CHAPTER II
[Image of page 13]
CHAPTER II.
Diseases of the Natives,
Before these people became acquainted with Europeans they were uniformly healthy, if we may trust their own accounts, and those of the earliest navigators who visited them. Their first visitors describe them as possessed of that energy of frame and exuberance of health and animal spirits which we may always expect to find where a people are untainted by the evils which seem to be the necessary companions of civilization; where they are living in a moderate, although invigorating, climate; where they are not suffering from actual want; and where they are forced to satisfy their necessities by the exercise of their physical and mental powers. It would have been contrary to the laws of nature for them to have been entirely free from illness; but their diseases were those of an inflammatory and epidemic character. Amongst the tribes of the east coast I found a tradition, that shortly before the time of Cook a fatal epidemic broke out in the northern parts of the island, and that its victims were so numerous that they could not bury them,
[Image of page 14]
DISEASES OF
but threw them into the sea. One of the symptoms was that the patient lost all his hair. When the northern tribes had recovered, they made war on those at Tauranga, in the Bay of Plenty, and to the southward, expecting to find them so weakened by the disease as to be incapable of resistance. Epidemics are still common in the island, but only amongst the natives, and seldom attack the Europeans. The disease is a bad form of influenza, a malignant catarrh of the bronchiae, with congestion of the lungs, affection of the heart, accompanied by fever and great prostration of strength, so that in all cases an early supporting treatment must be adopted. In former times these epidemics may have been transient, and the patient may have usually recovered his former health; but at present they attack constitutions already weakened and corrupted, and not only prove fatal to people of all ages, but, even if the health is to a certain degree restored, it does not recover its former vigour; chronic disorders often remain, and with them a disposition to fall victims to the slightest attack of illness of any sort. The consequence is, that the number of the aborigines in New Zealand rapidly decreases--a strange and melancholy, but undeniable, fact! It may be that it is one of Nature's eternal laws that some races of men, like the different kinds of organic beings, plants, and animals, stand in opposition to each other; that is to say, where one race begins to spread and increase, the other, which is perhaps less
[Image of page 15]
THE NATIVES.
vigorous and less durable, dies off. This has been the result of the contact of the Caucasian race, especially the Anglo-Saxon nations, with the red race of America and with the isolated inhabitants of the South Sea Islands, which latter, in all other respects, appear to be our equals in physical durability and mental capacities. The Anglo-Saxon race have been so energetic in their colonial enterprises, but, at the same time, so reckless and unsociable as regards the aborigines, that it might at once be taken for granted that the simple-minded islanders, who do not know, either as individuals or as tribes, the powerful effect of the term "forward" would stand a bad chance with such competitors, and that this alone would damp their enterprise and industry, render them careless of life, and shorten their existence. At the first view this would appear probable; and I think I shall be able to show that to a considerable degree it is actually the case; but as, in New Zealand, the natives do not derive their support from the chase, which in the case of the inhabitants of America and New South Wales has been the great cause of their destruction, we must, I think, look deeper for the causes of such an evil in order to find the means of counteracting it to the best of our power; and thus, if it be the design of Providence that the race should disappear, to be able to alleviate that change in the inhabitants of countries of which we have taken possession, and at least to have the satisfaction of knowing that we have done every-
[Image of page 16]
DISEASES OF
thing in our power to prevent injustice or to lessen the extent of it.
I will now glance at the condition of the aborigines before the time at which Europeans came in contact with them, --a condition which we still find, with very little change, in the interior of the country. There were even then many causes to prevent an increase of the population, similar to that which would have taken place had the islands been inhabited by Europeans. The families of the natives are not large; --early sexual intercourse prevents the natural fruitfulness of the women; -- infanticide exists to a certain degree; --the custom of the inhabitants not to cultivate more produce than is necessary to satisfy their common wants, and their being deprived in very rainy seasons even of those scanty means; --their suffering from want during the time of war, since they are usually besieged in their fortifications, which are at a distance from their cultivated fields; --war itself, which, although mere skirmishes, carries off a large number of their strongest men, and has often proved so destructive to a tribe, that it has been broken up entirely, and has disappeared; --the belief in witchcraft (makuta), to which many have fallen victims, both of the bewitched, from the mere force of imagination, and also of the supposed perpetrators of the crime, who have been murdered in revenge by the relations; --the practice of slavery, which in no form, even the mildest, contributes to increase the
[Image of page 17]
THE NATIVES.
population; --all these causes are sufficient to account for the natives not having spread in greater numbers over a country which, with the implements and resources they possessed for agriculture, would have supported a much larger number of inhabitants. But neither all these causes, --nor the wars which for the last twenty-five years have agitated the whole island, and driven many tribes from their districts, who lived in continual fear of their neighbours, and dared not cultivate the land, --nor the unequal introduction of fire-arms, which gave to one tribe too great an advantage over the others, --will explain why so many diseases are now prevalent amongst them, nor why their numbers continue to decrease after most of these causes have ceased. At present, wars, if not uncommon, are at least much less frequent and less extensive; a feeling of security begins to exercise its due influence; murders arising from witchcraft and other superstitions are of less frequent occurrence, and are perpetrated only in the interior, where European intelligence and customs have not yet penetrated. My opinion on the subject is this: in former times the food of the natives consisted of sweet potatoes, taro (Caladium esculentum), fern-root (Pteris esculenta), the aromatic berries of the kahikatea (Dacrydium excelsum), the pulp of a fern-tree (Cyathea medullaris) called korau or mamako, the sweet root of the Dracaena indivisa, the heart of a palm-tree (Areca sapida), a bitter though excel-
[Image of page 18]
DISEASES OF
lent vegetable, the Sonchus oleraceus, and many different berries. Of animals they consumed fishes, dogs, the indigenous rat, crawfish, birds, and guanas. Rough mats of their own making, or dog-skins, constituted their clothing. They were hardened against the influence of the climate by the necessity of exerting themselves in procuring these provisions, and by their frequent predatory and travelling excursions, which produced a healthy excitement, and with it an easy digestion of even this crude diet.
