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Letters from Early New Zealand

Wellington. November 26th, 1850

page 129
Wellington. November 26th, 1850.

My Dear Mother,

Our last letters went off (via Sydney) on the 19th. With which piece of news I always begin, that you may know whether you get them all right, and according to date. I told you, in that, of our intended departure for Canterbury by the Acheron, which is now fixed for the 28th (D.V.) and if it is fine weather, without which Captain Stokes, to my great joy, will not sail. We have had a morning of packing, and Captain Richards (the other Acheron Captain, who generally goes off with any separate surveying party) and who thinks of everything for us that Captain Stokes can't, sent us two very nice sailors, to "spend the day" and help us to pack, lift boxes, etc. You never saw anything so handy as they were, lashing the things with rope, in the most workmanlike way, and then one of the ship's boats took the things off, and there they now are on board and ready for a start, as we are, at a moment's notice. We were to have gone Saturday, then yesterday, to-day, to-morrow at 11 a.m., and lastly now fixed for the day after that. On the 22nd we had a very gay ball, given by Colonel Gold and the Officers of the 65th. All the élite of Wellington there, of course, and next day they gave, to a still more select circle, a déjeuner à la fourchette, and performance of glee singing, which was very tolerably good. The glee singers, I should say, were a part of the band.

December 13th. Port Cooper!! Just a year since we sailed out of Plymouth Sound! I have not written for ages, but we have had a great deal to do. I must go back to our melancholy departure from Wellington, and our dear little abode there, garden, walks, etc. We had nothing but leave takings for some days, every one was, to use their own words, so very sorry to lose us. They have all been so extremely kind and good-natured to us, that I was I own very sorry page 130myself, but as you know none of them, I spare you the details On Thursday, the 28th, we had a lovely day, the morning of which was spent in rushing about to do the last shoppings and goodbyes, and then home to be ready for Captain Stokes, who had sent me word that he should come for me himself; and at two we were on board, and starting. The voyage was much pleasanter than I had expected, as I managed to keep pretty well, quite presentable, only not at all hungry at dinner. In the night the wind got very fresh, and we had at times a good deal of motion, from their stopping every half-hour to take soundings, when of course the ship rolled, as the sea took her. Arthur was more often uncomfortable than I was, and was actually sick once, the next morning when we were sitting on deck. I carried him down and laid him on the bed, and as I was washing his face, there was a good deal of rolling, and I said to him, "I must be quick or I shall be ill too, I think", so he looked at me so funnily, and said, "Indeed if I was your Mother I wouldn't have let you come to sea at all". As soon as we got on board, Captain Richards presented us with a long black ribbon for his hat, like the sailor's, and with Acheron on it, in large gold letters, and the Doctor made him a present of four crown and anchor gold buttons, which of course I had to sew on to his blue shirt, so that he is in his own idea very smart, and I have got him a proper straw hat, low-crowned and broad brimmed, but the sailor's dress and trowsers is now become too hot, and for some days here he lived in nothing but a shirt and frock. We got inside Godley and Adderley Heads (at the entrance of P.C. harbour) soon after four the next evening, and were soon at anchor, in sight of Lyttelton, which we found much grown; there were about sixty houses, to be counted from the deck. Captain Stokes would not hear of our landing that evening, and insisted on our making a fair start, the next morning, with all the day before us for settling ourselves. I told you that Mr. Weld was to go with us by the Acheron, and he did come, and helped us to cook potatoes and rice for our first dinner. We had taken the precaution of bringing some cold beef, and a ham, with us, and a few cups and plates; but you would have been amused to see our mode of life, page 131with a boy as our only attendant, who came out as a ship-boy in Lady Nugent, and who stopped here, on his way up. My husband saw him at work on the roads here, and he joyfully accepted an invitation to come and wait on us till the servants should arrive. We were obliged to have somebody to fetch wood for the fire, and water, which has to be brought from the Emigration barracks well; our private well will not be finished for a day or two. Par parenthèse I must tell you that the water is excellent, though a little hard, and as cold as if it was iced when it first comes up from the great depth of the wells; ours is about seventy feet. It is a great relief to find that the supply is so good in quality, and attainable at least by digging. To a hydropathist this is doubly important, and my husband is as proud of the wells and water almost, as he is of the jetty, etc. It is quite amusing to see how thoroughly he takes to the whole thing and place, thinks it far prettier than Wellington, though we have here bare hills, instead of those beautifully wooded ones, which shut in the Port Nicholson harbour like a lake. Oh, how lovely it is, on a calm day! and then the wind he utterly ignores, and denies its existence here, though it is just as bad, while at Wellington it almost made him cross. I am happy to say, too, that he seems as much better as I expected from having occupation and interests enough to make him almost forget the throat.

We came on shore on Saturday, and on Monday morning a strike among the workmen was announced, because they do not choose that the natives should have the same wages that they get themselves, viz. sixpence an hour. My husband said that he would give them one day, and then send for more natives, if they did not choose to work with them; and next morning they all answered to their names at the morning roll call. The usual hours for work here, now, are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with an hour for dinner, for which they get 4s.; but they may work from 7 to 6, and get 5s., if they like, or from 6 to 7 and get 6s.; and many do work "long hours", now the days are so long. The Tuesday after we got here was very cold, and we had a great thunder-storm, with hail-stones as large as gooseberries, that made our gravel walk in front like the walk of white page 132stones at Capel Curig,—don't you know the one I mean? After this, and the shower that followed, the weather got fine, and much warmer, which was most fortunate for us, as on Wednesday we were to start for an expedition across the plains, to make sure of seeing something of the country before any of our first ships could arrive, and while we had Mr. Weld with us. It turned out most fortunately that we did go then, but I was rather alarmed at the idea of introducing Arthur suddenly to bush life, and bush fare; sleeping in a tent and so on, in possible rain. However, we were already leading such a rough uncomfortable life that the change was not so much for the worse, in those respects, and it was important that my husband should go without delay, while he could, and I could not well have stayed quite alone here, and in short, off we went on Wednesday, December 4th. Captain Stokes had most good-naturedly insisted on John's bringing his two horses with us, which was I need not say a great stretch of kindness, and he offered us every kind of store, from ship biscuits, to wine and green tea. When he heard of our expedition, in spite of all I could say, he sent me a chicken-pie, and some tins of preserved meat, etc. He sent Arthur a present of a little puppy, the grandchild of his own favourite pointer, for which Arthur, to his great amusement, wrote him a letter of thanks. The Acheron went off the day we left, and I am sorry to say, is not likely to come back here; her work being all done on this coast, she is now gone to the western side of this island. We liked most of the officers very much. There was a very nice middy too of about seventeen, Mr. Pendar, from Falmouth, who made great friends with Arthur, and gave him a ball, and a whole set of signals, such as they use on the signal flag staff at Wellington, made in wood by the ship's carpenter. Captain Richards gave my husband a pointer, not very good I believe, but it is to be a quail-dog, and house-dog, and in many ways useful. Captain Stokes was as kind as possible. He told Mr. Weld I was his country-woman (he is Welsh) and that he must look after me as far as he could. You see how patriotic we all grow out here.

