on frames, and exhaling an insupportable odour. The Natives gathered on the summit of the cliff, drawn thither by curiosity, and talked with loud voices to our guide as long as the speed of our boat allowed, whilst many children followed us along the banks.

As we advanced the land became lower; it was covered with tall vegetation, and cut up by small streams of almost stagnant water; many isolated mounts of no great elevation dominated the plain, recalling the tumuli of Greece.

At 12.15 the river suddenly terminated in a basin 200 toises wide, and beyond it there was nothing but a streamlet of water. We disembarked on the mud, leaving M. Faraguet to guard the boat. We were at this time seven miles from the corvette and about three miles and a half in a straight line from the mouth of the Mogoia, the general direction of which is S. ¼ S.W. to N. ¼ N.E.

At 12.55 we took a path cleared through high vegetation, which appeared to be frequently used by the Natives. The lay of the land prevented our seeing very far ahead, but at 1.50 p.m. we found ourselves on the borders of the sea of the other coast. We had therefore taken fifty-five minutes to cross New Zealand, which in that place had only about two miles of width. [It is clear from this account that M. Lottin did not go to the head of the Tamaki at Otahuhu, but crossed the Mokoia basin south of Panmure and came out on the Manukau north of Mount Richmond.] We now had before us what appeared like an immense lake. We tested the water, and found it salt; and, noticing a hill near us, we directed our steps towards it, with the intention of obtaining a more exact idea of the locality. A canoe was out fishing. The piercing vision of the Natives soon discovered us, and they immediately paddled ashore, and directly afterwards a numerous and armed crowd surrounded us. After talking some moments with our guide, the noisy escort accompanied us to see the chief of these parts.

We passed near some huts which exhaled the odour of rotten fish. There was no palisade to protect them; it was a kind of flying camp, ready to be quitted at the first announcement of an enemy. Many young girls came forth and joined our party, whilst a crowd of children gazed at us most earnestly, notwithstanding the blows from the butt of the guns which our escort seemed proud to bear. Presently we saw the chief; it was Inaki, one of these handsome New-Zealanders. He commanded under him who owned that part of the island, having the title of rangatira-paraparao, general-in-chief of the warriors. He was advantageously posted on the upper part of a slope at the extremity of a double rank of his warriors, and clothed in a beautiful mantle of dog-skin. He stood upright, supporting himself on a spear ornamented with plumes and tufts of hair. I made him a present of some cloth and a medal of the expedition, which had been given me by M. D'Urville for that purpose. The guide explained our intentions, and he gave us his permission to climb the hill, which is sacred, and up which, as a matter of fact, none of the Natives followed us. [This was probably Mount Richmond, formerly a pa, possibly at that time used as a burial-ground.]

Arrived at the summit, we were disappointed in not being able to see the entry from the ocean. In the place indicated by the Natives towards the west was a well-pronounced depression in the mountains which bounded our view, but an island between them and us prevented our seeing as far as the ocean. [This would be Puponga Peninsula.] The immense bay seemed entirely safe; but near the shores many mud-banks appeared,