Chap. XIV. " CAPTAIN " WILLIAMS. 397 
his opinion of the superiority of Port Nicholson and 
the surrounding district in most of the necessary quali- 
fications over the proposed site ; and proved that he 
was in earnest by buying at b, high price some of the 
early choices. 
v- I was just now about to proceed to Wanganui by 
sea, having chartered a decked schooner of twelve tons 
burthen for the purpose of keeping my engagement 
with JS Kuru. 
The owner of the vessel was our old friend Wil- 
liams, the carpenter of Te-awa-iti, who had suddenly 
sprung into great opulence and fame. He had been 
to Sydney and persuaded a merchant there to fit him 
out as the head of a whaling-station in Port Under- 
wood. Soon after his return he bought this craft of 
the man who had built her in Cloudy Bay, for 
300/.; and married one of the female immigrants 
from England, with a very noisy wedding-feast at 
Pitone. He used now to speculate largely in all sorts 
of small trade, talk still more largely on all subjects, 
and astonish the quiet folks of Port Nicholson by his 
dress and svv^agger. He wore a cap ornamented with 
gold lace, a new suit of glossy black, and a gold watch 
and chain, the glitter of which might be distinguished 
from one end of the beach to the other. " Cloudy 
" Bay Williams," however, as he was called, was very 
good-humoured and harmless, and bore the name of 
being no less open-handed towards his whaling asso- 
ciates than in his poorer days ; so that he was by no 
means disliked, even by those who laughed at the as- 
sumption of grand airs and the title of " Captain" by 
the ci-devant carpenter. 
Some idea may be formed of the demand which was 
now existing for small craft to manage the coast-trade 
and supply the settlement with pigs and potatoes, from 
