312 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. XIT. 
and maps of the principal harbours and rivers. Unfor- 
tunately, the cutter, in entering the port of Akaroa on 
her return, had been suddenly upset by a squall and 
sunk in deep water ; so that all his maps, books, jour- 
nals, and valuable instruments were irretrievably lost. 
Captain Smith's report to the Company, made partly 
from memory and partly from materials which he had 
sent to Wellington by another opportunity, is still a 
most interesting document, and causes the reader to 
lament the accident which prevented it from being 
complete. The principal new information related to 
the Lake fJ^aiora (mis-spelt TVihold), stretching for a 
long distance behind the Ninety-mile Beach south of 
Banks's Peninsula ; to the harbour of Otako and the 
surrounding country ; to a harbour called the Bluff, 
near the eastern entrance of Foveaux's Strait ; and to 
the New River flowing into that Strait. In short 
words, it proved that a very large and promising field 
was open for colonization in the Middle Island, with 
excellent harbours and inland water communication, 
scarcely any native occupants, and a climate, perhaps 
not so warm as that of Cook's Strait, but equally 
productive. 
We heard that the natives of Massacre Bay had 
obstructed the operations of the diggers of coal and 
limestone in that neighbourhood, upon finding the 
value of the rocks which they had formerly considered 
worthless, quoting " Spain and Clarke " as having to 
come and decide upon the land ; but that Mr. Thomp- 
son and Captain Wakefield had gone thither with a 
boat-load of special constables, and had set things to 
rights bj an adequate display of firmness and a decla- 
ration that they would enforce British law against any 
disturbers of the peace. 
On the 6th of December, Colonel Wakefield returned 
