Page:Tales-of-Banks-Peninsula Jacobson 2ed 1893 cropped.pdf/142

at Laverick’s. The trip took a long time—over a fortnight—for a head wind forced the vessel to lay for a time in Cloudy Bay. However, all went well, and they landed at Akaroa in May, 1843, the first person to welcome them ashore being Mr Bruce, the proprietor of Bruce’s Hotel. Akaroa was then a dense bush down to the back of Bruce’s Hotel, large pines and totaras standing nearly to the water’s edge, and Mrs. Brown was delighted at the extreme beauty of the place, which was then in its primeval loveliness. There were of course a few clearings here and there, where the French people had squatted, but they were small, as each family had only five acres allotted to them. The great majority of the population were French and German, there being only some five or six families of English, Irish, and Scotch. There were, however, three hotels at this early date. The principal was of course Bruce’s Hotel, and there was another where Mr. C. Henning now lives, called the French Hotel, kept by a Mr Francois. The third one was at Green’s Point, being the oldest established of them all. The town, however, growing towards German Bay, Mr. Green found he was out of the world at Green’s Point, and built a new hotel on the site of the present Armstrong’s Buildings; in fact, the existing buildings are the old hotel.

Amongst the hotelkeepers, the most celebrated person was Captain Bruce. He was a sailor man, having been the captain of a large merchant vessel called the Elizabeth, owned by Johnny Jones. He had a cutter of his own called the Brothers, which used to collect whalebone and oil on the coast between Akaroa and Dunedin. One day, as he was coming into the Akaroa Heads, the cutter capsized in a squall, and left poor Captain Bruce destitute. He was, however, a man of resources, and soon started Bruce’s Hotel, which he made a great success, his