1830 - Craik, George L. The New Zealanders - Chapter XVIII

[Image of page 394]

CHAPTER XVIII.

Speaking of the notion of civilizing the New Zealanders, "that is a thing," says Rutherford in his narrative, "which I think is past the heart (or, as he probably means, the art) of man to accomplish:" and this, it must be confessed, was no unnatural conclusion for one who, not much acquainted with the history of mankind, nor accustomed to philosophical speculation, merely remembered, in all probability, when he thought of civilized life, the present condition of England, and contrasted in his mind the character and manners of his own countrymen,--the accommodations of all kinds with which they are provided, and their general way of life,--with the rudeness, the destitution, the ignorance, the ferocity, and the other elements of the degradation and wretchedness of the savages among whom he then was. A highly civilized has in almost all respects so different an aspect from a barbarous community, that, to a person merely looking first to the one and then to the other, without taking the pains to consider the matter farther, it may indeed very well seem that they exhibit, not so much two different forms of society, as two entirely distinct species of human beings. Almost every thing that seems to constitute social life in the one state of things, is wanting in the other. There does not exist any thing deserving the name of a regular government; authority is felt only in its exac-

[Image of page 395]

SAVAGE AND CIVILIZED LIFE.

tions and aggressions; its protection is almost unknown. Instead of equal laws, the only fence drawn around the possessions, the liberties, and the lives of individuals, consists of a loose and irregular heap of old customs, to be sought for in the doubtful mists of tradition; and the general character of which, after all, is not so much to defend the weak, as to maintain and augment the power, and to give additional facilities to the tyranny, of the strong. Every thing is the dictatorship either of brute force exerted directly and openly, or of certain antique forms and maxims which are too often merely its disguised but most effective auxiliaries. Worst of all, even what of fairness and justice may be inherent in these old usages, is disregarded whenever they offer any restrictions upon power and oppression. Hence the almost entire extinction of individual liberty in so far as the mass of the people are concerned. And even the higher ranks and the chiefs, nominally independent as they are, are actually so only so long as each can protect himself. The government throws no shield over him. Thus, Mr. Nicholas states, that after Duaterra returned home with the different articles of property he had obtained at Port Jackson, he never used to venture abroad without being armed. One day some of his people came to tell him that his cow had calved, on which he immediately set out to see the increase of his wealth; but although he had to walk only a few hundred yards, he did not venture on the journey without first sticking a pistol in his breast and taking a bill-hook in his hand. On being asked the reason of all this precaution, he replied that since he had become possessed of so much property, he was no longer sure of his life for a moment; and therefore he made a rule never to stir without having his defensive weapons about him. On another occasion, we find him actually attacked by a

[Image of page 396]

brother chief, whose object apparently was nothing else than to murder him, in order to get possession of part of his much envied wealth; and had the man succeeded in this attempt, he certainly would have had very little reason to concern himself about any punishment with which the laws of the country would have threatened him. In this way, too, Moyhanger, as has been already mentioned, had, there was every reason to believe, been very soon plundered of the riches he brought back with him from England. Shungie, on the other hand, succeeded in retaining possession of his imported treasures; but he attacked and despoiled every body else. In such a state of society, in short, every man is either a robber, or the victim of robbery: it is a scene of universal violence and depredation. Yet this is what some writers call the reign of absolute liberty. It is the absolute liberty of the strong to tyrannize as they choose over the weak--which is exactly the definition of an absolute despotism.

Without protective institutions, such a country is also without all those things which are calculated to flourish under their protection. No arts or manufactures, or next to none--no general distribution of the people into trades or professions--no diffused appearance of regular industry--no commerce, domestic or foreign--no coin or other circulating medium;--- these are a few of the more conspicuous deficiencies that must strike even the most ignorant observer of savage life, who has been accustomed to another condition of society. They will force themselves upon his attention, in fact, as he looks even upon the landscape around him. The country is nearly a wilderness,--all swamp or woodland, except a few scattered patches by the sea side, or along the courses of the rivers; the only cultivation to be seen is in the heart, or the immediate vicinity, of the vil-

[Image of page 397]

SAVAGE AND CIVILIZED LIFE.

lages; and these (how unlike the populous cities and towns of a civilized country, with their streets of palaces, and intermingled spires, and towers, and domes!) are merely small groups of hovels that dot the earth like so many mole-hills, each a shelter from the weather, only one remove from the caverns of the Troglodytes. 1 Then there are no roads, those primary essentials of all improvement; and, it is needless to add, no artificial means of conveyance from one place to another. To make a journey of any length is an enterprize of labour and peril, which can only be accomplished by the union and co-operation of a band of travellers. There is not an inn throughout the land--nor a bridge--nor a direction-post-- nor a milestone. The inhabitants, in fact, have not, in any sense of the word, taken possession of the country which they call their own. It is still the uninvaded domain of nature; and they are merely a handfull of stragglers who wander about its outskirts.

