54 
MISSIONARY TOUR 
ent ages deluged the low land along the coast; the 
thick woods that skirt its base, and the numerous fea¬ 
thered tribes inhabiting them, rendered it an interesting 
object, and induced the travellers to commence its as¬ 
cent. About eight o’clock in the morning of the 9th, 
they left Kairua, accompanied by three men, whom 
they had engaged to conduct them to the summit. 
Having travelled about twelve miles in a northerly 
direction, they arrived at the last house on the western 
side of the mountain. Here their guides wished to re¬ 
main for the night; and on being urged to proceed, as 
it was not more than three o’clock in the afternoon, 
declared they did not know the way, and had never 
been beyond the spot where they then were. Notwith¬ 
standing this disappointment, it was determined to 
proceed. Leaving the path, the party began to ascend 
in a s. E. direction, and travelled about six miles, over 
a rough and difficult road, sometimes across streams of 
hard lava, full of fissures and chasms, at other times 
through thick brushwood, or high ferns, so closely in¬ 
terwoven as almost to arrest their’progress. 
Arriving at a convenient place, and finding them¬ 
selves fatigued, drenched also with the frequent show¬ 
ers, and the wet grass through which they had walked, 
they proposed to pitch their tent for the night. A tem¬ 
porary hut was erected with branches of the neighbour¬ 
ing trees, and covered with the leaves of the tall ferns 
that grew around them. At one end of it they lighted 
a large fire, and, after the rains had abated, dried their 
clothes, partook of the refreshments they had brought 
with them, and, having commended themselves to the 
kind protection of their heavenly Guardian, spread fern 
leaves and grass upon the lava, and lay down to re- 
