228 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. IX. 
Ngatiapa residing on this river, who .ire not above a 
hundred in number, have their abode. The country 
is perfectly level in every direction for many miles 
about here, and most fertile. In the open spots, the 
grass is as thick and luxuriant as though it had been 
carefully sown and cultivated. 
I got a boy to carry my pack at this village, and 
struck on to the beach about six miles north of the 
mouth of the river, passing all the way through open 
pasture country. 
We had some trouble in crossing the Ttirakina, and 
went up to the pa on the JVangaihu to sleep and get 
a canoe in the morning. This small village is about a 
mile from the mouth. We reached TVanganui early 
the next day. 
Things were but little altered with the unfortunate 
little band of settlers. They were living on, however, 
by means of their gardens and some barter with the 
natives. Numerous attempts to obtain possession of 
sections on various spots in the district had failed. The 
most friendly professions of those who offered to put 
settlers in possession for a consideration had proved 
hollow and of no avail ; for, after the settler had begun 
his operations, some new claimant would start up and 
interrupt, threaten, and bully, till the unfortunate sec- 
tionist was obliged to abandon his intentions and put 
up with his first loss, as the man with whom he had 
made the bargain generally retired upon the appearance 
of the new claimant. 
Mawai and E Tu had so signally failed in the per- 
formance of their promise to locate people in the mean- 
while, that I hardly thought it necessary to explain 
that Colonel Wakefield had not acceded to their propo- 
sition, because he thought such a course might be con- 
sidered by the I^and Commissioner as an acknowledg- 