Our first day's journey was only as far as Mr. Deans' station on the plain, about ten miles, but we had to climb page 133over the hill. I conclude you know that the great road is still very unfinished; several shoulders of rock that come in the way, and have to he blasted, stop it up completely, and in some places along the line even the path is quite a climb, with a rope to pull yourself up by. Since the money was lent by the Governor for carrying on the works (five weeks ago) about £300 has been devoted to making a bridle path, over the hill, immediately above the port; which is about two miles shorter than the line of the road, but will only be meant for horses. When we went up there was still a bit at the top where no one can ride; man and horse must climb over rough stones and rocks, and on the other side the descent is steep enough to make most people prefer walking, too, until the path is completed. From the top of the hill, we had a lovely view, the day was so very clear. We had rocky hills all round us, and below, the plain; a dead flat for forty or fifty miles each way, sea beach on one side, and hills, or rather mountains, on all the others. To the North, as far as we could see, were the Kaikoras; magnificent hills nearly 10,000 feet high, covered with snow, and clear to the eye as Snowdon on our finest days, though it was 106 miles from us, as the crow flies. We got into Mr. Deans' between five and six, in time for a heavy tea; and a walk afterwards, to see his station, which is a very good picture of colonial life, before the ornamental has begun to be considered. There are on the plain five patches of bush, or rather, as we should say, of woods, some of them very large. Near the smallest, and nearest to Lyttelton, of them, perhaps fifty yards from the last tree, Mr. Deans has built his house, on the bank of a beautiful stream, as clear as those about Llanberis, and ornamented with green bushes growing at the side, and stretching over like long branches; making a perfect paradise for the geese, two ducks, and one wild one with a young one which was diving about there and is not molested. Arthur thought it perfection to stand on the edge and watch them, and pronounced them exactly like himself and his Father, because they too went into cold water every morning. He is beginning to think a great deal of his Father and try to be like him, in which, by the by, he succeeds pretty well page 134naturally; at breakfast, for instance, he eats oatmeal porridge, which he used not to like, for the sole purpose of eating the same, and so on. Mr. Deans' house is of weatherboard and lined (panelled) throughout; there is a good sized kitchen, and out of it two little bedrooms, meant for himself and his brother, Mr. William Deans, who was not at home when we were there, but he has now so many visitors that one may be almost called a spare room. There is, just behind, a house, rather larger, and more roughly built, (no ceiling) where his workmen live, and the cooking is done. The principal one is married, and Mrs. Todd, who is cook, housekeeper, and housemaid, has already four children; the three youngest born there, and doing credit to the place, quite prize children anywhere, and she is the only woman about the place. Then there are buildings round for cattle, and for sheep; some of them across the stream, over which there is a very picturesque bridge on piles. The fare at Mr. Deans' was very plentiful; fresh-killed mutton, salt beef, which all the people here keep in barrels for their men's rations, bread which is generally rather sour, and capital scones; flour and water baked on a girdle, and made good à plaisir by the addition of milk and soda, or butter, or sugar; and there too we had damper, the regular bush fare,—it is flour and water, kneaded, and baked on a stone under the wood ashes. Then we had plenty of butter and milk, and tea three times a day. We did not start very early from Deans' as the morning was rather threatening, and we had a few drops of rain. He tells us that they have not had so wet a spring as this in the seven years that he has been here, and that in ordinary seasons there would not have been a green leaf in our garden. His own, which stands between the bush and the river, is most flourishing, and in it we had planted half of all our English seeds, most fortunately, as the other half, sown here, have all of them failed. It is unusual for them to grow at all here, but ours have a good many of them come up at Deans'. Almost all ordinary garden seeds are to be bought at Wellington, and the roses, etc. are beautiful there, I heard, before I came, of geranium hedges, but truth compels me to own that they are not visible; very few people have page 135any at all. Those settlers who came out in ships touching at the Cape, generally brought supplies of flowers and shrubs from there, and they all do uncommonly well, and even bear the wind pretty well, which the roses do not. It was quite curious to see the burst of bloom on all the trees in our Wellington garden, when a few calm days came, just before we left. I have not yet told you how much we liked Mr. John Deans himself; he is a remarkably intelligent and good-natured Scotch farmer, even rather nice-looking; well-dressed, with a natural good manner that is quite gentlemanlike, and no one can be more hospitable to all comers. He added a leg of mutton, and some bottles of milk, to our provisions for the journey. Mr. Torlesse and Mr. Boys, two of the surveyors who were to go with us as guides, undertook the ordering of our stores and, in fact, all the trouble of it, except the packing and unpacking of our personal goods. Mr. Cass, another surveyor, lent us a little tent, and we were a tolerably large party at the start. We had Messrs. Torlesse (a nephew of Mr. E. G. Wakefield) and Boys, Mr. E. J. Wakefield and Mr. Hunter Brown, who was at Deans' and joined our party, being on an excursion after some runaway working bullocks. He is a very vulgar, but otherwise intelligent (which is the word here), and advisable settler, just beyond the C. district to the north, a sort of cross between a whaler, the roughest of seamen and a German student. Spectacles, and long hair, blue shirt, dirty white trowsers, and hob-nail shoes of almost fabulous thickness, which indeed he pulled off in the evening and sat in his white (?) cotton stockings. Then we had Mr. Weld, two pack-horses to carry tents, blankets, etc. A very knowing man, a sort of horsebreaker and cattle driver, who led my horse, and told us all what to do, (the Wm. Bowler, if you know him, of the expedition), a white man and two native boys to lead the pack-horses, and our noble selves; John with a roll of blankets before him, and I with the little boy, in great spirits, singing most of the way, all the songs he could remember which is not a few.

