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said, not to be touched by other men. It is a sacred place. If you was to do that when you was among my people it would be an insult that would carry death andthose with you would be killed as well.
    But I would not know this I protested.
    That is no excuse said this savage and I was close to felling him for this was silly talk but there was a look in his eye that told me it would be just as well to hold my wrath. I did not say that I had seen the head of many a Maori chief or otherwise dried up like old leather and bartered for souvenirs in Sydney streets. There is a move to stop this trade. I have never thought to buy 1 for myself, not finding in them the kind of decoration I fancy. Instead I asked him who is this Robulla or whatever his name is.
    He told me that I must not say his name like that. Te Rauparaha he said. You say it. And he wd tell me nothing more until I said it to his liking and then he spelled it for me too. Te Rauparaha is the big chief, the biggest of them all, a fighting man who has beaten all the other tribes around him in war. You should meet him Rangi said for he wants to do trade and barter with English ships. He told me how Te Rauparaha had made his headquarters on Kapiti Island (which I have heard sailors speak of, I think it the same one they call Entree Island). This island is near Cook Strait that runs between the 2 big islands of New Zealand. Te Rauparaha has food and flax to barter for white man’s goods and muskets in particular. I am making a note of all of this because I know there is a big demand for flax in Sydney right now for making sails and coarse cloth to dress the convicts in their uniforms and the best rope that money can buy with which to hang them. Well business is business and I want to make my fortune quick. I like the sound of this place New Zealand. I think I will have a look at it before too long.
    Which happened soon after when I went aboard another sealing ship this time as master. The ship was the Harriet , a barque of 240 ton owned by a ship builder name of Captain Underwood back in Sydney. He was once a convict like me. He come up to me one day and said I hear you are a man with a talent for the sea and know how to read and write a log book. I said, yes mister, for I am not giving any credit to anotherconvict until he proves his worth.
    You can keep your head and do not take to drink at sea Underwood said.
    That is so I said for I place a value on my skin.
    I have heard that men will take orders from you.
    Is that right now I said for I had not heard that said in my presence.
    I will make you a ship’s captain.
    Well you are talking now sir I said. And good day to you and thanks Captain.
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    Thus I went sailing in the deep south in what is known as New Zealand waters, so all the time I was coming closer to that country. On our way north the ship was laden with 4200 seal skins and 2 ton of oil. We stopped off in the port at Kororareka, a grog town in the Bay of Islands so my feet was finally on New Zealand soil. There we took our rest and everything else on offer. I smoked a pipe or 2 of opium brought in on a ship from the East and my head was filled with dreams of girls and then there were brown girls theirselves that twined around my body 2 at a time. When I woke my body was full of sweet ease and my pockets empty. 1 of my men came to tell me there was a ship anchored in the Bay and that it was taken over by convicts on board being transported to Norfolk Island. A mutiny no less. Well who am I who was a convict to ask questions and I am not here to tame my fellow men unless they should be working for me. But they looked a bunch of rascals.
    Some Maoris in their war canoe had tried to help the captured crew and the convicts had shot them up very bad and a missionary asked me wd we help to sort this matter out. It will do me no harm I thought to see if this matter can be settled. Call me a turncoat if you will but a man has to do what is best for his self. If I