[Remarks]
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REMARKS.
The inhabitants of New Zealand are in general tall, active, and well made; their colour brown, with black hair, sometimes straight and sometimes curling; and they have very fine teeth. There is a striking difference between the rungateedas, that is, the chiefs and better class of people, in stature and cast, and those who are by birth cookees, or slaves. Many of the latter are almost black, and below the middle size. The New Zealanders exhibit as much variety in features as the Europeans: there is little national character in their countenances, which, before they come to the age for being tattooed, may be called regular and pleasing; at least, several of them whom we saw before they had undergone that operation were very handsome. The lines of the tattooing vary in the different
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tribes; and when an individual attains his twentieth year, he is considered unmanly, if he has not endured part of this painful process. He bears it with surprising fortitude; and it is renewed occasionally, as the lines become fainter by time, to the latest period of his life. Tetoro, who returned to New Zealand in the Dromedary, was re-tattooed soon after his arrival; and when Wheety, who was half Anglicised by a long residence amongst us, was told that he ought not adopt this frightful custom of his countrymen, he said, "if he did not, he should be despised, and perhaps taken for a woman." The inflammation that follows the tattooing is so very great that it is on all occasions gradually performed; many months, and sometimes years, elapse before the face is completely finished; and though the process disfigures the natives in their youth, it completely conceals the ravages of age. Baldness is very uncommon: we knew but of one instance of it; and many very old men go to the grave without a single grey hair. Benny, a chief in the Bay of Islands, who says he was
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a grown-up man when Captain Cook was there, had not one on his head.
Their dress consists of a mat made of the native flax, which is very fine and silky, and woven with much ingenuity by the women; it is thrown over their shoulders; another mat, of the same substance and texture, is fastened round their waist by a belt or girdle. In winter, at night, or in wet weather, they use a very coarse description of mat, which they call kakahow: it is very warm, and impervious to rain, and is so large as to envelop the whole body. Their heads are always exposed even in the bitterest season, which accounts for many of them being afflicted with sore eyes; but the disease seldom affects their sight, which is singularly acute. The wife of the chief Pomarree was an exception to this general blessing. She applied for some eye-water, and when it was given to her, she remarked, that "if she did not see as well as the rest of her countrywomen, at least, she had the happiness of being like King George;" alluding to our late monarch, the only so-
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vereign prince known, even by name, to this people.
When the men use violent exercise, they strip themselves naked, retaining only the belt with which they gird their waists very tight. Fulness in this part of the body is unknown among them, and when seen in Europeans excites much ridicule. When they go to war, or when they wish to appear to the greatest advantage, they paint their bodies red, with a composition of oil and ochre; their hair is also oiled, fastened in a bunch on the top of their heads, and ornamented with the feathers of the gannet or the albatross; and a bunch of the more downy feathers of these birds is usually fastened in one ear.
Their ears are always pierced during their infancy, and particularly those of the women. The perforation is gradually distended by means of a piece of stick passed through it; and the larger it becomes, the more ornamental it is considered. From it the better class of people suspend the tooth of a fish, rather scarce on this coast; and so punctilious are the persons authorised to use this distinction, that
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the cookee dares not, under any circumstance, infringe upon the prerogative.
They also wear, fastened round the neck by a cord, and hanging on the breast, a piece of green talc, carved to represent what cannot be deemed human. They attach much value to it, not from any superstitious notion, but from its antiquity; and it is hereditary in families.
The dress of the women is precisely the same as that of the men: among the latter, nudity at any time, or on any occasion, is not considered indecorous; but a dereliction of feminine modesty by the former is seldom known. The females are slightly tattooed upon the upper lip, in the centre of the chin, and above the eyebrows. Some of them have a few lines upon their legs; and a woman was seen at Shukehanga, who was described as having come from a place far to the southward of it; she had lines on her breast, not unlike the links of a chain; while a female prisoner of Krokro's was tattooed almost as much as a man. The New Zealand women are as fair as those of the southern parts of
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Europe, well made, and, in general, handsome. Before matrimony, concubinage is scarcely considered a crime, nor is it an impediment to the highest connection; after it, they are faithful and affectionate wives, and very fond of their children. They bear with the greatest patience the violent conduct of their husbands, who, considering women as beings infinitely inferior to themselves, often treat them with great brutality.
