After a fortnight’s bad weather, the 19th proving a fair day, we availed ourselves of it, to get up the top-masts and yards, and to fix up the rigging.  And, having now finished most of our heavy work, I set out the next morning to take a view of the Sound.  I first went to the W. point, where I found a large village, and, before it, a very snug harbour, in which was from nine to four fathoms water, over a bottom of fine sand.  The people of this village, who were numerous, and to most of whom I was well known, received me very courteously; every one pressing me to go into his house, or rather his apartment; for several families live under the same roof.  I did not decline the invitations, and my hospitable friends, whom I visited, spread a mat for me to sit down upon, and shewed me every other mark of civility.  In most of the houses were women at work, making dresses of the plant or bark before mentioned, which they executed exactly in the same manner that the New Zealanders manufacture their cloth.  Others were occupied in opening sardines.  I had seen a large quantity of them brought on shore from canoes, and divided by measure amongst several people, who carried them up to their houses, where the operation of curing them by smoke-drying is performed.  They hang them on small rods, at first, about a foot from the fire; afterward they remove them higher and higher, to make room for others, till the rods, on which the fish hang, reach the top of the house.  When they are completely dried, they are taken down and packed close in bales, which they cover with mats.  Thus they are kept till wanted; and they are not a disagreeable article of food.  Cod, and other large fish, are also cured in the same manner by them; though they sometimes dry these in the open air, without fire.

From this village I proceeded up the west side of the Sound.  For about three miles, I found the shore covered with small islands, which are so situated as to form several convenient harbours, having various depths of water, from thirty to seven fathoms, with a good bottom.  Two leagues within the Sound, on this west side, there runs in an arm in the direction of N.N.W.; and two miles farther, is another nearly in the same direction, with a pretty large island before it.  I had no time to examine either of these arms; but have reason to believe, that they do not extend far inland, as the water was no more than brackish at their entrances.  A mile above the second arm, I found the remains of a village.  The logs or framings of the houses were standing; but the boards that had composed their sides and roofs did not exist.  Before this village were some large fishing wears; but I saw nobody attending them.  These wears were composed of pieces of wicker-work made of small rods, some closer than others, according to the size of the fish intended to be caught in them.  These pieces of wicker-work (some of whose superficies are, at least, twenty feet by twelve), are fixed up edgewise in shallow water, by strong poles or pickets, that stand firm in the ground.  Behind this ruined village is a plain of a few acres extent, covered with the largest pine-trees that I ever saw.  This was more remarkable, as the elevated ground, on most other parts of this west side of the Sound, was rather naked.