No Europeans have as yet settled in the inland districts of this portion of the North Island, but the “Queen's son” was as safe among the Arawas in their own country as he would be among the Gordons in Aberdeenshire. We were however, attended by a guard of honour, consisting of an escort of the clansmen in arms for the Queen. The Duke of Edinburgh and his officers were much interested by the many striking scenes and incidents of life in a Maori camp, especially by the war-songs chanted by the Arawas around the watchfires which they kindled each night in front of our tents. On the other hand, the native warriors were delighted by His Royal Highness's power of enduring fatigue—by his good horsemanship and swimming—by the skill and vigour with which he paddled his canoe across their lakes—and, above all, perhaps, by his constantly wearing the kilt, which is the favourite garb of the Maori as well as of the Scotch Highlanders.

On the 14th December we rode a distance of forty miles, from Maketu to Ohinemutu, the principal inland settlement of the Arawas. It is situated at the north-western extremity of the beautiful lake of Rotorua, and has in front the lofty islet of Mokoia, famous for the legend of Hine Moa, the Hero, and of her lover, the Leander of the Maoris.^* The road from Maketu to Ohinemutu, winding along the shores of Rotoiti and Rotorua, presents a succession of lovely prospects. It was spontaneously commenced by the Arawas, the chiefs and clansmen labouring together, for the use of the Duke of Edinburgh when his visit was first expected in 1868.

Ohinemutu still exhibits most of the features and scenes of a Maori pa and kainga of the olden time. The dwellings of the chiefs are surrounded with stockades, while many of them are adorned with grotesque woodcarvings, and are curious specimens of native architecture. The boiling springs—sure signs of the volcanic fires smouldering below—see the, bubble, and steam on every side;—among the houses, where they form excellent natural cooking places;—and in the tepid waters of the neighbouring lake, in which the natives swim, each morning and evening, as in a vast natural bath. On Sunday, the 18th December, a missionary clergyman, the Rev. S. Spencer, who had accompanied our party from Maketu, read the service of the Church of England, in the open air, on the shore of Lake Rotorua. It was a calm, clear, and sunny day, and the scene was highly picturesque and suggestive; with the little knot of Englishmen surrounding the “son of the Queen,” and the large congregation of Maoris repeating the responses and chanting the hymns in their own sonorous language; amid some of the finest prospects of lake and mountain, and near some of the most wonderful natural phenomena in the world; in the very heart, moreover, of the native districts

of New Zealand, and of the country most renowned in Maori song and legend;—and on a spot where, in the memory of men still living, human victims were sacrificed and cannibal feasts were held.

From Ohinemutu we visited the neighbouring geysers and solfataras of Whakarewarewa, which at intervals throw high into the air columns of water, with whirling clouds of steam and showers of pumice stone. Thence we rode over the hills, skirting the deep blue lakes of Tikitapu and Roto-kakaki,—both embosomed in overhanging forests and craggy cliffs,—to Tarawera, which surpasses in wild grandeur of scenery all its rival lakes. On the following morning we crossed Lake Tarawera in native canoes, and encamped for the night by the side of one of the famous terrace-fountains^* of Lake Rotomahana,—the most striking marvels in this region of wonders, and of which no verbal description can convey any adequate idea. They have been likened to cascades of bright and sparkling water, gently falling from blue basins of turquoise over a succession of natural shelves, and suddenly turned, as they fall, into terraces of white marble,^† streaked with soft lines of pink. Many rare and delicate ferns, and other plants usually found only in the Tropics, cling in green clusters round the snow-white margin of the fountains, and flourish in luxuriant growth in the warm and dank air.

From Rotomahana we rode back in two days to Maketu, and thence returned by sea to Auckland. Thus it will be seen that the chief points in the district of the Hot Lakes can even now be visited by active horsemen in an excursion of a week or ten days. The natives alone have hitherto made practical use, for the cure of various diseases, of the healing properties of these waters. But when, through the progress of colonisation, these springs, truly described by Hochstetter as the “grandest in the world,” shall have become more accessible, it cannot be doubted that, as multitudes of summer tourists from the cities of the old world now resort to the warm baths of Germany, and to the mountains of Switzerland, so thousands will hereafter flock from Australia, and from all parts of the southern hemisphere, to those regions of New Zealand where nature displays many of her most remarkable beauties and wonders in the most genial and healthy of climates.

I shall not trespass on your time and patience by dwelling at greater length on this part of my subject. The Lake district of the North Island has been fully described in the well-known and elaborate work of Dr.