It would be difficult to define what their religion is. They have innumerable superstitions, but no idolatry. They believe that the chiefs when they die go to a very happy place, but that the cookee has no further existence beyond this world. They address prayers to the sun, to the moon, to the stars, and even to the winds, when their canoes are becalmed or in a storm; but their prayers emanate from casual circumstances, not from any regular form or time of adoration. They believe in a Supreme Being, designated the Atua, or something incomprehensible, the author of good and evil, the divinity who protects them in danger, or destroys them by
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disease. A man who has arrived at a certain stage of an incurable illness is under the influence of the Atua; who has taken possession of him, and who, in the shape of a lizard [see Note 18.], is devouring his intestines; after which no human assistance or comfort can be given to the sufferer, and he is carried out of the village, and left to die. He who has had his hair cut is in the immediate charge of the Atua; he is removed from the contact and society of his family and his tribe; he dare not touch his food himself; -- it is put into his mouth by another person; nor can he for some days resume his accustomed occupations, or associate with his fellow-men. An elderly female, or kind of priestess, of the tribe of any warrior who is going to fight, abstains from food for two days, and on the third, when purified and influenced by the Atua, after various ceremonies, pronounces an incantation for the success and safety of him whom she is about to send forth to battle. But the attributes of the Atua are so vague, and his power and protection so undefined, and there is, moreover, such a want of una-
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nimity among the people themselves in many things relating to him, that it is quite impossible to discover any thing like system in their theology.
Their general food is the koomera, or sweet potatoe; the root of the fern, roasted and pounded; the indigenous taro, which is very sweet; the common potatoe; the cabbage plant; and fish, which they take in great abundance. They dry their fish in the sun without salt, and it continues good for many months. They use an immense quantity of cockles; and though they sometimes eat pork, it is only on great occasions: they generally reserve it to barter with the Europeans. The pigs run wild in the woods, and are caught with much difficulty and with the assistance of dogs, which themselves are sometimes eaten, and are considered a great delicacy. Dogs and rats are the only native quadrupeds of the island; the former are like our fox in shape, but variable in the colour; and the latter are so much smaller than the European rat, that a chief expressed a wish for an importation of some from England to improve the breed,
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and thereby give him a more bountiful meal. The taro plant, which has been imported from Otaheite, is cultivated by a few natives with much success. Their appetites are immense; and all their food is cooked in one and the same manner, namely, in hot stones covered over with leaves and earth, so as to form a kind of oven; and, certainly, their vegetables and cockles are particularly good when dressed in this way. They were very fond of our biscuit; and though it was literally so full of vermin that none of us could eat it, the tribes in the neighbourhood of the ship very eagerly bartered for it their potatoes and the other esculent plants introduced into the island by Captain Cook. Reckless, however, of the future, they had soon disposed of their little stock, and they afterwards lived in comparative misery.
Though well aware of our abhorrence of cannibalism, they never denied it to be one of their customs; on the contrary, they too often expressed their predilection for human flesh. The limbs only of a man are eatable, while, with the exception of the head, the
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whole body of a female or a child is considered delicious.
Besides the crew of the Boyd, other Europeans have from time to time fallen victims to their ferocity: but they describe the flesh of a white man as tough and unpalatable when compared to that of their own countrymen; and they attribute its inferiority to our universal practice of using salt with our food.
It is from superstitious motives that they devour their enemies when slain in battle: but there is every reason to conclude that anthropophagy is practised on other occasions.
Instances occurred during our residence among them, and under the eyes of Europeans, of female slaves having been murdered for crimes too trifling to justify such severity, and as their bodies were immediately cut up, washed, and removed to a place where they could be eaten without interruption; and as the intended feast was publicly mentioned by the natives themselves, it is to be presumed the horrid propensity was gratified.
