Places

Date: 1840

From: Mantell, Walter Baldock Durrant, 1820-1895 :Scrapbook. 1840-1872.

Reference: C-103-012-1

Description: A series of 6 cartoons, probably showing the flooding that occurred in the Hutt Valley to the first European settlers in 1840. From the top, the views show a man (probably a self-portrait) afloat on a raft, holding up a bottle, with drowned trees to one side (captioned 'Day'), with below that, the same man (captioned 'Night') in his tent, reading a book by a kerosine lamp, but still seated on a raft. This section is also captioned in Latin 'De memento rebus in arduis servaramente' referring to the memory of great difficulties at the time. The next drawing, titled 'Pleasant. Very!' shows the same man tripping over a snag in the flooded river, with part of a thatched cottage, also flooded, to one side. The fourth sketch 'An interesting chase, Hutt, 1840' shows the man poling himself along on the raft in pursuit of his boots, which are floating away. Another flooded house is in the background. The fifth view shows a man fast asleep and afloat on the water (Where ignorance is bliss...Hutt 1840)l. The sixth shows the man rescuing a young Maori woman from the floodwater. Two pages removed from a sketchbook Other Titles - Set of pencil cartoons. West Mokau. Taken on board Anne and Sara [note along the side above a drawing of a range of hills] Quantity: 1 drawing(s). Physical Description: Pencil sketches, 429 x 126 mm