Page:Tales-of-Banks-Peninsula Jacobson 2ed 1893 cropped.pdf/284

Garrett was a sawyer to trade, and went away in the brig the same trip, taking his wife with him. Flood was the storekeeper of the vessel, and left New Zealand again in the October or the November following our arrival. He had been a sergeant in the army, and a nice fellow he was. Neither the Garretts nor the Floods had any children. The owners wouldn’t bring anyone that had any children, or incumberances as they were called.

“But I am getting off my course. I was going to tell you how I came here. This brig that I came in, her captain was a Welshman—I forget his name. I think he owned the vessel: he did so far as we knew. A whaler? No, she wasn’t a whaler; she was a merchant vessel, loaded up with a general cargo for the Wellers’ place. No, I don’t suppose you do know much about the Wellers; but they were big people in those days, as you may believe when I tell you that they had then twelve vessels whaling for them. There were two brothers: one was George, and the other was named Edward, or it may have been Edwin, I am not sure which. They had the only store in the place anywhere about these parts, and a pretty big store it was. It was in the harbour—Otago Harbour it was called: what you call the Lower Harbour now. No! the store was not exactly on the Heads. It was on the point next to what is now known as Harrington Point, close to what you know as the Kaik. Edward, or Edwin, Weller was there himself. He and his brother were among the oldest colonists in New South Wales. The Mr. Weller I am speaking of had been a prisoner among the Maoris at Hokianga in his young days, and while there had got to understand the Maoris and speak their language. He never owned any land, either in the North Island or the South, though he might have had as much as he could see almost for the asking. He was just a trader, and