After we left the fence of Deans' paddock, we saw nothing but unvaried plain, with surveyors' poles for landmarks, all covered with grass of different kinds, looking something page 136like hay, and very tiring to walk through, for about twelve miles, when we came to the banks of the Courteney on which we camped for the night. The little tent, just big enough for a bed for us three, was soon pitched, while some more cut toi-toi grass and fern, to spread at the bottom. Then the horses, nine altogether, were let loose to feed themselves, one or two tethered, in hopes that the rest would stay to keep them company, but it could not be done to all, as some horses always cut themselves with the rope. For instance, the one I ride did, the first night, and had to be left loose afterwards, I assure you camping is the best fun possible, excepting at dressing-time. I packed all our things in a bit of indiarubber, in a tub, which was a great luxury, and just went on one side of a horse; as though the gentlemen could go down to the river, Arthur and I could not quite manage so, but had to confine our ablutions to the top of our bed, and kneel, as we could not stand upright in the tent, and of course no looking glass, so it was rather a scramble; but the evening, after the fire was lighted, was very pleasant. The flax bushes and grass grew all about, higher than our tent, so that we seemed almost in a shrubbery; about ten yards behind our tent, along the little native path by the river, the fire was lighted, with drift wood from the river, and round it we all established ourselves most comfortably, waiting for tea, which was soon ready; three flax stalks were tied together, gipsy fashion, and on them we hung just such a tin can and cover as one of your Welsh women, with a family of six would bring for broth; they are the lightest to carry. When the water boiled, a quantity of tea was put in, and after a few minutes it was served round; to us, by way of distinction in pint mugs, and the rest of the party produced each man his tin pannikin, generally worn on the belt, to be ready for occasional refreshment at the streams, and for the first night we all had milk, a most unusual luxury. It was great fun all sitting round the blaze, which the evening was just cold enough to make us appreciate; Arthur and I quite wrapped in Mr. Weld's opossum skin cloak, which he used to lend me, such as they have in Australia, and which is as good as a house to live in. As it got a little dark, a party of page 137natives who had been assembling at some huts just across the river, came over in a canoe to pay us a visit, and sit down by our fire. The chief was funnily dressed out for the evening, in white cotton stockings without shoes, white trowsers, a black waistcoat and jacket, and a most wonderful beaver hat. The gentlemen had a sort of shed, built of long sticks, and sail cloth laid over it, with one side open to the fire; but till we were all asleep in the tent we heard them singing and laughing. Next morning we were up early, and found the fire lighted, and tea, but no milk, broiled eels, which the natives had caught for us in the river, during the night, etc.; and as soon as breakfast was over, we had to pack up all our goods and tents, and then cross the river in a canoe, the horses having to be swum over. After a very short walk, we went the rest of our morning's journey in a canoe up the river the banks of which were very pretty, as we got to the bush. My husband shot some wild ducks, and we lay in the boat, very pleasantly, and were paddled to the spot where we were to get on our horses again. There we found assembled a party of natives, who were expecting us to come and feast with them. So we had to stay and dine there, and a very pretty place it was; but, as a feast with natives, it was rather a failure. For they just gave us some infantine potatoes, much too young to eat, and some capital little fish, just like whitebait, from the river; and then sat round and looked at us, and smoked, and sucked fern root, while our men cooked, and then spread out the dinner, in a shed, built there by the surveyors, and here we eat alone. It was pleasant sitting in shade, though, for the sun was really very hot that day, and gave me a great sickness and headache, during the afternoon ride. But it all got well with the cool sunset, and the sight of our beautiful camp for that evening, at the edge of Rangi-hora bush, the next to the one where we had dined. You never saw anything prettier than it was, but I am a bad hand at describing, and you must just imagine us there, just on the edge of thick, almost impenetrable wood, with very fine trees; and our little tent, with a fire at the door, quite shaded over by the tall waving toi-toi grass, and the large one for the gentlemen a little beyond, with such a magnificent fire. Mr. Weld, often as he had camped, in page 138every kind of country, quite exclaimed in admiration at it. He is quite a practised bushman, and did all kinds of things for us, better than anyone else. He even went and got me a bouquet, that I wish I could send home for some of you to take to a ball! It was the flower of the cabbage tree, in size like an aloe, with a bunch of small whitish flowers, perhaps eighteen inches high, and sweet like hyacinths, growing straight up out of the green leaves. We all sat round till the stars shone out, oh, so bright, and the owls began to hoot in the wood. It was a most lovely evening, Our only contretemps was, the loss of Arthur's little blue trowsers, which, in spite of the heat, he wore as a protection from mosquitos, and which were, in the dark, put bodily on to our fire by his father, with the branch on which they were hung. A melancholy remainder of scraps of serge, and black buttons, was all we found in the morning. You would have laughed so to see how completely he took to the bush life, always talking of making "little warris" (as they call the little huts for a night), as we used to build "houses" with little sticks. Even his Father was obliged to own that he was no trouble, and very funny.

The next morning we had with much sorrow to say goodbye to Mr. Weld, whose course no longer lay with ours, as he was going to walk up the coast to his station. Flaxbourne, nearly opposite to Wellington. It was a great undertaking, about 150 miles, that had scarcely been walked before, several rivers to cross, and 19 miles running by the beach, along the rocks where you must hang on by your hands to the rocks above, and so on; but he wanted to see the country, and to get back to his station, so as to make preparations for going home, which he hopes to do by the Lord William Bentinck, to sail on the 20th January next. Mr. Fox and some troops go home by it too, and I should not a little like to know that a cabin was engaged for us. We like Mr. Weld so much, (and I think him so much like Heneage) and he is so good-natured that at last I asked him to call on you, and tell you all about us; and if he cannot find you he is going to call in Hereford Street, and if he does come pray seem as if you expected him, for he is very shy, and it is an exertion to him to go to new people, though, page 139I am quite certain you would all like him. He said I must promise to write to you by the same ship, or you would take him for some impostor. He will most likely (D.V.) arrive in London about May' 51, but he will not stay a day in London, at first, unless he finds his people there. They live at Chideock, in Dorsetshire, and his uncle at Lulworth Castle, as perhaps you know, a very fine show place. But he hopes to be back in London soon after, and to call on you, and you must be sure to tell us whether you see him. Our next day's ride, about twenty long miles, took us to "Harewood Forest" where there is a surveyor's station (shed) just under the hills, across the plain, and this was to be the end of our journey. We spent all Sunday, the next day, there and I was quite glad of the rest. It is a very pretty place, from the beauty of the woods, which are very extensive, and run over the hills, leaving patches of grass, so as to look just like fine park scenery. We settled that those Colonists who aspire to a fine place, will locate themselves somewhere there, where there are such magnificent situations. A good sized river comes through a deep wooded rent in the rocks, two or three miles from the place we were at, and another small one only a quarter of a mile from us, across the plain. We were on the very edge of the wood and consequently a prey to mosquitos, and sand-flies, which are much the worst here: they light on you silently without the smallest notice of their approach, and bite instantly, and then the bite is so venomous, and lasts such an immense time! Arthur of course was the victim, and really could hardly sleep for one night, he was in such a state of irritation all over. It was lucky we had arranged to stay where we were, for the next morning six of the horses, including both of ours, were not to be found, and our horsebreaker rode fifty miles after them, and then walked in another direction, and at last they were discovered, a very few miles off, brought home, and measures taken to prevent a similar escapade in the night.

