S. M. Mackley
prevailed and somehow or other he kept them going—though at this time his own right knee was so badly swollen, having been poisoned by spear grass, that he had to cut and gash it with a razor and so reduce the swelling that he might proceed,
A little later, when the situation was desperate, Mackay sighted a distant hill which he had ascended when in the upper Grey district, and was therefore able to define his position and assure the natives that they would reach the Mawhera Pa in two days’ time. This assumption was correct, and so ended a terrible journey which lasted no less than seven weeks. In this connection be it noted the Nelson Provincial Government voted Mackay a bonus of £150 for “defining the track from the Roto-iti Plains, via Maruia, to the mouth of the Grey River.”
On his arrival at the Mawhera Pa on March 2nd, 1860, Mackay found S. M. Mackley, a Nelson settler, and seven Massacre Bay natives there. They had travelled down the coast from Collingwood, Mackley’s mission being the location of an area suitable for farming purposes. Fortunately, in his youth,
