Hazard to retire with the loss of seven killed and many wounded.  While this work was going on, a small detachment of soldiers occupying a blockhouse on the flagstaff hill was surprised by Heke and his party, who killed four men, and drove away the remainder, and levelled the flagstaff to the ground.  The English residents took refuge on board the shipping, and two days afterwards the Maoris sacked and burned the town with the exception of the two churches, and a few houses contiguous to the property of the Roman Catholic Mission.

The greater part of the country about the town is covered with fern and the manuka bush (Leptospermum scoparium) the latter a low shrub with handsome white or pinkish flowers.  In some of the ravines two species of tree-ferns of the genus Cyathea grow luxuriantly in the moist clayey soil.  Everywhere one sees common English weeds scattered about, especially the sow-thistle and common dock, and a British landshell (Helix cellaria) has even found its way to New Zealand and is to be met with in some of the gardens.

Much rain had lately fallen, and many of the paths were partially converted into watercourses.  I walked across to a neighbouring bay, and employed myself in searching for shells in the mud at low-water.  Some bivalves, common there—­various Cythereae and Mesodesma chemnitzii—­constitute an important article of food to the natives, who knew them by the name of pipi.  A marshy place, at the mouth of a small stream, was tenanted by a curious wrinkled univalve, with a notch on the outer lip, Amphibola avellana of conchologists.

May 18th.

I joined a party made up to visit the falls of the Keri-Keri river, and we started, after an early breakfast, in one of the ship’s boats.  The morning was dull and rainy, and we had occasional showers during the forenoon.  In an hour after leaving the ship we entered the estuary of the river, a large arm of the sea, which we followed for several miles.  The scenery reminded me of that of some of the sea lochs on the west coast of Scotland, and although fern was here substituted for heath, the Scotch mist was perfectly represented at the antipodes.  The country is scantily wooded, and the muddy shores are occasionally fringed with a small mangrove (Avicennia tomentosa).  Here and there were a few settlers’ houses, with the accompanying signs of cultivation.  One of the small islands, and also a hilltop on the northern shore, had an artificial appearance, their summits being leveled and the sides scarped—­they were the remains of former fortified villages or pahs.  At length the estuary narrowed, and assumed the appearance of a winding river, with low hilly banks covered with fern and bushes.  One and a half miles from this brought us to a rocky ledge across the stream, preventing further progress in the boat, and marking the junction of the fresh and salt water.