We had a very long day on the Monday, about thirty-five miles, and got into Deans' at tea-time, and pretty much tired. The principal features of the day were a pig hunt and the crossing of the river Courtenay. I did not join in the page 140hunt, but saw the black boar's head with its fine tusks brought back. My husband was rather disappointed with it, as sport; either the dogs were too good, or else the pig not fast enough; it was caught directly, by a dog at each ear and then "a hunter" sticks it with a long knife, behind the shoulder, and the whole thing is over. However, everyone says that with a good boar, and a fair start, you do often get a capital run of a mile or two. Much the best sport is with the wild dogs, of which there are a great number on the hills, sad nuisances to the sheep runs; they have become very much like foxes and run straight off just in the same way. The pigs get along very fast, but cannot help stopping and turning round occasionally, to see what is going on! The crossing of the river was very disagreeable, and I am sure is a most dangerous thing for strangers to attempt. The bed is of shingle and about three-quarters of a mile broad, over which run eight or nine streams, most of them about the size of the Conway at Voelas (just above the bridge), and very rapid; but the bad part of it is, that the streams are always shifting their bed, besides that an extra warm day sends down more or less flood from the snow mountains; and so, though quite safe one day, you may find the same place impassable the next, and the water runs so clear that it is difficult to guess at the depth. None of our party had crossed where we did before, and though I was quite safe, myself, with Holland leading my horse, who understands these rivers well, it was not quite so with my husband, who of course would go first, though he had taken Arthur before him for the crossing, and in one stream, just at the edge, I had the pleasure of seeing his horse, and Mr. Boys', sink in over their tails as they tried to rise at the bank; the place was too deep, and the bottom not firm. Arthur was tossed off on to the ground, and they all scrambled out, very little wet, but it was very unpleasant to see from the other side, where I was. One very disagreeable part is that, when the water runs so fast, it makes everyone who is not used to it as giddy as possible. I fancied the horse was standing still, pawing the ground, and the stream getting more and more rapid, and so I hear others say. We took half an hour's rest, after the river, and then left my husband page 141to bathe, and made the best of our way towards Deans'; passing a number of paradise ducks, and putting up quail constantly, from under the horses' feet, but this is not the season for shooting them. There was a hot wind, and threatening sky, that made us press on to a good shelter, but the evening turned out lovely, and the bad weather came only in the shape of a tremendous blow next day, as we were crossing the hills back to Lyttelton. We had, too, unluckily taken a path that does not merely cross them, like the bridle path, but runs for some way along the ridge, and in some places so narrow as not to be very safe in such a wind as it became, by the time we got up there; the horses were literally blown several steps out of their road, and I could not possibly have sat on, if it had not come on the left side, so as to blow me tighter on to the saddle, and I don't know how I could have walked with the child. I could not hear a word that the man said, at the horse's head, during the puffs; and one seam in my gown was torn open at the bottom, several inches,—literally split by the wind. It was, we found, considered quite unusually strong, even here. At last we got down safely into what looked like a village on fire. The broad straight streets, as yet unmacadamized, send up most fearful clouds of dust, so as quite to hide the little low houses; and it is in such quantities here as to be a very serious inconvenience. Powles and William were to come from Wellington by the Barbara Gordon, on the 3rd, a week before, but nothing had yet been heard of them; so we had to get on as well as we could with our boy, who had taken such care as it wanted of the house while we were away. We made, that is, he and I together, two capital stews, from some ducks and pigeons we had brought in with us, and when that was done we had mutton chops and potatoes from the public-house, and I boiled rice with milk, most successfully, and without burning, which made some second course. But it was rather a bore making the beds (mattresses on the floor) and sweeping out two very dusty rooms, when the thermometer is above eighty, which it became the very next day after we got back. It sounds very jolly and independent, but still practically it became quite a bore, especially when on the 13th, Friday, morning the Fly sailed in, with the page 142Governor and Lady Grey, and they immediately came on shore, and Lady Grey dwelt with me, while the gentlemen went off to see the place. Captain Oliver came too, and Colonel Bolton, and Mr. Thomas (Sir G's half-brother) and Captain Nugent, his private secretary, a tall lanky man with a distressed look, and no top to his head, and who blushes when you speak to him, at finding himself obliged to perpetrate an answer. They were all excessively good-natured, and quite obliged us this time to like them, Lady Grey saying, and Sir George doing, everything that they thought we could like. My husband went on board for dinner at six, which seems so fashionable to us now; but not I, because of Arthur, and the next night, we both went; for, to our great joy, on the 15th, the Barbara Gordon appeared, having come down with a fair wind in just twenty-four hours from the start. The weather had been so bad at Wellington as to delay her sailing, from the difficulty of shipping the goods. There is nothing like beginning with things in the rough for making you feel comfortable afterwards, and from the moment that Powles and William had appeared, and that we had found a woman, who, for about eightpence an hour, came to scrub our floors, I felt like a Princess in the lap of luxury. Captain Oliver is the most good-natured of Captains; sent boats for us at any moment, and is quite "the agreeable man" and draws most beautifully. He admired some of our views very much, and said, as we do, that some of the hills about the harbour reminded him exactly of Llanberis. Though not so high as Snowdon they have the same character. We had a very pleasant and good dinner on board the Fly, though she is so small (not 400 tons) that we felt the motion a good deal, and truth compels me to own that though it is quite safe, and so on, in the harbour, the sea is generally rough enough (at least during the day, while the wind blows) to make it disagreeable getting in and out of boats, and I was a little afraid that I should not be able to stand it, but there is nothing like boldly beginning to eat, in a doubtful case, and I did not disgrace myself. We went to Church on board, the next morning, which is quite a pretty sight in a man-of-war, Arthur with us; he stayed in Lady Grey's cabin during the page 143service, and then we walked about the ship. Sir George Grey took a great fancy to him, and before he went away gave him a most beautiful native spear, which some chief here had brought him (Sir G.) as a present; it is much the handsomest we have ever seen, and comes from Taupo, in the Northern Island.

