Rotorua

“ Most of these hot waters contain sulphur and other minerals, and bathing in them is an excellent cure for rheumatism, skin complaints and other ailments. In Rotorua you can even have a delightful bath of liquid mud, which is like grey cream mixed with oil, and makes one's skin feel as soft as silk.
The railroad ends at Rotorua. Beyond, you must either drive in coach or motor, ride on horseback, or go in a steam launch across the lake.
The country round is singularly desolate and almost uninhabited. ”

“ In Rotorua's baths one can be treated for rheumatism, sciatica, dyspepsia, gout, liver complaints, skin diseases, or other ills.
The sanatorium grounds form the loveliest spot in a valley not devoid of beautiful scenery. West and south rise low, brown, fern-covered hills that meet higher wooded hills, some of which attain the dignity of mountains. Chief of these in Rotorua's neighborhood is Ngongotaha, 2554 feet above the sea. At the base of these heights, near Rotorua, are plains clothed with bracken fern and tea-tree, brightened by a few green meadows. ”

“ From the grassy crater-summit of Mount Eden one's eye ranges over a grand sweep and variety of scenery—forests clothed in luxuriant foliage, rolling green fields, conflagrations of flowers, receding and dimming stretches of green plain, broken by lofty and symmetrical old craters—then the blue bays twinkling and sparkling away into the dreamy distances where the mountains loom spiritual in their veils of haze.
It is from Auckland that one goes to Rotorua, the region of the renowned hot lakes and geysers—one of the chief wonders of New Zealand ”

“ A regular cluster of all these marvels is to be seen beyond the gum-trees, at Whaka, in a few acres of rocky white ground, overgrown with thickets of stunted "manuka" scrub, with its tiny evergreen leaves and rough brown stem. There is a large Maori settlement here, and another close to the cold water of Rotorua Lake, among more boiling pools and springs.
The Maoris have always loved the hot water, and Maori villages have existed here [181] long before Europeans thought of making a town and using Rotorua as a health resort. ”

“ But do not you [61] rise up to obtain satisfaction for her. God will do that. Let this be the conclusion of the war with Rotorua. Let peace be now made. My heart is not sad for Tarore, but for you. You wished teachers to come to you: they came, but now you are driving them away."
"God will obtain satisfaction," said Ngakuku. Bishop Williams remarks on the notable circumstance that, in an attack made upon Matamata some weeks afterwards, out of five Rotorua natives who were killed, four were concerned in this tragedy. ”

“ But this particular story of how he sprang a surprise on the Rotorua natives by making his slaves drag a fleet of immense war-canoes capable of carrying between sixty and seventy men each, and very heavy, for thirty miles inland through the bush from the coast, is the finest incident of all.
And then there is the vastly different tale of Hinemoa and Tutanekai, that inspired the poet-Premier and many another poet before and since. Everyone who visits Rotorua should try to hear that story from the lips of a Maori. It
Photo by Martin, Auckland. ”

“ There should be a rush from Europe and America to that place; and when the victims of alcoholism find out what they can get by going there, the rush will begin.
The Thermal-springs District of New Zealand comprises an area of upwards of 600,000 acres, or close on 1,000 square miles. Rotorua is the favorite place. It is the center of a rich field of lake and mountain scenery; from Rotorua as a base the pleasure-seeker makes excursions. The crowd of sick people is great, and growing. Rotorua is the Carlsbad of Australasia. ”

“ The emotional tourist—especially if a young gentleman from ‘Home’—who is safely piloted by the alert, polite, and loquacious ‘Maggie’ among the roaring and exploding geysers of that charming compromise between awe-inspiring beauty and terror, that unpreached sermon, that unsung song, that unwritten poem, that section of hell in an earthly paradise, Rotorua, in whose weird precincts are seen and heard and smelled, at close range, the seething fires of ‘Pluto’s dread abode,’ he will cherish a generous respect for Maori hospitality forever. ”

“ But one who shares Eternity with God.”
We left Rotorua early on Saturday morning to drive to the buried village of Wairoa,—buried under the rain of mud and stones that fell during the eruption of Tarawera in 1886. All the way there are evidences of that terrible night,—a wilderness of pumice and cinders where there once was verdure, a great cleft in the earth like a jagged wound about forty feet deep, for miles along the side of the road, and ugly scars on the hillside where the land had slipped, leaving it bare. ”