Except the sailor of the Catherine, no Englishman witnessed the act of cannibalism dur-
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ing our visit to New Zealand; and the people took every precaution for its concealment. But the immediate prelude to it has fallen under the observation of the missionaries, who have had unequivocal proofs of its existence; and what from the information we were able to collect from them, and the confession of the people themselves, it is quite impossible that the most incredulous person in the Dromedary could have returned to England without a firm conviction that anthropophagy exists, and is practised in New Zealand, not only as a superstition, but as a sensual animal gratification. [See Note 19.]
The extensive intercourse that takes place between the crews of European shipping and the native women, compared with the very limited offspring of this connection found in the island, afforded reason to presume that infanticide exists here to a considerable extent. We saw but two individuals of this cast during our stay at New Zealand, and heard of but two others; of those we saw, one was an infant, the son of a seaman of a whale-ship, and the other was a grown-up girl, about sixteen
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years old, the daughter of a person residing in New South Wales. They were both fair; and the latter, though brought up in common with the savages, was quite English in her appearance, except that she was much sunburnt. She was a pretty girl, and at that time lived on board a whale-ship.
Illicit intercourse has brought among some of the females of the island that disease which is carried by Europeans to whatever part of the world they go; and some truly melancholy cases of its fatal ravages occurred in the Bay of Islands while the Dromedary lay there.
To us the women denied the crime of infanticide as far as related to their connection with Europeans, of which they declared that the consequences were prevented by causing premature birth. Taking into consideration the fact that all former ships remained but a short time at the island, this is not improbable; but as many native females left the Dromedary in a very advanced stage of their pregnancy, the curious will be led to enquire whether the children be still living, and if
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they are, it is to be hoped the humane will be induced to take steps to ameliorate their condition.
In the native families when the number of females has far exceeded that of the males, the disappointed mother has been known to sacrifice the former. A daughter of Pomarree's assured us, that such would have been her fate had not the authority of her father averted it; and a woman at Rangehoo, well known to the missionaries, successively murdered three female children the moment she was delivered of them.
This barbarous act is effected by the mother pressing her finger upon the aperture in the skull of the new-born infant, and thereby causing its immediate death.
Though infanticide is committed where there is a superabundance of females, yet in the manner of rearing children, and in the remarkable tenderness and solicitous care bestowed upon them by the parents, no partiality on account of sex was in any instance observed. But as the males form the strength and consequence of the tribe, the birth of a
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boy is hailed with pride and delight by the community: he receives the name of a bird, river, island, or perhaps some part of the human body; a garland of the red berries of a tree called the karamoo, supposed to possess particular virtues, is entwined round his brows; and prayers are uttered over him by his tribe, that he may be strong, swift of foot, and invincible in war. The infant is no sooner weaned than a considerable part of its care devolves upon the father: it is taught to twine its arms round his neck, and in this posture it remains the whole day, asleep or awake, suspended upon his shoulders, and covered with his mat; and in his longest journeys, or his most laborious occupations, it is his constant companion. If the child be a boy, it is taught at a very early age the use of arms, the war-dance, how to paddle the canoe, and to sing the accompanying song, and attends its father upon his expeditions. The first successful effort of the stripling in war is hailed as an omen of what he is one day to be; and the circumstance of Repero, Shungie's son, having shot a man at the North
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Cape before he attained his fourteenth year, has given him a powerful ascendency in his tribe.
Plurality of wives among the chiefs is universal; but there is a decided distinction between the head wife and the others. The union with the head wife is a union of policy: she is the daughter of a chief, equal if not superior to the person to whom she is allied; and the offspring of this union in their right of succession take precedence of the progeny of the other wives, whose relative situation to the head wife is nearly that of domestics. The order of succession descends from brother to brother, and reverts to the elder son of the senior brother. The inferior wives are often selected from the prisoners of war; but in these instances the attaint is taken off by the rank of the husband, and the children are born rungateedas, or gentlemen.
Inconstancy in a chief's wife is sometimes punished with the death of the parties; but there have been many instances where the great power of the woman's father has de-
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terred the chief from proceeding to this extremity.
In the event of the premature or violent death of the husband, it is the custom of the country for the head wife to hang herself. The places have been pointed out to us, and are marked as sacred by the natives [see Note 20.], where this last testimony of conjugal devotion was exhibited by the wife of Duaterra, under whose immediate protection the missionaries first settled at New Zealand, and by the wife of the brother of Teperree, who was killed in battle near Wangarooa.
