Page:Tales-of-Banks-Peninsula Jacobson 2ed 1893 cropped.pdf/238

many years before traces of the disastrous event will be obliterated.

Messrs. Hay and Sinclair were the first settlers in this Bay. It was in the year 1844 in the month of April that these gentlemen, leaving their families in Wellington, sailed in a schooner from that port to seek land in the south, where they had heard of fine plains. They had originally left Scotland in 1839, and were going first of all to settle in the north, but the tales they had heard of the Canterbury and Taieri Plains made them very anxious to explore them. On arrival at Lyttelton, their first port of call, they did not know the exact locality of the Plains, but seeing the hills low at the head of Governor’s Bay, they thought that must be the road. Accordingly they climbed to the saddle of what is now Gebbie’s Pass, but on arrival found to their disappointment only what they thought was sea on the other side, which was of course the waters of Lake Ellesmere. They then determined to try for the Taieri and accordingly sailed for Port Chalmers, and landed up by Anderson’s Bay; but they were again unsuccessful, not going far enough to find the level land. They then determined to return north again, and sailed for Pigeon Bay, whither they had been driven by stress of weather on the way down. Here Mr. Sinclair announced his intention of making his home, as he was tired of wandering, and Mr. Hay decided to do the same. It was then agreed