Their appearance, too, and all their more strictly personal accommodations, distinguish them almost as much from the people of a civilized country as if they were another species. There is a wild unsettledness in the very expression of their countenances, that assimilates them to a troop of animals of prey. Then they have probably a profusion of fantastic and unnatural decorations painted or engraven upon their persons; while clusters of baubles dangle round them; and coloured earth, grease, filth, and vermin, combine to complete the extraordinary spectacle. Their food is coarse; and their cookery rude to a degree that almost takes from it the right to be called by the same name with the art which, in a civilized country, heightens the enjoyment of the poorest man's

[Image of page 398]

meal with so considerable a variety of preparations. Their furniture is equally scanty and penurious. Often they have neither tables nor chairs; their beds are generally the floor; and their covering for the night the same mats which serve them as clothes during the day.

If we look beyond these mere outside appearances, the difference between the two conditions of society is still more remarkable. Ignorant of nearly all the useful arts, the savage has seldom made any progress worth naming in those that minister to the gratification of taste or luxury: a simple style of ballad poetry, a limited and generally rather monotonous music, some skill in carving ornaments in wood,--such is usually the short catalogue of his attainments in this department. The want of materials, or of command over them, necessarily precludes him from attempting anything that can be denominated architecture; and painting also demands materials, and a degree of science, which he has no means of attaining. Whatever arts he practises at all must be such as the hand alone can execute, with the aid of the most imperfect tools: for he is seldom or ever possessed of iron, by which man has chiefly conquered the physical world; and he is almost always entirely ignorant of machinery. But his especial distinction, and that which more than anything else keeps him a savage, is his ignorance of letters. This places the community almost in the same situation with a herd of the lower animals, in so far as the accumulation of knowledge, or, in other words, any kind of movement forward is concerned; for it is only by means of the art of writing that the knowledge acquired by the experience of one generation can be properly stored up, so that none of it shall be lost, for the use of all that are to follow. Among savages, for want of this admirable method of pre-

[Image of page 399]

SAVAGE AND CIVILIZED LIFE.

servation, there is reason to believe the fund of knowledge possessed by the community, instead of growing, generally diminishes with time. If we except the absolutely necessary arts of life, which are in daily use, and cannot be forgotten, the existing generation seldom seems to possess anything derived from the past. Hence the oldest man of the tribe is always looked up to as the wisest, simply because he has lived longest, it being felt that an individual has scarcely a chance of knowing anything more than his own experience has taught him. Accordingly the New Zealanders, for example, seem to have been in quite as advanced a state when Tasman discovered the country in 1642, as they were when Cook visited it, a hundred and twenty seven years after.

But, without regarding what letters have donefor such a country as England, let any one merely reflect what this great possession is to us in the actual enjoyment--how much, of all that makes civilized life what it is, we derive immediately from its presence. To all classes among us, it may be said that the accommodations we owe to reading and writing rank next to food and clothing. What would religion itself be, in the aspect which it presents to the understandings of the people, if dissociated from books; -- and without book-learning, how should we conduct the great business of education, the first temporal concern, after the mere procuring of sustenance, of every family in the land. It certainly is not necessary or desirable that education should be wholly an affair of books; but instruction through that medium must ever form the prominent part of it. Add to this, that much of the knowledge necessary for even the most common handicraft is best sought for in books;--that all descriptions of artisans are every day feeling, more and more, the