In the event of a chief taking a fancy to a woman, her inclinations are seldom consulted on the subject. Instances have occurred where she has been carried off with brutal violence on his part and apparent resistance on hers, but an amicable adjustment soon followed: even in the selection of the head wife, the father's consent alone is requisite.
From every thing we could learn of their wars there is seldom a decided or lasting conflict between the combatants, or any great display of personal courage. The party sur-
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prised is the party that suffers; and there is no hardship or privation which this people will not patiently undergo to come upon their enemies when they are least prepared to resist them.
The natives of Rangehoo, describing a successful attack made by them upon a tribe at the North Cape, against whom they went to take revenge for the murder of some of their party, said they arrived in their canoes at the foot of the enemy's pah before daylight, but being discovered, described themselves to the inhabitants, who came down to know who they were and what they wanted, as strangers who had suffered much from bad weather, and whom necessity had driven to seek the shelter and hospitality of their coast. The people of the North Cape, at first suspicious, were lulled into security when their visitors had produced different articles of barter, with which they began to trade for provisions; nor did any opportunity offer to them to carry their purpose into execution until this trade had gone on for some time, and food had been dressed for their breakfast. At length,
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upon a signal given, they fell upon their unsuspecting entertainers, and took ample vengeance upon them.
This is the general character of their wars; but there have been various exceptions. The natives of the Bay of Islands openly attacked a chief on the western coast, by whom they were routed: the slaughter was very great; several of Shungie's brothers were killed, and the tribe of Wevere, Tetoro's elder brother, was almost annihilated. But latterly the imputed superiority of the tribes of the Bay of Islands and those adjacent, on account of the quantity of fire-arms in their possession, by overawing the rest of the inhabitants, has made them the terror and the scourge of New Zealand. Every summer they fit out a predatory expedition: they are perpetually the aggressors, but at home they are never attacked; and though a week did not pass without their telling us that some mighty chief was coming to invade them, and that every preparation was making to resist him, yet in the wide circle of our information not a hostile blow was aimed at them during
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our stay, unless it were at the battle of Kaiperra, which was said to have been fought just before we sailed. The report, however, did not bear decided marks of authenticity.
It is singular to what a distance they go from home, and what a length of time they remain absent on their predatory excursions. Pomarree had sailed upon one of them a month before we arrived, nor was it known where he was at the time of our departure; and when the Prince Regent schooner was at the river Thames, the people there told us they had seen him, but that he had long ago proceeded very far to the southward. Though his tribe seems to have gone alone in this instance, the expeditions are in general composed of the united strength of three or four chiefs. Each chief is absolute in his tribe, and each tribe independent of its neighbour.
As yet the firelock in the hands of the mass of the New Zealanders is not dangerous: they use it very awkwardly, seldom hit their object unless close to it, and lose an immensity of time in unnecessary action in looking for a rest and in taking aim. We have seen them,
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when about to shoot a pigeon, climb the tree where it was sitting, (the New Zealand pigeon being very tame,) with a caution and address peculiar to themselves, and put the muzzle of the gun within a foot of the object, before they attempted to fire at it. Their arms are intrinsically bad, the firelocks being of the very worst description, brought out by the whalers merely for barter; and from their want of knowledge how to take care of them, and the dampness of their houses, they soon find them unserviceable, and though anxious in the extreme to get gunpowder, they seldom care about bullets, substituting stones in their place. Unskilfully, however, as they use the musket, such is the general dread of its effects that the strength of a tribe is not now calculated so much by its numbers as by the quantity of firelocks it can bring into action. When Poro entered George's district, the terrified people described the invader as having twelve muskets; and the name of Krokro, who is known to have fifty stand of arms, is heard with terror 200 miles from the Bay of Islands. In this part of the island the pahs, or strong
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places, have been much abandoned and neglected since the introduction of muskets. The original arms of the people, consisting of the mearee, or short stone club, worn in the girdle, the spear, which is long and pointed at both ends, the pattoo-pattoo, or wooden battle-axe, and a long club made of the bone of a whale and curiously carved (but very rare among them), have ceased to be much prized as defensive weapons. They now attach the bayonet, the axe, and the tomahawk to a stick, but their great reliance is placed on the musket.