On Monday the 16th December (I don't know how to write large enough letters for the event), in the morning a ship was announced early, in sight, and then at anchor!! But there is a point of rock which hides them, where they usually anchor, from our view. Some people thought it might be an English ship … and then the matter was quickly settled by my husband's encountering Mr. FitzGerald, who was the first to step on shore, in the road down to the jetty; so altered by a sailor's dress, an immense straw hat, very hollow cheeks, a ferocious moustache, and I am sorry to say a lame leg, (which is well, though, now), that at first he scarcely knew him, and when he did, was so overcome as hardly to know whether to laugh or to cry, and I believe ended by doing both. He was alone, as Mrs. FitzGerald stayed on board for a headache, and the lame knee was from a most characteristic fall, got in snowballing the Captain in a gale, the decks all slippery from hail and ice. It was only a very hard blow, and seems to be almost well now, but it kept him a fortnight in bed, or lying down, (I believe he only got up to land) and was of course a great inconvenience, when he was so anxious to walk about and see everything. You may imagine the questions, etc., and the excitement of the whole morning. Mr. FitzGerald dined with us, and we talked as fast as we could, and that was not fast enough, and kept our eyes steadily fixed on his face, in the delight of seeing a real face, and hearing a voice, that we had seen and heard in England, a year and five days since we left it! and with all our arrivals he is still the only one I have ever seen before. "It never rains but it pours", is a very old saying, and in the evening of the same day the Randolph anchored by the side of the Charlotte Jane, just as many hours after her here, as she had left Plymouth. We were full of wonder, and already thought it a remarkable coincidence, when next morning, Tuesday, 17th, in came page 144the Sir George Seymour, making the third ship that had performed the voyage in such an unusually short time, for she had started from Plymouth again, twelve hours after the Randolph: was it not most curious? One passenger, too, who had taken his place by the Randolph, was a little late at Plymouth, and had to follow in the Sir George, the ships spoke during the calms at the line, and the Randolph passenger was transferred to his own ship, and still they all got here in the order in which they started. Je n'en reviens pas! and now I must thank for my letters, which came in by degrees, from one ship and then another, as the boxes came on shore, or parties carrying them, unpacked their goods. Such late news! and thank God all so good!! except that Laura mentions you as not "so well" in London; but then you must have been better at Voelas or someone would mention it. It was a great anxiety to hear whether our first Woodstock letters, which were just due, had arrived, and then Mr. F. G. first said, "Oh yes," and then no letters of mine mentioned it, except Sara's, and then it was only the Cornelia; however that took one copy of the essential "despatch" for the people who were to come out, and I shall hope to hear by the Castle Eden which was to sail a fortnight after, that everything has arrived. You are all so very good about writing. I could write a chapter upon it, only once more I must say that, when you don't write before bed-time, I had rather have only six lines from you. I can't thank enough for the letters, because I was so much afraid that everyone would get tired of writing, before anything meant as answers could arrive, and instead of that you are better than gold, all of you, and never forget us.

The Eden too, the "June ship" has arrived at last, and brought the box of my commissions from "the line"! with the braid, etc., for which many thanks, and the two boxes for Arthur one of which, the "chase", I gave him as a Xmas box; the drawing-box I reserve for some grand occasion, and the two books from Frances, which were a great delight, but he is writing her a letter himself. I have had to read the "old woman" every morning; he is so extremely delighted with the rudeness of the rope, bull, butcher, rat, etc. Then the portraits, too, which, though page 145not perhaps very like, have still a great look of the originals, and are very pretty, I think, as sketches, I was, too, delighted to get Elisabeth Lewis' parcel, and in it another book from Frances, and the letters, and the piece of Scotch linen, which I shall keep back till the cool; and wish vainly that I could see the original larger edition of it running about at Voelas with Ruby, and a whip in her hand, or on the top of "Alice Grey" (isn't it the new pony!) flying up to Old Voelas to turn. Nothing could arrive more à propos, either, than your present of Elisabeth Lewis; not, Dieu merci, that I want her for the purpose you suggest (I have neither hope nor inclination, so far, to "serve my country" in that way) but we were waiting for a maid, hoping to get one by these ships, and nothing could do better than her arrival, all ready, and Powles seems very well pleased with her, which is a great matter. She is now running in couples with such a nice Maori boy that Captain Oliver gave us, who has lived about three years in the Fly, waiting on the First Lieut., and who belongs to this place, and wanted to come back. He is called "Jacky Fly", and looks like seventeen, or eighteen, but is really I believe only fifteen; but they never know their own ages, and soon grow old here. He is very dark for a Maori, but quite good-looking, rather tall, and dressed like a man-of-war's man. His education in the ship has taught him very clean tidy ways, and he is so good-tempered and obliging, that we all like him of all things, and he can do all sorts of odd things; sew very well, and has a notion of cooking, but stops to play, like a child, with anything he can find, if not watched. He is just now finishing our new carpet, which he has just made to his own great satisfaction, and which is quite a grand affair for us, being real Brussels, and quite a pretty carpet, if it had not a pattern that is twice too big for our room; but the other kinds get shabby so soon here, what with dirty feet, and only a small room to use for everything, that we were glad to pounce on the only bit in Wellington, though it was a piece in short remnants, and had been bought at Sydney for cutting up into rugs. The room looks really tolerably furnished, only rather short of chairs, (till we get the dozen we have page 146ordered from Sydney) for the large tea-parties we now have almost every evening.