[Image of page 400]

necessity of resorting to them for the practical science which they require in their several occupations;--and that, generally speaking, of the more profound theoretical learning which must be possessed by the directing minds in every department, books are the only fountains. Whatever, indeed, exists among us as a science, owes that character to its alliance with letters. Without that, our medicine would be a medley of empiricism and superstition;-- our law would be, at best, merely a few general maxims, almost useless for the extended relations of a state of society like ours. Without the arts of reading and writing, the system of our commerce could no more go on, than could the solar system if the principle of gravitation were to be suddenly annihilated. The same thing is true of the complicated machinery of our civil polity, the universal motion of which would stop like a run-down watch, if the use of letters were to be taken from us. What a blank, too, would such a catastrophe create among what may be called the mere enjoyments of civilized life! Our very public amusements would, many of them, be destroyed, or altogether changed. There would be an end at least of all that is poetical in the drama; and we should have none of the entertainment even which books now yield so plentifully to the least studious. There would be no newspapers,--no arrivals by the post; the diffusion of intelligence would cease, or be carried on laboriously, slowly, and imperfectly by oral messages. Finally, an entire world, that of the press, would disappear from the system of the national industry; and its productions, that have given occupation to so many heads and hands, and are now to be found on every table, would be no longer seen. From this rapid sketch we may perceive how little

[Image of page 401]

MODES OF CIVILIZATION.

there really is which the aspect of society among savages has in common with that which exists in a civilized country. It is no wonder, therefore, that the distance between the one state of things and the other should strike a man like Rutherford as altogether impassable.

Nevertheless, the known history of mankind will not allow us to entertain a doubt that even the New Zealanders are perfectly capable of being civilized. Ferocious as they are, they are probably not more so than our own ancestors in this very island were at one time. With all their savage propensities they are evidently possessed of many high qualities, both moral and intellectual. They are far from being, even now, as they have often been described to be, in the lowest known state of barbarism. The natives of New Holland, for example, are a great deal more ignorant, destitute, and wretched--so much so, that we ourselves can scarcely feel that we are farther elevated above the New Zealanders, than the latter are in their own opinion above these their miserable neighbours. When Mr. Nicholas returned to Port Jackson, the vessel, before reaching that settlement, touched at another part of the Australian continent, where, on landing, they perceived two of the natives at a little distance. Having been induced by signs to make their approach, these poor creatures were conducted to some of the New Zealanders who made the voyage in the English ship. The latter were arrayed in their war-mats, and armed; the former were perfectly naked; and even in respect of external appearance, therefore, the contrast between the two parties was sufficiently striking. But in regard to demeanour, it was still more so. The New Hollanders stood trembling in every joint, while their fellow savages gazed on them with looks of surprise and compassion,--and with a considerate kindness, which

[Image of page 402]

would have done credit to any degree of culture or refinement, and which the natives of civilized countries are very far from having always practised in similar circumstances, did every thing in their power to win their confidence and induce them to lay aside their terror. First they attempted to rub noses with them, but seeing that this mode of salutation was not understood, they then took them by the hand. After this they danced and sung to them, till their kind intentions were felt and acknowledged by the New Hollanders, who exclaimed at length, in their own jargon, 'Very good you, very good you,' although they still continued shaking with alarm. The New Zealanders, in short, shewed on this occasion quite as much interest as any of the Europeans on board about the condition of these poor people, who were examples of a barbarism evidently many shades deeper than their own; and after they had left them, "they eagerly inquired," continues Mr. Nicholas, "whether they cultivated the coomera or potatoe, and if they had plenty of pigs; and being told that they were too idle to work, and had not a single pig in the world, they expressed both pity and contempt at their wretched mode of living."

Different views have been entertained as to the manner in which the civilization of savages may be best effected. Some writers, deducing their conclusions from what they hold to be the history of several of the more remarkable instances of the transformation of barbarous into civilized countries, have been disposed to contend that the only, or at least the surest and speediest method of bringing about this metamorphosis, is by the direct application of force. Despotic power, they contend, is the only principle that can be effectually applied to the abolition of those habits and customs which have a tendency to perpetuate the degradation of the people, and to the

[Image of page 403]

MODES OF CIVILIZATION.

introduction of the new form which it is desired their social condition should assume. The late able and excellent Sir Stamford Raffles, we observe, from the Memoir of his life which has recently appeared, was an advocate for this employment by civilized nations, of the superior power with which they are armed, in their intercourse with savages. 2 Undoubtedly the inhabitants of some parts of the earth have been thus civilized by compulsion, and a permanent renovation of their condition introduced by conquest and violence. But it may, perhaps, be questioned if this process has had, in the history of the world, that very general success which has been sometimes ascribed to it. Whatever may have been the effect of some of those early invasions of one country by the people of another which took place before the birth of history, the conquests of the Romans, for example, do not appear to have been usually directed in the manner which this theory would recommend. When that great military people added to their empire the territories of a new vassal tribe, their custom does not seem to have been to attempt the extinction of the old usages of the inhabitants by any positive prohibition of their observance, or the diffusion over the country by systematic measures of their own arts, religion, or language. If this result was, in most cases, to a certain extent produced, it was so rather through the natural operation of superior skill and intelligence, working their own way against rudeness and ignorance, than by the instrumentality of any regular plan which was adopted for bringing it about,--much less by any application of force for that end. The conquerors, it is true, erected their forts and cities on the vanquished soil, and within these military strongholds