“ On Monday we rowed over Lake Rotorua to an island called Mokoia. Sir George Grey told me that at one time he lived on the island; it is, in consequence, still rich in fruit-trees and cultivated ground. A legend of this island reminds one of the story of "Hero and Leander." Hinnemoa, a maiden living on the mainland, one day, on hearing the flute of her lover, Tutanekai, the chief of the island tribe, jumped boldly into the lake and swam across the intervening five miles in safety. ”

“ A general assembly of the tribes consequently met at Rotorua, when it was shown that the land I proposed to purchase came within the old boundaries of Tapuika. But several generations before the present the Pa at Maketu had been taken by the hostile tribe Ngatiawa, and the Arawa tribes, including Tapuika, had been driven from the sea-coast to Rotorua and elsewhere. When the flax trade with Sydney was in vigour, many of the Arawa natives had been permitted to return to scrape flax for sale to a trader named Tapsell who was stationed at Maketu ”

“ Photo by Josiah Martin.
“To see the people cooking in the natural hot pools.”
where all the electric light and power used at Rotorua is generated, and came back via the channel and Rotorua. The sun was declining when we reached a landing in Rotorua, where we left the boat in order to visit Hamurana Spring. The water from this spring is so buoyant that a man cannot go down into it unless he has heavy weights attached to his feet, and it is so transparently clear that one can see to the very bottom of the well, where there are some bits of blue china or pottery that look like shining turquoise. ”

“ He has never seen anything like Te Terata before, and was most anxious to visit Rotorua, of which he had heard much; also to pay his respects to the chief Hika-iro, of whom he was told before he left Auckland."
"A word has been brought to me that the pakeha has come to see the nga iwi (the tribes) , and to bring back to the man who rides at the head of the soldiers and to the Mata Kawana the names of the men that can be found for war in Rotorua."
"All untrue. This pakeha dislikes war, and only fights when men insult him. ”

“ One seems to be surrounded by a race upon whose semi-civilization the era of clothes has not yet dawned. The Maori inhabitants of Wairoa, the native town which was so recently buried with all its people by a volcanic outburst, had no more reason to anticipate any immediate danger than have these natives on the banks of Lake Rotorua. ”

“ These include sulphur springs of different strength, mud baths, and mineral water baths of different degrees of heat. After this formality we crossed the road to the Tourist Office, where Captain Greendays presented his letter of introduction from the Auckland branch, and by great good luck Warbrick, the well-known Maori guide, happened to be in the office, so that we were able to secure his services during our stay. In the afternoon we drove out to Whakarewarewa, a native village about twenty minutes’ drive from Rotorua, where most of the active geysers are. ”

“ After I had laid out the chart of the lake, and examined the springs along its banks, I followed up the Waikato by its outlet from the lake, till I reached the very singular chain of boiling springs, Solfatare, salt-springs and Fumaroles, which extend in a N.E. direction between the active crater of Tongariro and the still active volcano of Whakari or White Island on the east coast. On a longer stay, the country adjoining the sea along the prolongation of this line furnishes the site at Lakes Rotorua, Rotoiti, and Rotomahana (or Hot lake) , for the Ngawhas and Puias, i. ”

“ A journey up this river is simply delightful, fresh pictures meeting you at every turn, while the glimpses one gets of the Maori in his native home give an added charm to the trip. But the real wonderland of New Zealand is Roturua and the adjoining district. Forests of extraordinary luxuriance and beauty clothe the mountains and border the extensive plateaux, and hot lakes, boiling geysers, and thermal springs are met with everywhere; in fact, hundreds of hot springs exist within the district, besides numerous mud volcanoes, fumaroles, and solfataras. ”

“ Ropata showed the manner of man he was in the fights which followed. A dozen of his own sub-tribe (Aowera, of the iwi of Ngati-Porou) had been taken, fighting among the Hauhau. Ropata set them before him in a row and said, more in sorrow than in anger, "This is my word to you, O foolish children. You are about to die. I do not kill you because you fought against me, but because you disobeyed my orders and joined the Hauhau." He then shot every man of the twelve with his own hand.
Like master, like man. ”