Their war-canoes have been frequently mentioned in the foregoing pages, and are minutely described in Captain Cook's voyages. The largest we saw was eighty-four feet long, six feet wide, and five feet deep, and belonged to Tarrea, of Shungie's tribe. It was made of a single cowry-tree, hollowed out, and raised about two feet, with planks firmly tied together and to the main trunk, with pieces of the flax plant inserted through them. The crevices were filled up with reeds to make the canoe water-tight. A post fifteen feet high
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rose from the stem and stern, which, together with the sides, was carved in open work, painted red, and fringed with a profusion of black feathers.
The chief sat at the stern, and steered the canoe, which was impelled by the united force of ninety naked men, who were painted and ornamented with feathers; three others, standing upon the thwarts, regulated the strokes of the paddles, by repeating with violent gestures a song, in which they were joined by every one in the vessel. The canoe moved with astonishing rapidity, causing the water to foam on either side of it; and we have observed other war-canoes cross the Bay of Islands in perfect safety, when it was thought imprudent to lower the ship's boats.
Consumption, violent rheumatism, and sore eyes, seem to be the prevailing diseases of the New Zealanders; many die of inflammation of the lungs and bowels; but though Teperree told us that some years ago an infectious fever had carried off a great number of his tribe, nothing of that kind came under our observation.
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The face of the country in the parts where we were, except at Kiddy-Kiddy and on the western banks of the river Thames, is in general hilly, and beautifully diversified by woods. These woods are seldom very large, and the intermediate and clear ground is covered with heath and fern; but the herbage found amongst it must be nutritious, as the bullocks we brought with us grew fat upon it. There is very little natural grass; the water is abundant, and exceedingly good. The natives cultivate the low and the forest ground, where the land is rich; they never think of reclaiming any soil that seems to be poor. Their only implement of agriculture is a wooden spade; and, content with the produce of the naturally arable patches which are scattered over their district, they make up the deficiency of their food with fish and fern root. There is a variety of birds, which they seldom kill, except for their feathers; and, as already observed, there are no quadrupeds except the dog and the rat; nor are there any reptiles. The pigs, as yet the only animal imported, and left among them by different
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persons who have visited the island, have increased very much; but they bear no proportion to the demand made for them by the whale ships. The avidity of these islanders to obtain fire-arms overcomes all kind of prudence; and twenty hogs (perhaps the only ones possessed by the tribe) have been given for a musket not worth ten shillings.
Had it been possible to extend the restrictions under which we were placed, before we sailed from England, of not issuing powder and muskets to the natives, to the other ships that called at the island, we should certainly have fared much better; but our attempt to regulate the trade the people were to receive from us, when they had another market to go to, merely served the whalers and inconvenienced ourselves; while our men were doomed to live ten months on salt provisions, we had the mortification of seeing the crews of other ships refreshed with as much pork as they could consume. Thus situated, the islanders, with their canoes filled with hogs, triumphantly passed us by, and remarked that King George's people were, with regard to
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their fire-arms, the stingiest they had ever met.
Even in purchasing the cargo, our axes were held in little estimation. A single musket would have called forth more exertion from the natives, than all the articles of barter we had in the ship. When George received nearly one hundred axes for the spars we got from him, he asked, with a sneer, what he was to do with them? And of what use so many could be to him?
In the management of the axe the islanders are remarkably expert. The most material assistance they gave us was, in felling the enormous trees that composed the cargo; nor was there a European in the ship who could rival them in this most laborious occupation.
They eagerly adopted the improvements we pointed out to them in their system of agriculture; - and they were very grateful for the European seeds distributed among them. Many chiefs had very fine crops of peas before we sailed, which they promised not to consume, but to save the seed, and sow it again:
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the water melons were in great luxuriance; and the degenerated cabbages and other vegetables were much improved by their being taught how to transplant them.