Mr. and Mrs. FitzGerald came on shore for good, the second day after their arrival, and occupied our future dining-room, which had been my husband's dressing-room. I like her very much, she is such a good-natured merry little thing, just what you may call a school girl, and sings and plays so well. Mr. FitzGerald is not at all the same man that we knew in London, though he sings just as well. Sir George Grey, who stayed two days after the ships came in, made him Inspector of Police, and he is Emigration Agent, so that he has plenty to do just now, and with all his private anxieties and businesses, about which he never can make up his mind, or remain two days in the same way of thinking, he has no time left to make himself agreeable. He bought a pisé house of one room, from a squatter, in a very pretty situation, close to a little bush of 120 acres, half-way up the hill over the town, and first thought it perfection; then his goods were very troublesome to carry up and he would build down below, in the town, if possible on his own section; then the hill was to be preferred, and a well dug there to supply water, and a garden made where the soil is good, by the bush, and his fortune made by selling vegetables; then he would go down the hill again, and then up, and each time contrary lists of orders to his wife of things she was to do, and goods to be carried up, till I was quite tired of him, and I think she was too. They came to us on the 18th December, and we kept them over the New Year, and on the 4th January they moved up to their abode on the hill, where they have added a room for their servants, consisting of a man and his wife (and alas, a baby) and a boy, all from their ship. They brought out a "very special" cow that cost £35 at home, and £50 before she got here, though they gave her free passage in one of the ships. He was very proud of her, and had not been five minutes in the house, before he was telling me all about her, and I, on my part, was warning him of a certain plant which grows about here called toot ("tu tu" native), of which cows are excessively fond, and when they get to it after a long voyage they eat such a quantity that, in their weak state, it kills them; page 147although it is excellent food for them in moderation, and at other times. I told him how our friend Mr. H. Brown had landed four working bullocks, a month before, and had two die the next morning from eating it, and he was very much frightened, and, when she arrived on shore, full of plans for her protection. After all, she was allowed to be out for a night eating what she pleased and died the next day, in spite of all they could do for her. Mr. Britain did exactly the same with his cow, and she fell down a cliff and died, too; but it is supposed that she made the faux pas in a state of phrenzy from eating the "tu tu"; they had each paid about £50 for their cows, exclusive of freight, which they had not to pay, as in each ship a cow is carried gratis, if the owner will give up all the milk to the general use of the passengers. Another colonist, Mr. Phillips, brought a cow in the same way, and then let it out to some people in this place, while he is settling himself on the plain; and she is dead too. Mr. Watts Russell brought another, and has most wisely hired a boy to watch her, and after the first fortnight there is no danger. It seems incredible that one person after another should go on so, in spite of all warning. You may imagine even I have not much time to myself now; what with people coming to call who have letters, or something of that sort, and going to ask after stray invalids, and large (for us) tea-parties which we have constantly, and visitors in the house, I have scarcely time to write. On Xmas Day we had a dinner party, to meet—a turkey and ham, that we had brought on purpose from Wellington, and a bit of roast beef that we got with some difficulty, after rather a characteristic disappointment. The meat, of course, will not keep here, but must be cooked a day or two, at most, after it is killed, and on Xmas Eve our butcher (for there are two!!) came to tell us that he had lost the bullock that was to have died for the Christmas dinners, and of which every joint was bespoken! He had driven it successfully towards home, having some miles to fetch it, but at two o'clock in the morning it had made its escape, and was not to be caught. However, a fortnight after he was caught and killed and we ate our bit of him. We had a plum-pudding too, but could not manage mince-pies. It page 148was very unlike Christmas Day, so hot, even when we went to the early Service and Communion at 7.30. We had a few greens for the Church, but not enough, and we had a few up, too, in the rooms, but although they are evergreens, they die like our ordinary trees, and will not last, like our good holly and ivy and laurel, till Twelfth Night. At Wellington, the red myrtle is just out in time, and makes a most beautiful decoration. Our Church has been, so far, a large loft over the warehouse for emigrants' goods, but we are going into a better one to-morrow. One building of the Emigration Barracks, now that there is a little more room, has been cleared, and thrown into one room, about sixty feet long, and a good width; and, with the supporting pillars, looks really something like a Church. They are waiting for Dr. Jackson's arrival to begin building a real one. The Castle Eden, with him on board, is about due now.

The Cressy came in, December 26th, with two very sad cases of invalids on her. One, a Mr. Birch, a friend of Mr. Arthur Mills, and, we hear, a very nice person, came on board in perfect health, and fell ill from some nervous disease, hypochondriacal, or something of the sort, and after getting better and worse several times, is come on shore completely paralysed, and cannot even feed himself, or sit up. The other is Mr. Gale, appointed Manager of the Lyttelton branch of the Australian bank, who became quite mad, about five weeks after they sailed, during the hot weather at the line, and is still quite idiotic, though he is now quite quiet. He has such a nice, rather pretty wife, whom he married, after being engaged a long time, only two days before they sailed. He got his appointment only a week before they were to start, and had then to do all his business, public and private, including the wedding in that time, and the whirl of it all must have been enough to distract anyone. He had, besides, an inflammation in the eyes, which disappeared rather suddenly, and is supposed to have flown to his brain; and, most unfortunately, the doctor in that ship was a very incompetent person, like too many of the same class, and seems to have done literally nothing for him, except putting him in a strait waistcoat. Was it not a wretched state for his poor wife? However, there is one page 149very clever doctor here from the Randolph, who is much used to treat mad people and he declares that it is an affection of the brain, quite apart from lunacy, and that he has every hope of curing him in a few weeks, completely. They have made him a little hut on shore where he lives with his wife and a keeper, and when we went to see him the other day he was already much better. He is always good-humoured and obeys the least word from his wife, and she is very glad of visitors, it amuses him so much and is too, a little restraint upon him. He said how-d'ye-do, and shook hands with us, laughing and looking pleased, and then winked violently, which she told him not to do; and then he sat looking vacant, but very happy, till Mrs. Gale said, "Do you know that's Mr. Godley? "—and the name seemed to remind him of business, and he said very quickly "Where are those despatches? "—and then said nothing more till we were going away. The whole family of Townsends were, and still are, very kind to her. They came out too in the Cressy, a father and mother, and ten children, and a nephew. There are about eight daughters, all nearly grown up, if not quite. Sara knows the eldest. I was sitting here one day with Mrs. F. Gd. when I heard a knock at the outer door (they were of course all open) and when it came again, (we have no knocker, only the visitor's fingers, which are sometimes not audible in the kitchen) I said to Arthur, "run to the door and tell me who it is". He came back saying he didn't know and looking rather frightened, so I went myself and ushered in—not one had I seen before— Mr. Townsend and six daughters, the youngest about fourteen, and the Captain of their ship, who is a big man, and so fat that you wonder how he can walk on shore, let alone at sea in a gale. How a sailor ever had time to grow so fat I can't think. He is a very good kind of man, and so good-natured that he has kept all in his ship in good-humour, and had no quarrels, so they also boast on board the Charlotte Jane, where they had a very nice set, the FitzGeralds, Mr. Kingdom, a very nice chaplain and his wife (also just married) Mr. and Mrs. Bowen (Irish) and his sister, a nice little old maid, and two big sons, and a little daughter, three Mr. Wards, brothers, the youngest about fifteen, page 150and Irish, (but very un-Irish in the extreme carefulness and prudence with which they have provided themselves against every contingency of their new life) and very nice; Mr. T. Cholmondeley, of whom I have not yet seen much, he is not well, and will not come out. He is quite a gentleman, though, in every sense, and only come out to settle a young cousin, I believe, but no one knows much about him. I suspect he lived rather delicately at home, for his work here has quite knocked him up. He set to work, with his men, to carry timber and build his own house; and the sun, which has been very strong, (the thermometer at 93° one day and two others at 92° in shade and with a breeze) caught his hands, and brought on inflammation, and they were swelled up like a bad case of gout, and then the doctor lanced them inside and he has suffered very much from them. He is cousin to the Delamere Cholmondeleys, and has a brother as much like Pitt, he says, as Mr. Henry Cholmondeley is. He seems very nice and gentlemanlike, fond of books, speaks slowly and softly, looks delicate, and is in most respects very unlike one's ideas of a colonist. At last he did come to tea with us yesterday, and the hands are much better, he can feed himself with one again now and shake hands gently. I tell you so much about him because you may meet someone who knows him. He and his cousin, and their servants, are established with all the other Charlotte Jane young men on the hill across the road, opposite to our house. They have tents and huts, of various descriptions, and are beginning to form quite a small village of their own. Mr. Wortley is there, too, in a "weather-board" house of two rooms, which he made himself. They are all such funny figures at work in the morning, they say they quite enjoy getting into their clean evening clothes on the nights they come to us, though when you look at the houses outside, you can hardly fancy where the clean things come from. Mr. Ward's is of sods with a boarded roof, thirty feet long, and divided into two rooms; one being for his servants. He is thought a good deal of by the other colonists, and seems very nice, and both he and the little brother nearly as good-humoured as Tom Cocks. He and Mr. Wortley have made a party up to go across the plains, page 151about the same journey that we took. I lent Mr. Wortley a sketch-book, to get rid of his excuse for not trying to make some drawings to send home; we shall see with how much result, as they are to be back in a day or two. He seems a very nice boy, I can hardly call him more, for he is only eighteen, and fond of cake; but I should think might turn out very well, if he takes to, and is led by, the right people. He is certainly very clever, and seems to intend to do everything that is right. I believe he will stay here at present; he is at the Office with my husband to-day, January 20th, which is what Lord Wharncliffe seemed to wish him to do if possible; no sketches came back, but then they had rain, and clouds about the hills when it didn't rain. Mr. Cholmondeley has two tents, and a house, partly timber and partly sods, but I cannot go through them all, and the workmen have all built little temporary places to put themselves and their families in; some what they call here a "V hut", that is, a mere sloping roof of boards overlapping, set on the ground without any walls to stand on, and of course removable without loss, except of a little labour, when they know where they will finally settle,—or by wind. Fancy one, the other day, from having no door, caught up by the wind, and shoved bodily away, and the people inside discovered eating chops! Some have "cob" houses, frames of poles filled in with clay; and some, merely a frame of branches and poles, thatched with fern and grass. In such a one I found, the other day, a very nice family from Canterbury; I tried them with "Mr. Daniel Finch" and the man quite cheered up at a name he knew, and the woman said she knew "the Lady Finchs" and used to go out to cook there.