[Image of page 404]

re-established the manners and occupations of their native land; thus exhibiting to the contemplation of the surrounding barbarians a standard and pattern of comfort and elegance which they could hardly fail first to admire, and afterwards to imitate. But beyond these stations the country was in general allowed to remain untouched; and the people, in so far as their peculiar customs were concerned, were unannoyed. All that was required of them was, that they should pay their tribute regularly, and refrain from all endeavours to throw off a yoke that did not otherwise gall them. We read of no schoolmastering of them to a new tongue, or to new rites, under the drawn sword. It is not intended to justify the amount of aggression to which they actually were subjected by their potent masters. Doubtless the latter had, in most cases, no right to interfere with them or their country at all; and it is on this foundation of natural justice, that we should oppose entirely a resort to violence, even for the purpose of extending the empire of civilization. The violation of a broad principle of morality is the greatest wrong that can be perpetrated, and seldom, fails in the end to avenge itself. If such methods as this are to be employed for a good end, we may be sure they will not fail to be at least as often resorted to for a bad one. In the case of the New Zealanders there is another objection to any such unjustifiable attempt. That high-spirited people would resist any intrusion of strangers which threatened to reduce their country to slavery, with an obstinacy, which might not indeed succeed in warding off the usurpation, but would certainly prolong the contest till the best blood in the land had poured itself out to the last dregs, and the spirit of the surviving population should have become one of untameable alienation. Even the small and peaceful settlements which the English have already established on

[Image of page 405]

MODES OF CIVILIZATION.

their territory have not a little alarmed the patriotism of many of the chiefs. Duaterra himself, on his death-bed, expressed many apprehensions as to the ultimate designs of those formidable Europeans whom he had been a principal agent in introducing into his native land. 3 Tetoro also told Captain Cruise, that the soldiers on board the Dromedary would be no acceptable guests at New Zealand. 4 So we find Warrackie, another chief, one day remarking to Mr. Kendal how greatly he feared lest the English should in a little time increase their force, drive the natives into the woods, and take possession of their land. 5 Were the suspicions of the natives effectually aroused on this head, the bloody, sweeping, and pitiless retribution with which they have already, on so many occasions, avenged their real or imaginary wrongs on their white visitors, may be some earnest to us, both of the consummate cunning with which they would devise their plans for the massacre of their invaders, and of the remorseless cruelty with which, when their passions were up, they would use any advantage which chance or their own management might put into their hands.

In truth, the right of a people to resist those who seek to civilize them by conquest cannot for a moment be denied. The Spaniards, under the pretence of making the natives of South America converts to Christianity, committed every atrocity that the wickedness of the human heart could devise. Yet even in that age, when the pretence under which the Spaniards made a conquest of the Indians was implicitly confided in by the greater portion of the chris-tian world, the doctrine was manfully resisted by one

[Image of page 406]

who had witnessed the horrible consequences to which it led. Las Casas, to his dying hour, maintained the right of the native Indians to make war upon their oppressors, for the purpose of obtaining the restitution of their property, and of their freedom. He says, in a memorial published in 1564, "From the moment that the Spaniards seized upon the person of Athabaliba, the children of that prince, his heirs, and his people, were justified in attacking the aggressors as the enemies of the entire nation. They would preserve that right to the end of the world, at least until such a state of things should be terminated by peace or by a truce--by some favourable arrangement--or by the free and voluntary surrender of their claims by those who have endured so much. * * * * The Spaniards have killed the king of the Peruvians, and massacred thousands of his people; they have usurped the crown of the legitimate princes, and carried off enormous treasures; they retain in slavery a population whose misery cries aloud for vengeance: it is for these reasons that the Indians will always have a just cause to make war upon us." It is curious to compare these sentiments of a Spanish ecclesiastic, with the similar principles announced more than a century later, and under very different circumstances, by our own Locke:--"The inhabitants of any country, who are descended and derive a title to their estates from those who are subdued, and had a government forced upon them against their free consents, retain a right to the possession of their ancestors, though they consent not freely to the government, whose hard conditions were by force imposed on the possessors of that country : for the first conqueror never having had a title to the land of that country, the people who are descendants of, or claim under those who were forced to submit to the joke of a government by constraint, have always a right