Except a wild plum, and various kinds of berries, none of which were particularly palatable, we saw no indigenous fruit in the island; and the flowers were not so numerous nor so handsome as might be expected; but the shrubs were innumerable, and beautiful beyond description; and the woods throughout the year preserved their verdure.
The plumage of the birds is rich, and their notes the sweetest we ever heard, particularly at daybreak, when their united harmony is called into action. The Dromedary lay so close to the shore at Wangarooa, that each morning we were roused by this most enchanting music: it continued till the sun had made some progress above the horizon, when it ceased; and, with the exception of the tooi, and some other birds, whose songs are almost uninterrupted, the woods are comparatively silent for the remainder of the day.
There was scarcely a part of the island
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visited by our people, however distant, to which one or more pathways did not lead. They are wide enough for only one person to walk upon, nor do they diverge on account of the nature of the ground, or the obstructions offered by rivers or morasses. They lie over the highest hills and the deepest ravines: where a river winds it is necessary to pass it several times; and the heath on either side of the pathway is so high, or the underwood so thick, that it is impossible to go from it. Both in wet and dry weather, from the extreme inequality of the ground, they are singularly slippery; nor was it possible for a European to travel any considerable distance without getting many falls, a circumstance that always afforded the highest entertainment to our guides.
When we came to a river, unless it was very deep, the islanders undertook to carry us over on their backs; but it was not unusual, when they got us into the middle of a rapid stream, to pretend to be unequal to the weight of their burden, and to demand an addition to the reward we had promised to give them for
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landing us on the opposite side. This was done with so much humour, that the application was often attended with success.
A native had undertaken, for a fish-hook, to carry one of the gentlemen over a wide and deep part of the Kameemy: when in the middle of the river he insisted on a second, which was refused; and almost immediately after, the islander slipped his foot, and plunged the European into the water. There were a number of people looking on, to whom this scene afforded the most unbounded amusement: the islander, being perfectly naked, felt no inconvenience from his fall, while the gentleman, scarcely able to open his eyes, and shivering with cold, gained the opposite shore, amidst the laughter and ridicule of the bystanders.
The strength displayed by the bullocks when removing, on a timber carriage, the spars, from the wood to the water's edge, drew forth the most unqualified expressions of surprise and admiration: people from distant parts of the country came to witness the extraordinary spectacle and returned with the
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most exaggerated accounts of the karaddee nue, or large dogs, the white men had landed on their island.
The capture of the General Gates excited much curiosity and speculation; nor was it possible to explain to the natives the causes that led to it. That we, and the Americans, were the same nation, they never doubted; and so closely did they observe our conduct and movements, that long before the schooner crossed the bay to take possession of the ship, they were aware that something hostile was intended, and their women were removed from the vessel.
Among the gentlemen taken out of the General Gates, there was one who lived on terms of intimacy and familiarity with the officers of the Dromedary; but this was an error in our conduct which no explanation could excuse: without the slightest reserve they expressed their astonishment that we could so far forget ourselves as to sit down and eat with a towra caracca, or prisoner of war; and this degrading appellation was uni-
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versally applied to the American gentleman as long as he remained amongst us.
There appeared to be but one feeling among the chiefs as to the untimely lot their constant quarrels with their neighbours were likely to involve them in; namely, their being killed in battle and devoured by their enemies. To this feeling, perhaps, may be, in part, attributed the calmness with which they view the approach of a natural death, and the resolution with which they meet it. Perehico was well aware, long before his dissolution, that his days were numbered, and he often said so; but confident of the honours that would be paid to his memory, and the ceremonies destined to consecrate his remains, he caused himself, as his dying day drew near, to be carried to the neighbourhood of his family burying-place at Tyama, where he closed his life in the middle of his tribe. That the prospect of a future state, such as the chiefs believe it to be, must have aided in reconciling him to his untimely fate is a point scarcely to be doubted; but it was said, that when he gazed upon the many muskets that were held 21
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ready to be discharged by his friends, as a salute to his spirit, the moment it passed away, his agony became less violent, his pains after a time subsided, and an expression of pride and resignation marked the countenance of the expiring chieftain.
