52 . ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEAIAND. Chap. III. 
board the Tory, that Colonel Wakefield had not even 
allowed the crew to bring women on board, although 
such a practice had been ol'ten sanctioned by the ex- 
ample of men-of-war at the Bay of Islands. I obtained 
a sight of the paper, and having read it carefully 
through, I flatly impugned Mr. Clarke's translation. 
Not only does the word tuahine mean " sister," but 
it is capable of no other meaning. Moreover, the 
words of the document were simply what I have re- 
lated above, and it did not contain a syllable on which 
Mr. Clarke's accusation of Colonel Wakefield could be in 
any way founded, even by the most tortuous inference. 
The Protector of Aborigines, however, persisted in 
his assertion ; and when I had proved by appealing to 
the natives that tuahine meant " sister," and not "a 
" woman," he tried to shuffle out of it by saying that 
this was the meaning of the word in the northern 
parts, the dialect of which I could not be supposed to 
know. John Brooks, who had resided eight years 
among the Waikato tribes, and two years in Cook's 
Strait, on being asked for his interpretation, confirmed 
me in repeating, that in the north as well as the south, 
tuahine never meant anything but " sister," and that 
the extraordinary insinuation of Mr. Clarke had not 
the slightest foundation in a single syllable of what he 
had pretended to translate. I shall never forget the 
crestfallen looks of Captain Hobson, who had turned 
triumphantly towards Colonel Wakefield on the be- 
ginning of this accusation, but who now positively 
quailed before his frank and open countenance. Colonel 
Wakefield looked inquiringly in the face of the agitated 
Governor ; who seemed nmch ashamed of the whole 
aflfair, and suddenly, without assigning any reason, put 
an end to the conference. 
Mr. Clarke followed in the official train with per- 
