Chap. XV. OPEN HOUSE KEPT AT WANGANUI. 427 
sheets were covered with fine mats ; and we returned 
towards the sea, reaching my house about mid- 
night. 
Several persons travelled by land from Wellington 
at this time to make themselves acquainted with the 
TVanganui country ; among others, the wife of the 
cooper of a ship in Port Nicholson, who had deserted 
and engaged in the service of a person intending to 
settle here, whom he accompanied. The natives were 
much struck with the courage and perseverance of this 
woman, who had been the first of her sex to perform 
this journey of 110 miles on foot, crossing the rivers 
and undergoing the other hardships of the route. I 
found most of the travellers very foot-sore and half- 
starved at Mr. Carrington's house one afternoon, hav- 
ing crossed the river on hearing the news of their 
arrival. I now made my house a caravanserai for all 
travellers, inviting them to accept of its shelter until 
they had agreed for the purchase of some of those 
built by the natives. 
I had divided the great barn into three parts with 
rude reed partitions : one for the sleeping-room, where 
people might spread their blankets on the floor ; one 
for goods and provisions ; and the large space in the 
middle as a sort of public hall, where natives, sawyers, 
travellers of the lower class, my crew, or any one else, 
might sit round the fire and partake of whatever kai, 
or food, was going on. I continued this system as 
long as I kept the house ; and even after the two 
wings were furnished with wooden floors, walls, and 
ceilings, and civilized doors and windows, the centre 
remained an open hall where all but known bad cha- 
racters of either race might assemble and be welcome 
round the ample chimney-corner. But the separated 
rooms were kept strictly tapu, and not even the chief 
