Rutherford gives us some account of a journey which he once accomplished in company with the chief Aimy.

“I took,” says he, “my wife Epecka with me, and we were attended by about twenty slave-women to carry our provisions, every one of whom bore on her back, besides a supply for her own consumption, about thirty pounds of potatoes, and drove before her at the same time a pig, which she held by a string tied to its fore-leg.

“The men never travel without being armed.  Our journey was made sometimes by water and sometimes by land; and, proceeding in this manner, we arrived, in about a month, at a place called Taranake,[BC] on the coast of Cook Strait, where we were received by Otago,[BD] a great chief, who had come from near the South Cape.  On meeting we saluted each other in the customary manner by touching noses, and there was also a great deal of crying, as usual.

“Here I saw an Englishman, named James Mowry, who told me that he had formerly been a boy belonging to a ship called the ‘Sydney Cove,’ which had put in near the South Cape, when a boat’s crew, of which he was one, had been sent on shore for the purpose of trading with the natives.  They were attacked, however, and every man of them killed except himself, he having been indebted for his preservation to his youth and the protection of Otago’s daughter:  this lady he had since married.  He had now been eight years in the country, and had become so completely reconciled to the manners and way of life of the natives, that he had resolved never to leave it.  He was twenty-four years of age, handsome, and of middle size, and had been well tattooed.  He had also been made a chief, and had often accompanied the natives to their wars.  He spoke their language, and had forgotten a great deal of his own.  He told me he had heard of the capture of our ship, and gave me an account of the deaths of Smith and Watson, two of my unfortunate shipmates.  I, in turn, related to him my story, and what I had gone through.[BE]

“The village of Taranake stands by the sea-side, and the manners and customs of the inhabitants are the same as prevail in other parts of the island.

“We remained here six weeks; and during this time I employed myself in looking out for a ship passing through the Straits, by which I might make my escape, but was never fortunate enough to see one.  I kept my intention, however, a secret from Mowry, for he was too much attached to the natives for me to trust him.

“On leaving Taranake we took our way along the coast, and after a journey of six weeks arrived at the East Cape, where we met with a great chief, named Bomurry, belonging to the Bay of Islands.  He told us that he resided in the neighbourhood of Kendal,[BF] the missionary.  He had about five hundred warriors with him, and several war-canoes, in one of which I observed a trunk, having on it the name of Captain Brin, of the ‘Asp,’ South Seaman.  These people had also with them a number of muskets, with polished barrels, and a few small kegs of powder, as well as a great quantity of potatoes and flax mats.  They had plundered and murdered nearly every person that lived between the East Cape and the river Thames; and the whole country dreaded the name of Bomurry.