From their temperate mode of living, flesh-wounds of every description were very soon healed. We once observed a man, who, accidentally, inflicted a severe cut upon his leg with an axe; he immediately squeezed the juice of a potatoe into the wound, and tied it up, and in a few days it was quite well. There did not appear to be any particular description of persons to whom they applied in cases of sickness; but, when so circumstanced, they have recourse to different herbs and plants, with which they seem extremely well acquainted; and one of the gentlemen who was afflicted with an eruption on his lips was cured by the application of a decoction of herbs, given to him by a native. In cases of violent inflammation, of course, their remedies are unavailing; and many lives might be saved by a skilful practitioner, could the chiefs be only
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induced to submit to his treatment; but that shocking superstition of tabbooing the dying man in few instances can be got over. Timoranga was attacked with an inflammation of his lungs on board the Dromedary, and his life was preserved by a timely hemorrhage; but had he been taken ill amongst his tribe, there is scarcely a hope, when the disease took a serious turn, that a European would be allowed to approach him; and he must have fallen a victim to the prejudices of his country.
A native girl accidentally fell into the hold of the Dromedary, and broke her leg; and she remained in the ship until it was perfectly well. During her long confinement, she showed more patience than might be expected from so restless a people; nor did she ever appear to forget the debt of gratitude she owed to those who had taken care of her.
The presents offered by the New Zealanders to us were few in comparison with the liberal manner in which we always acted towards them; and they did not seem to be
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as sensible of our munificence as might have been expected. Indeed they appeared to consider our gifts to them more as a right to which they were entitled than as a favour. Their manner of making a present is cold and ungracious: the article is thrown upon the ground opposite the person for whom it is intended; nor is the action accompanied with any expression of courtesy or kindness.
There was a remarkable shyness and timidity amongst those with whom we were intimate, in their mode of receiving us, after an absence of any length of time; and long before we drew near to them, they sat down on the ground, and repeated the word Heromai in so plaintive a manner, that it almost appeared a preamble to the melancholy ceremonies they are wont to go through among themselves, when separated for any considerable period from one another. In a short time their usual cheerfulness returned; nor was the state-ceremony of being led into the presence of the chief, when seated in the
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middle of his tribe, ever omitted when it could be performed.
During the first visit of our people to Shukehanga, one of the gentlemen attracted the particular notice of Mowhenna; and a short time before we left the island, the gentleman walked over from Wangarooa, merely accompanied by a native guide, to see and take leave of the chief. Mowhenna received him with every possible mark of courtesy and respect; and having placed him sitting beside him, the chief's brother stood up, and harangued the people at considerable length upon the advantage they must derive from a friendly intercourse with the Europeans. During this speech, he observed one of the natives with a spear in his hand, and desiring him to give it up, he broke it across his knee, and observed that as the white man had come among them alone and unarmed, not a weapon should appear in his presence while he remained a guest.
With the north-east wind [see Note 21.] came almost all the bad weather we experienced at New Zealand: when it sets in, the sky be-
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comes darkened, the rain falls in torrents, accompanied by the most tremendous storms; nor is there any hope of a change until the wind has gradually veered to the southward of west, when the weather clears up. From this point we sometimes had very strong gales during the day, but they fell in the evening; and the sea, how greatly soever agitated, became immediately smooth. It is impossible to imagine any thing more magnificent than the effects of one of those dreadful storms upon the lofty rocks that extend along the greater part of the eastern coast of the island. Standing upon their highest pinnacles, the spray dashed over us with a fury seldom seen, and never surpassed; while their undermined bases, deep clifts, and singular perforations, bore ample testimony to the long and constant war they had waged with the frightful element that rolled against them.
Exclusive of the harbour of Wangarooa and the Bay of Islands, shelter for shipping is to be found in the immediate neighbourhood of the mouth of the river Thames. The Coromandel lay many months in Wy-
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yow, and on the opposite side is Penaneekee, and several lesser harbours, where vessels of moderate tonnage may ride in safety; nor is there a part of the eastern coast, that we examined, that presents so fair a field for the agriculturist, as the western bank of the river Thames. Here the ground is level, and clear of wood, intersected with deep and navigable rivers; and the people are well disposed and most anxious for Europeans to settle among them. One of the most beautiful islands we ever saw, extending several miles in a parallel direction to the Magoia shore, was offered to us by its chief, when we lay near it in the schooner, for a single musket.
