234 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. IX. 
inhabitants or a canoe. A grand upset took place in 
crossing ; and some hours were taken up in drying the 
wet blankets and guns, and making up by a feast for 
the ducking. So we had to bivouac on the beach, 
nearly in the same spot where I had once suffered so 
much from the cold on a former occasion. 
The next night we got to the pa up the Rangitikei. 
In the morning we crossed in canoes, with some 
difficulty from the swollen waters of the river, which 
is here extremely rapid. 
I had heard of a road leading across from this spot 
to the banks of the Manawatu, and expressed my wish 
to explore it to JE Kuru and the other chief men of 
the party. Although they were at first very averse to 
this plan, as none of the party had been that road, 
and the tribes were all recently at war with E Kuru 
and his people at PV^aikanae, I at last persuaded them. 
I depended on the friendship which I had lately 
cemented with the chiefs of the Ngatiraukawa, and on 
the fact that so many of my boys were closely allied to 
the inhabitants of Manawatu by their Taupo blood, 
for preventing any disagreement between the formerly 
hostile tribes while I should be with the party. 
We inquired our way from some of XheNgatiapa 
natives who were acquainted with it, and pushed along 
to the southward. We travelled all day through 
open pasture land, the path apparently avoiding the 
timbered parts which rose in various directions like 
the islands and promontories of a coast. Towards 
dusk we entered into a spacious kind of bay among 
the wood, and reached the borders of a swamp which 
filled one-half of it. As we had been warned that 
this roio, or " swamp," might be very deep if the waters 
were out, we thought it prudent to encamp till day- 
light. The young men soon knocked up some sheds 
