south of Cape Farewell, the Maori Chief Niho attempted to stop them from proceeding further unless they paid him for the privilege of so doing. Having no money whatsoever they resorted to strategy, and enticed him to cross the harbour in a canoe, where they left him alone on the beach lamenting, and continued on their way.
When they reached Cape Foulwind, just south of the Buller River, they examined the hull of a vessel of about four hundred tons, and learned from the Maoris living nearby, that many bales of wool had come ashore from this ill-fated ship, and that the crew who had landed safely had been captured and eaten. Subsequent enquiries proved this early wreck to be that of the Rifleman—a wool ship which had left Hobart, Tasmania, in 1825, and had not been heard of again.
At length, sixty-five days after leaving Nelson, they reached the Mawhera River (Bright Running Water), to which Brunner gave the name of Grey in honour of Sir George Grey, at that time Governor of the infant colony. During this journey they suffered many privations, being forced to subsist for the most part on the natural production of the land. Apart from the problems of obtaining adequate food supplies, the explorers had other great difficulties to contend with, for in those days, as has already been shown, the
