ngatiapa tribe, and 
had seen me on my former visit here. Our guns had 
attracted their notice ; but they had feared to cross 
over, thinking that we were a party of the Ngatirau- 
hawa, to whom this po belonged, and some of whom 
they described to be little scrupulous in plundering or 
tyrannizing over the remnants of the aboriginal tribe, 
under very slight pretexts. I told them of the potatoes 
which I had taken, and left in their charge some to- 
bacco for the owner. They told me that the potatoes 
had been collected for Captain Lewis by some of his 
natives, and that they would give them the utu. The 
level country is of great extent hereabouts ; the Tara- 
rua and Rua Hine ranges lie far distant to the east and 
south-east, and Tonga Miro, due north by compass 
and about seventy miles off, towers over the plain, 
which rises gradually into a table-land and broken 
ridges near his base. This view was majestic at sun- 
rise ; the excessive clearness of the atmosphere allow- 
ing us to see dark places clear of snow on the sides of 
the mountain. Mount Egmont, too, was visible fur- 
ther to the north-west. This district appeared from 
the pa clear of timber, and well adapted for pasturage 
for a considerable distance inland. 
After recompensing the natives for ferrying us over 
the river, we proceeded along the coast, still sandy and 
desolate. We passed two or three trickling streams, 
and two dead whales stripped of their whalebone by 
natives ; and encamped among the sand-hills, after 
about fifteen miles' march, near one of the small rills. 