“ Wednesday, March 21st.—Left Roturoa. The reports about the war-party were so contradictory that I doubted their truth, and being anxious to return to Tawranga, I determined to run the risk of encountering them. As I landed from the boat which Mr. Chapman had provided for me, a woman very coolly asked me if I did not want a wife; this was rather a bad sample of the morals of the Roturoa people, and particularly as several of the natives belonging to Mr. Chapman were present, and would take back the report to the island: not being a "marrying man," I begged to be excused. ”

“ That got us to Rotumah, an island which for some mystic reason is considered a part of Fiji, but lies nearer the Ellice group. Because public health is concerned with sociology, politics, geography, history and anthropology as well as worms and germs, let me use Rotumah as an example of what lavish Nature can do to a people.
The Rotumans were among the world’s laziest, their island among the world’s richest. Crops grew while you slept; therefore the natives slept or went to a party. This was coconut wealth, prodigal and wasted. ”

“ A gentleman who visited Rotumah told me it was no uncommon thing to find natives who had been in New York, London, Liverpool, or Hamburg, and they could discuss the relative merits of sailing and steam vessels with an intelligence not always found among white sailors.
"Though living in an island where nature is kindly and the wants of man are few, the Rotumah men are not unwilling to work; they are consequently sought as laborers in the Samoan, Tahitian, and other groups, and especially in Feejee. ”

“ In more than one Rarotongan tradition an island or country is mentioned, named Enua-kura, or the "land of red feathers," which is possibly New Guinea, so called by the Rarotongans after the Bird of Paradise, the beautiful feathers of which would be to them treasures of the highest value—such treasures as Europeans who do not know the race can hardly believe in; they were their jewels. Again, in one of their traditions is mentioned Papua, a name that is also to be found on Rarotonga itself. ”

“ Thus the ‘lake country’—as the district round Lake Rorotua is commonly known—is ‘a region of eternal fire.’ The conditions of existence here are certainly novel. The natives bathe in such of the thermal springs as are of suitable temperature, at all times of the day, and in a very primitive fashion. In others, again, they cook their food and warm their houses by the same means. ”

“ CHAPTER VI ANEGADA AND A BIT OF TREASURE-TROVE
North of St. John and so close to it as to appear, from a short distance, but a continuation, lies Tortola, the British isle which played so prominent a part in St. John’s early history. In beauty rivaling its once Danish neighbor, Tortola (or “the island of the turtle dove”) is even more forsaken,—an island of the blest given over to the blacks, the only white men being the resident magistrate and a half-dozen representatives of his Britannic Majesty,—while Roadtown, its capital, is but a tumble-down village of scarcely five hundred souls. ”

“ CHAPTER XXIX DECIDE TO BREAK UP OUR CAMP AND RETURN—ARRIVAL AT ROGALA'S HOME—I MAKE MYSELF A PAIR OF SKIN TROUSERS—DEPARTURE FOR ROTEMBO'S VILLAGE—OUR GRAND RECEPTION AND SUCCEEDING FESTIVITIES—ROTEMBO'S PROMISE—FAREWELL
The monkey meat did not last more than two days. Then food became as scarce as before. We had clearly exhausted that part of the forest.
"The times are hard with us," I said to Rogala; "the bashikouays have driven the game away. There are no more koola nuts. Let us go back to your home, where we shall find plenty of plantain and cassava." ”

“ Rotembo said to me: "I can trust Rogala more than any other man in the country. I bought him when he was quite young, and he has forgotten the language of his tribe. He faces without fear the ngina (gorilla) , the elephant, the leopard, and the fiercest bear of the country. He has killed during his life more than one hundred elephants and he has kept all their tails as proofs. The number of hippopotami that have fallen under his gun is very great; the necklace I wear round my neck is made of the canines of some of the leopards he has killed." ”

“ Loreto is the last Peruvian town situated on the left bank of the river before arriving at the Brazilian frontier. It is only a little village, composed of about twenty houses, grouped on a slightly undulating bank, formed of ocherous earth and clay.
It was in 1770 that this mission was founded by the Jesuit missionaries. The Ticuma Indians, who inhabit the territories on the north of the river, are natives with ruddy skins, bushy hair, and striped designs on their faces, making them look like the lacquer on a Chinese table. ”