4im ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. XVH- 
CHAPTER XVII. 
The Sandfly — Joseph Toms — Tory Channel — We meet the Broug- 
ham — Foundation of New Plymouth — Calm night — Wanganui 
bar — Curious effects of mist — Native news — Progress of the 
European settlement — Lawless vagabonds — Fears of a war-party, 
or taua — Determination to reconnoitre — Pleasant journey with a 
fleet of canoes — Gaiety of the natives — Exaggerated gravity of a 
missionary — Rapids — E Kwru's political dilemma — Fortified vil- 
lages — Spies — Doubts — Encampment — First view of the war- 
party — Their camp — Speeches — The patriarch Heuheu — Inter- 
view with him — Pukihika pa — The war-party at the settlement 
— Good faith — Native guards. 
On the evening of the 5th I sailed again for TVan- 
ganui, in the Sandfly, a schooner of ten tons which 
had been built on the banks of the Hutt, and which I 
had chartered for three months for the Jf^anganui 
trade, I was accompanied by Mr. John Tylston 
Wicksteed, a gentleman who had lately arrived in the 
London, and who, as land-agent for the Church So- 
ciety of which I have before spoken, wished to examine 
the district of Wanganui, the Company having granted 
that society a land-order in the second series entitling 
them to 4000 acres of land. 
I beat out against a fresh southerly breeze, which 
fell calm when we had reached Sinclair Head. In 
the morning we were half-way across the Strait, and 
a light air was blowing from the north-west. On 
arriving off the entrance of the Tory Channel, I found 
the tide had begun to ebb, and so anchored in deep 
water under the lee of the south head. " Geordie 
" Bolts," or Joseph Toms, of Te-awa-iti, who was on 
