Heaphy, Charles 1820-1881 :View on the Pelorus River. Drawn by C Heaphy from a sketch by E J Wakefield Esqr. [Between 6 and 16 September 1839]

Shows a Maori canoe with carved prow, containing 2 figures, one Maori, one European, and a dog, alongside a raft or mokihi being paddled by a young Maori man in the foreground. Both craft negotiate river rapids. In right foreground a fallen tree trunk is a perch for a few birds, and in the background cabbage trees stand in front of denser bush. The scene is thought to be close to modern Canvastown

The rapids, or low waterfall on the Pelorus River, were close to modern Canvastown

Listed by the New Zealand Company as received in London by the Company [before 1842], item no. 5

E J Wakefield wrote about travelling with his uncle William Wakefield up the Pelorus River between 6 and 16 September 1839 and mentioned that the paddler on the mokihi or raft was a 12-year-old boy. perched in the centre of a raft made of two bundles of raupo tied with flax. (Adventure in New Zealand, 1845, page 63). Heaphy remained with the Tory, in Tory Channel

Other Titles - Wakefield, Edward Jerningham

Inscriptions: Recto - top centre - No. 5; Verso - top centre - No. 1

Quantity: 1 watercolour(s).

Physical Description: Watercolour 255 x 364 mm

Provenance: Purchased by Alexander Turnbull, with other New Zealand Company material, Francis Edwards, London, 1914.