Chap. XV. CHRISTMAS AT KAPITI. L 423 
Kawia, bearing Mr. Jolin Aldred as Wesley an mis- 
sionary for this place. He fixed his abode near 7 e 
Aro pa, on the spot which the late JMr. Bumby had 
imagined himself to have secured for the mission, and 
which had been laid out as a Public Market-place in 
the plan of the town of Wellington. 
The next day I again sailed for TVanganui, taking 
with me Mr. W. Carrington, one of the assistant- 
surveyors, and five or six of the Company's labourers, 
with their goods and chattels. Colonel Wakefield had 
decided upon having a district surveyed at that place, for 
distribution among the sectionists of the second series. 
About noon on Christmas-day, we reached Kapiti. 
Having to touch there, I ran close alongside Evans's 
Island, hardly stemming the ebb with a light southerly 
air, which had died away as the sun rose. Twenty or 
thirty whalers, who had chosen to remain till the next 
season, and were holding high holiday on the island, 
ran out and launched a boat to tow me to the anchor- 
age. They insisted on our partaking of their Christ- 
mas feast, and we landed amidst a salute of musketry 
and of some small cannon on the flag-staff mound. No 
one, except two or three of the headsmen, was sober, 
and I was glad to get into the chief headsman's house 
out of the way of the reckless firing. My crew and 
the surveying-men were made welcome under a spaci- 
ous awning of boat-sails. We were feasted on roast 
sucking-pig, ducks, and plum-pudding, and re-embarked 
at night, the breeze having freshened up. The men 
were got off as soon as they were fit to be bundled like 
dead sheep into the hold, and we sailed away. Two 
of the sailors, including the skipj^er, were fortunately 
steady hands, and had returned early on board sober ; 
and the little craft did not require a large crew to sail 
her. , 