This state of things has been gradually changed since the Europeans arrived in the country. They have given them the common potato, a vegetable which is produced in great quantities with little labour; and as this labour could be mostly done by the slaves or by the women, potatoes became the favourite food of the aborigines. They preferred feeding upon them to procuring what was far more wholesome, but gave them more trouble in obtaining. They have exchanged the surplus of their crops for blankets, which keep the skin in a continual state of irritation, and harbour vermin and dirt far more than the native mats. The Europeans also brought them maize; but, in order to soften the grains of it, the natives lay them in water, and allow them to ferment or decompose until they produce a sickening smell; they are then pounded and baked in cakes, and are consumed in large quantities, but form a very un-
[Image of page 19]
THE NATIVES.
wholesome food, which disturbs the whole process of assimilation. Pigs were also introduced by the Europeans; but the natives do not consume many of these animals, at least not in those places where they can sell them for blankets, muskets, powder, or lead. Their wars decreased, partly from exhaustion after particularly troubled times, partly from the establishment of the missions. Instead of being constantly in bodily exercise, they became readers, an occupation very much suited to their natural indolence. Their numerous dances, songs, and games were regarded as vices, and were not exchanged for others, but were given up altogether. The missionaries, while abolishing the national dances and games, might with safety have introduced those of England, which would soon have become great favourites with them. 1
In one word, instead of an active, warlike race, they have become eaters of potatoes, neglecting their industrious pursuits in consequence of the facility of procuring food and blankets, and they
[Image of page 20]
DISEASES OF
pass their lives in eating, smoking, and sleeping. No medical man will deny that in this mode of living alone a sufficient cause is found to account for many of the diseases which prevail. Potatoes are unwholesome if they form the only food, and if those who live upon them do not use great bodily exercise. Salt is not in use among them. This stimulant, so necessary to the human frame, they formerly obtained in eating cockles and other shell-fish. By their present mode of diet a chyle is produced unsuited to a healthy circulation. From the exclusive use of potatoes prominent paunches begin to be common among children, which are by no means natural to the race, and are not met with among the tribes in the interior.
The natives have adopted part of our food and part of our clothing, but they have not adopted the whole. Unconsciously we have brought them the germs of diseases, which accompany many of them through life, and consign them to an early grave. I have often known a sickly native to be soon restored to health after being clothed in a shirt, trousers, and jacket, instead of a blanket only, which he can, and does, throw off at any moment; and when provided with a strengthening diet, with meat and a glass of wine or beer, --in fact, when he lives altogether as we do, --it is singular how well this mode of treatment generally succeeds, if no acute disease exists.
[Image of page 21]
THE NATIVES.
Their mode of living is certainly a predisposing, rather than an actual, cause of disease. The skin, having become tender, is easily susceptible to climatic influences and other accidental causes, or to contagious diseases of different descriptions, which find a fertile soil in a constitution thus weakened. But many of the prevailing diseases arise from bad living only. They consist in scrophulous indurations and ulcerations of the lymphatic glands of the neck, lymphatic swellings, inflammation of the eyes; impurities of the blood, shown in frequent abscesses and chronic eruptions; malignant fevers, with affections of the mucous membranes of the intestinal canal and other mucous membranes. In Roturua a party of natives set out on a travelling excursion: on the road they buried some boiled pork, that they might feast upon it at their return: this they did; but they were all seized with a dangerous delirious fever, and some of them died. Fish dried without salt is often sent to natives in the interior by their relations living on the sea-coast. At the time when this is eaten sickness is common. I have often known gastric fevers caused exclusively by the use of rotten corn. Acute exanthematic diseases have never been observed here by me; and it is to be hoped that the speedy introduction of vaccination may preserve the natives from the ravages of small-pox. If the syphilitic or gonorrhoeal contagion, which is now very frequent on the coasts, infect a frame thus constituted, the result
[Image of page 22]
DISEASES OF
will doubtless be that many complicated forms of those diseases will appear: diseases of the hip-joint, for instance, and of the spinal column, and distortions of the spine in early infancy, which even now are not very rare. A disease called wai-ake-ake is very common; it is a sort of pustulous scabies, very difficult to cure without altering the manner of living and throwing aside that most unhealthy vestment the blanket. Ringworm also is prevalent. Besides these diseases, chronic catarrhs are the most common complaints, in consequence of the natives exposing themselves to the cold and humid external air, after having been heated in their houses by a temperature of 100 deg. Fahrenheit; many of these attacks terminate in consumption. In the interior of the country, where the natives have seldom come in contact with Europeans, and where they have preserved their own customs, sickness is far less common. This is especially the case in that extensive district from Taupo to Roturua, where thermal springs are found. Kind Nature has provided here one of the principal remedies against scrofulous and eruptive diseases resulting from uncleanliness. The natives are continually bathing in the sulphurous and alkaline waters; and in this thermal region they are a healthy race, with a very fine and elastic skin.
Club-feet (e ape) are not uncommon. Amongst monstrosities I have also observed hair-lip (e ngutu riwa); and individuals are occasionally met with
[Image of page 23]
THE NATIVES.
who have six or more toes or fingers on a foot or hand; the well-known chief Rauparaha, in Kapiti, is distinguished by this peculiarity: in one case several members of a family were thus formed. I never observed any case of mental disease, if I except that of a young man in Kapiti, who appeared to have been born idiotic.