Of course a fire in such places is much to be dreaded, especially with our strong winds. One was set on fire, and burnt down in less than five minutes (and two others that stood near, three days ago) with all in it that had not legs to escape on; and, very nearly a poor baby, the only child, of a few weeks old, whose mother ran out without it! and began to cry outside!! till at last the father missed the child and fetched it, just as the whole thing fell down. No one was hurt, but a fire once lighted here is quite unmanageable, and the danger is from there being yet no page 152chimneys; the fires are lighted in holes, just outside the doors. The bits of blue smoke are very picturesque, but the rest of the arrangements generally not so pretty; the wooden houses are generally as ugly as possible, until they get verandahs and so on. Mr. and Mrs. Watts Russell have bought two frame wood-houses, each of three rooms, and putting them together they get six rooms, besides lofts. One was ready for their reception last Thursday (the 16th); they had stayed with us for ten days, ever since the accident they had, when both were nearly drowned, and they became for several reasons, very anxious to leave the ship, and come to stay on shore. It happened this way. Mr. and Mrs. Russell, three maids of theirs, the ship's doctor, two sailors, and the third mate, were going back to dinner on board the Sir George Seymour, after morning Service; when, from the stupidity of the mate (luckily for the honour of the harbour, there was very little wind that day) the boat, which had sails, "missed stays", and capsized in a moment, and all nine were in the water, and wonderful to relate all holding by the boat; the doctor expecially, it is recorded, never lost either his hat or his stick, and boats were instantly let down from the ships, which were very close, to pick them up. However, it very nearly ended badly after all. Mrs. Russell, it appears, can swim, and she got hold of the tiller rope, as the boat went over, and kept up bravely; but the length of the rope allowing her to float to some little distance, Mr. Russell got frightened, and left his hold to try to catch her, for he was not a believer in her powers, and couldn't see the rope. Then she, knowing that he couldn't swim at all, left her rope to rush to his assistance, and really did, as far as human means were concerned, save his life. She held him tight and they both sank twice, and were very nearly exhausted, having been about eight minutes in the water, when a boat picked them up safely. She fainted as soon as they had got her into the boat; but except for a day or two, felt no bad effects afterward. There is a short account of it in the first Lyttelton Times which we shall send you; but her special adventure is omitted. I went on board next morning, to ask after her, and finding them very anxious to come on shore at once, we offered them the room that the page 153Fitzgeralds had vacated two days before. He is a very nice little gentleman, not very clever, but very well-meaning and good-natured, and not a bit fine, (though he has just left a smart lancer regiment) nor inclined to be disappointed with things. His Scotch agent, and farm manager, Mr. and Mrs. McFarlane, are not quite so happily constituted, and almost everything is wrong with them here; except the Plains, which his practised eye at once pronounced a magnificent field for future efforts, and he came to read a regular recantation to my husband after seeing Deans'; he had grumbled so much at first. Mrs. McFarlane is a would-be fine lady, and I hear would-be beauty too, if she could, though she has a daughter seventeen, and going to be married instantly, and several other children, two idiots. I have not seen much of her as she has hitherto been too much in dishabille (and discomfort and so on), to come to our "tea-parties". She sings and plays on the pianoforte, and dresses very smart, and makes much of Mrs. Russell, (who luckily sees through her) and is in appearance much like Mrs. Barnard, Mrs. J. Cockerell's sister. Laura will, I am sure, understand the expression of her face that I mean. Of course, she is neither so pretty, nor so ladylike. Mr. Russell has built them a house here, but he is to build another on the plains as soon as ever the selections are made, and then they will go over bodily. Mr. and Mrs. Russell mean to stay here for the winter. She is, I think I did not say, very pretty, though my husband will not allow it, she has such fat cheeks; but her profile is very good, she has beautiful wavy dark hair, and a very good figure, beautifully dressed, only her legs ought to be an inch or two longer, for grace. She was an Irish girl of no particular family and a very bad match, but her manner, after hearing this, would quite surprise you, it is so good, and I am sure she is warmhearted and very anxious to do the right thing. She seems to have no notion of reading, though clever in some ways, too; and cannot play more than a few notes of a polka, or pick out notes with one hand. I like him the better for being so very nice to her, and evidently no symptom of being tired of her.