With reference to the western coast, though, from motives of prudence, the Dromedary did not go into Shukehanga, the river was, at different times, minutely surveyed; and the harbour, for ships drawing less water than ours, was found to be perfectly safe and commodious. Here the facility of getting cowry is much greater than in any other part of the country that afterwards fell under our observ-
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ation. It grows in greater profusion; and it was remarked that the north-east gales, which did so much havoc on the eastern coast, abated much of their violence before they reached this point of the island; and the climate was less humid. There are large tracts of arable land on the banks of a branch of the river called Mangamooka, which runs very far inland; and we observed that the potatoes, grown upon it, were larger and dryer than those we got on the eastern coast. The gentle manners of its inhabitants at once attracted our notice and regard; nor had we any occasion, during our subsequent intercourse with them, to change our opinion. Honest, industrious, and generous, when all hope of the Dromedary visiting their river had vanished, they carried their baskets of potatoes on their backs to Wangarooa, (a distance of thirty miles,) and frequently left the price they were to be paid for them to our own discretion. --Many enquiries were made, as to the fate of the vessel they reported to have been wrecked on their coast several years before, without obtaining any satisfactory information; and
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our curiosity was particularly roused by the supposition, that it was not impossible that upon this inhospitable shore the unfortunate La Perouse had terminated his career.
An extensive harbour to the southward of Shukehanga, called Kaiperra, was seen by some persons who walked overland to examine it; but as they had not the proper instruments, either to sound or to determine the latitude and longitude, we left the country, imperfectly acquainted with its real position or local advantages: however, from what could be gathered from the natives, we learnt that there was not sufficient water in it for very large shipping.
A vocabulary of the language has been published: all its words terminate in vowels; and it is not difficult either to learn or pronounce. Some of our people spoke it tolerably well before we left New Zealand. The following prayer to the wind, repeated by the natives when they are becalmed at sea, is given as a specimen of its general harmony.
Show nue, show roa
Show poo, keede keede
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Keedea too pai darro
Tee tee, parera rera
Kokoia, homai te show.
It has appeared in the pages of this journal, that during a stay of ten months in New Zealand a constant intercourse took place between the people of the ship and the natives; and that distant excursions were made by different individuals into the interior and along the coast, without any unfortunate consequences. From personal experience, it is but justice to the New Zealanders to add a particular testimony to their character. Two officers of the detachment of the 84th regiment being provided with a private boat, rowed by two soldiers, and having, as already observed, fewer avocations to detain them on board than the generality of persons belonging to the Dromedary, went on various shooting or other excursions into the country, which brought them in daily contact with the natives, whose assistance was always at their command. When badness of weather or other circumstances obliged us to seek food or
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shelter among them, an appeal to their hospitality was never made in vain. Perpetually at their mercy, if they chose to misuse us, not a single insult was ever offered to one of our little party; the most trifling article was never stolen, and we often experienced acts of generosity and disinterestedness from them which would have done honour to a civilised people.
The destruction of the Boyd shows to what excesses they can be driven by avarice and ill treatment; but if in this instance they gratified their revenge, which they boast to be inherent in their nature, and hereditary among all their tribes, it must also be borne in mind, that great outrages have been since committed upon them by the masters and crews of ships, which have passed without retaliation.
This forbearance may be attributed to their being now convinced of the bad policy and of the danger of insulting a people who, from the number of ships which they send to their coast, must inspire them with an idea of greatly superior power. It has been a doctrine always inculcated to them, that though
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the massacre of the crew of the Boyd went unrevenged, another aggression made upon the white people would be followed by the most summary punishment; and as long as they are impressed with a notion (as they were by the numerical strength of the Dromedary) that there is a force capable of punishing an outrage, it is but reasonable to conclude, from what we experienced in our own persons, that the European may go in perfect safety among them; may trust himself and his property to their honour; and, by a moderate share of conciliation and liberality on his part, may ensure to himself an ample return on theirs.
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