Artwork Information

Angas’s accompanying plate text:

PLATE VIII.

TONGARIRO from ROTO-AIRE LAKE.

MOTUPOI PAH IN THE DISTANCE.

THE mountain of Tongariro must be regarded as the centre of volcanic action in the Northern Island of New Zealand; it is situated in the very heart of the interior, amidst a cluster of snow clad peaks, elevating its vast truncated cone, like a huge cauldron, from which volumes of steam, and jets of scalding water and mud, are constantly issuing.

The height of this boiling volcano has never been correctly ascertained: it is supposed to exceed 7000 feet. Mr. Bidwell is the only person who has ascended the cone from which the aqueous eruptions burst forth; but there is a still higher summit, which is not visible from the Lake, on which human foot has never trod. [Mananui] Te Heuheu, the principal chief of the neighbouring Taupo Lakes, has laid a strict "tapu" upon the mountain, so as to prevent any one from ascending it--so rigid is this law, that neither presents nor any other means will induce him to grant permission. Indeed, so much is the Tongariro dreaded by the natives, that many of them are afraid to look upon it, and cover their faces as they pass a certain angle of the road, where the crater suddenly presents itself to view.

The strongly fortified Pah of Motupoi stretches into the Lake of Roto-aire, at the base of the mountain: it covers a neck of land, surrounded on each side by water, and its approach is guarded by a double palisade, with trenches and embankments; at the period of my visit, the occupants were employed in repairing the fortifications, as they daily expected an attack from a party of the Waikato tribes. A canoe is represented landing in the surf, with another crossing the lake, in which a native is holding up his blanket to serve the purpose of a sail. A squall is passing over the mountain; and the Kaka, a species of parrot of a brown colour, which is domesticated by the New Zealanders, is figured sitting upon a stick fastened at the head of the canoe.