I have not yet told you that the Bishop of N.Z. came here, page 154to our great satisfaction, on January 3rd; as usual, in the little Undine, which is a very pretty little "topsail" schooner as Arthur would tell you. He slept on board, but made a home generally of our house, when on shore, which he was all day. We liked him, I need not say, very much; he is so very agreeable, and so evidently anxious to be so; delighted in our oatmeal porridge for breakfast, walked about and did everything, the whole day; and at night talked to the clergymen's wives whom we had to meet him, and cut up cake, and handed bread and butter, as if he had been a curate on his promotion. With all this, he is so evidently quite a first-rate man, and so untiring and earnest in his calling, that you look at him almost with wonder, and always with pleasure; he has such a very fine head, and regular features, and when he has lost only a few more hairs at the back of his head will be exactly like the pictures of S. Carlo Borromeo. I said so to Mr. Tancred, who was admiring him, and he laughed and said it was curious I should say so, for that was the very description he had written home of him from Auckland. Everyone here seemed to be equally charmed with him, and not a few have expressed a regret that we are to have one of our own instead of him. I, for one, do not expect to like Dr. Jackson half so well, but if he is the right man that does not much matter. Bishop Selwyn only stayed from the 3rd to the 7th, but when he went it seemed like losing a friend. He is, you know, very fond of the natives, and they were in here, trooping about him, all day. He had two full Services alone for them on Sunday, besides taking a large part in three English Services and preaching, which he did extempore, and very well; and he is now gone to Otago and Stewart Island, and the Auckland Isles, and expects to be back (D.V.) in six weeks to meet Dr. Jackson, and stay some little time, hold a Confirmation and so on. We asked him the truth of the story of Sydney Smith's farewell to him and "may you disagree, etc.;" and he said "I once heard him preach, and never in my life met him besides." I asked him too if he remembered Charles, at Eton, and he said "Oh yes, he was a very well-known boy at Eton, capital at football and cricket, and that he could see that I was very much like what he remembered page 155him." No one is quite perfect, and with, grief I must own that one of the Bishop's eyes is not quite so lively as the other; it is scarcely a cast, far less anything of a squint, but a slight want of unanimity that just mars the perfect benignity of his expression; and it is the greater pity, because they are such very good eyes.

We had a visit on the 6th, from Mr. and Mrs. Fox, Mr. Petre, and Judge Chapman, all come down from Wellington in the Government brig; which was a nice opportunity for them to see the place, as it was to return on the 10th. They, too, dwell principally with us when on shore. Mr. Fox made a capital sketch of the Plains, from the top of the bridle path; exactly like it, but not on a clear day for the distant hills, the Kaikoras not visible. He made another of the jetty, another of the encampment of Charlotte Jane, and one more including our house. He is a great friend of Mr. John Burdon, and going to stay there soon after they get home (D.V.), and if you should happen anywhere to come across them, and can and will, look at the sketches, you will have a capital idea of the place. Indeed, Mr. Fox said he should send one or two to the Illustrated News. So you must look out for it, soon after you get this. I shall be very anxious to hear of the safe arrival of the box that we hope will take this, and a few things we got from the natives, or had made at Wellington. I hardly know what there will be in it, for the tradesmen were very tiresome, and would not finish our things before we left; and I have a canoe I wish I could send to my Father, but it is nearly four feet long, and quite too big. This is, indeed, a very bad place for collecting anything to send. The wood can be worked up so much better and cheaper at home, and you can hardly buy it seasoned here; most of the tables give way, or come to pieces. There will be, I hope, two mats, etc. But I have written you a special letter about the contents. I think you will say I have written a good deal, and yet I have not written half of what I should have liked. I am so much afraid of the saying "out of sight", etc. Arthur, too, has been very busy, but some of his letters are lost, some only just begun. Pray look at the one to Vernon, "a lugger" with the "blue Peter" up, going to sea. I page 156think my Father will say it is a little like one. He has made, too, for him, a most elaborate sketch of what we saw last Sunday evening in our walk along the future high road. The Cressy, (which went this morning, with our overland letters), fired a gun, so I began to talk to my husband about my Father's sketch of the "morning signal gun", etc.; and Arthur listened, and then he said he should make a sketch of all that, with the rocks and us walking, and the smoke, and now it is to be sent to grandpapa; those things hanging down are meant for an anchor and dolphin-striker. I need not say it is entirely his own idea, and performance, only I suggested adding his Father's hind leg for he was drawn with only one. He asked me to write what you see on the back. I hope the pencil will not rub out, for I think it will make you all laugh.

And now I think I shall astonish you. We are going to give a dance!! if all goes well, next Monday or Tuesday! It is intended as a kind of friendly meeting, before the people all separate to go to their selections of land on the plain, next month; and we are to ask about one hundred, and give only tea, and the festivity is to take place in the barracks, in some large empty rooms there, and Mr. Wakefield is to do it for us. The music is a difficulty, but we hope to triumph over that. It is sure to be rather a bore, some such curious people must be asked; but I hope at least that a civil and even jovial intention on our part will be apparent, through pink calico, ship's flags, and "patent composite" candles. I hope it may answer, but of that you shall hear (D.V.) by our next opportunity. We have been rather unhappy about the bread, 14d. the 4 pound loaf, but two ships came in yesterday, and at the sale this morning, flour was sold one-fourth cheaper than last week, which is very good news. Altogether we hope we are getting on pretty well, and there are already about a hundred people in the plains, all pretty comfortable and contented, and no one seems to be disappointed with that part of the scheme. We are all, or almost all, a little ill; some have a sort of cholera, some a kind of influenza, my husband has had a touch of both, and Arthur has it now. I always feel stupid and giddy when the hot wind blows, but it has been much page 157cooler lately, but I don't think it is quite such an invigorating place as Wellington. The plains are quite different, but I fear we shall not get over there, to live, while we remain here. I suppose if all goes smoothly, and nothing unforeseen arising, we shall be thinking about how to get home by this time next year; but it is too uncertain to count much upon, and we must manage, if possible, to arrive in England at the warm time of year and all that. It seems to me at least ten years since I left England, and a great deal longer since I saw you all, and now I must write my last words, which each time seems like saying a fresh bit of goodbye. I don't think I have explained that all the accompanying writing, and one mat, was to be sent up to Wellington, to be added to our box at Mrs. Fox's, so as to arrive in time for the Lord William Bentinck, and now the captain of a ship that was to have sailed with our last words, ten days ago at least, is dying, and the vessel must go back straight to her owners at Sydney, without calling at Wellington; and the next opportunity is so late that we are much afraid of not being in time, which is very tantalizing and tiresome. The next thing we look forward to is hearing of the Woodstock's arrival, and then it will be to hear of this box, and whether the things can still be in time to go all right to you, and then whether you see Mr. Weld, and like him, which I hope you will. I asked Arthur if he has anything to add, and he says "I should like to thank Uncle Tom for the book". It is quite tiresome that I cannot make you see him till he is old and ugly, perhaps; at all events he must be less nice than he is now. We are sending a note to Tom, for Mrs. Fox to post, if she and the box arrive safely together in London, and now I must say Goodbye. Thank you so much for all the letters and God bless you all always.

Your very affectionate,

Charlotte.

Lyttelton. January 30th.