Page:Castaway on the Auckland Isles (IA castawayonauckla01musg).pdf/124

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A Compass Procured from a Maori Chief.

thick lips, which seemed to have a natural antipathy to each other, rose and fell—one touching the end of her nose and the other covering her chin; her eyebrows fell, and the hair on her low forehead gave chase, and almost overtook them; whilst her nostrils distended so that her flat nose almost covered the diameter of her interesting face: but she did not condescend to say a word.

Friday, August 11.—10 p.m.—It continues to blow a very heavy gale; it has been from S.W. since noon, and it is now raining heavily, with thunder and lightning. There is no possibility of moving in such weather as this, and when it will end there is no telling—the Maoris here say that it will continue throughout this moon. I wish there was any means of getting letters across to Invercargill; but it appears that the 'Flying Scud,' on our return, will be the first vessel to go across.

Saturday, August 12.—First thing this morning we started for Paterson's Inlet, and anchored at the neck of the Peninsula at 2 p.m. We left Port Adventure with a S.W. wind blowing hard and squally; on reaching the East Cape the wind was W.N.W., and before we reached the Inlet it was at N.W., squally and showery. We were under double-reefed courses, and found some difficulty in beating up. A Mr. Lowrie furnished us with a compass, which was the object of our visit, and while there I had the honour of being introduced to Toby, the Maori chief of Ruapuke and Stewart Islands. This distinguished individual was over on a visit, as Ruapuke Island is his place of residence; he very kindly offered us the use of the compass belonging to his boat, and, as it appeared to be a better one than either of the two we had, I accepted it. Toby is by far the most intelligent-looking Maori I have yet seen; he is, I should judge, about forty years of age, and is what may be termed a good-looking man. He informs me that he had a party sealing on the Snares Islands, and that there is a snug cove on the eastern side