[Image of page 407]

MODES OF CIVILIZATION.

to shake it off, and free themselves from the usurpation or tyranny which the sword hath brought in upon them, till their rulers put them under such a frame of government, as they willingly and of choice consent to. Who doubts but the Grecian Christians, descendants of the ancient possessors of that country, may justly cast off the Turkish yoke, which they have so long groaned under, whenever they have an opportunity to do it? For no government can have a right to obedience from a people, who have not freely consented to it; which they can never be supposed to do, till either they are put in a full state of liberty to choose their government and governors, or at least till they have such standing laws to which they have by themselves, or their representatives, given their free consent, and also till they are allowed their due property, which is so to be proprietors of what they have, that nobody can take away any part of it without their own consent; without which, men under any government are not in a state of freemen, but are direct slaves under the force of war." 6

The inferior animals can only be reduced to obedience by constraint; but men are formed to be tamed by other methods. Example, persuasion, instruction are the only means we may lawfully make use of to wean savages from their barbarism; and they are also the best fitted to accomplish that object. It is not even pretended that an exercise of what are falsely called the rights of conquest for such a purpose would have any chance of being successful till after the lapse of at least two or three generations;--till the conquered people in fact have become mixed and amalgamated with their conquerors, or, from not having been permitted to follow the customs of their ancestors, have actually forgotten them. In some cases the natives have been absolutely extirpated before this has

[Image of page 408]

happened, as was the case almost universally on the South American continent, and of which we have a more remarkable instance in the attempts of the Spanish Jesuits to christianize by main force the inhabitants of the Marianas, which were terminated in a few years by the almost entire depopulation of that beautiful Archipelago. 7 Of course it is not to be supposed that any one in the present day would recommend the adoption, in any circumstances, of such measures as were employed on this occasion; but let the discipline of restraint resorted to be ever so prudent and forbearing, it must, on its first application at least, be offensive and hateful to its objects. The grandchildren or great grandchildren of those on whom it is originally tried, may possibly be improved by it; it can hardly be expected that either they themselves or their sons should regard it in any other light than as a system of iniquitous oppression. But the milder and fairer method of merely offering knowledge to those who choose to accept of it, of opposing prejudice by argument alone, of simply transplanting the arts of civilization into the country, and allowing them to recommend themselves to the adoption of the inhabitants through their own manifest utility and importance,--this can scarcely even at first excite any general hostility, while every day the experiment is persevered in may be reasonably expected to add to its triumphs. This fortunately is the plan that has been hitherto followed by all those who have interested themselves in the civilization of the New Zealanders.

It is probably not generally known that the earliest scheme for the accomplishment of this object was suggested by the celebrated Dr. Franklin. In the

[Image of page 409]

MODES OF CIVILIZATION.

month of August, 1771, only a few weeks after Captain Cook returned from his first voyage, the late Mr. Dalrymple, the distinguished hydrographer, had a conversation with Franklin, who was then in England, on the subject of this interesting people, who made so conspicuous a figure in the relations that had just transpired of the great circumnavigator's discoveries. At this interview, it was proposed by Franklin that a subscription should be set on foot, in which he would join, in order to fit out a vessel, which should proceed to New Zealand with a cargo of such commodities as the natives were most in want of, and bring back in return so much of the produce of the country as should defray the expenses of the adventure. The principal object of the expedition, however, was to promote the improvement of the New Zealanders, by opening for them a means of intercourse with the civilized world. The plan was afterwards carried so far, that Mr. Dalrymple had agreed to take the command of the vessel himself, and Franklin drew up a paper of proposals for the conduct of the enterprize, which was printed and circulated. In this address, he remarks that the island of Great Britain is said to have originally produced only sloes, and that this fact may teach us how great and wealthy a country may become, even from the smallest beginnings, under the renovating influences of industry and the arts. He then proposes that the object to be kept in view should be to put the natives in possession of hogs, fowls, goats, cattle, corn, iron, and the other means of enabling and inducing them to exchange their roving and warlike life for the settled and peaceful pursuits of agriculture. The expense attending this attempt, according to a calculation by Mr. Dalrymple, would not have amounted to more than about £15,000, which would have purchased the cargo, and stored and

[Image of page 410]

maintained the vessel for three years. From the difficulty of obtaining subscriptions, or some other cause, the plan was never executed. 8

All that has since been done for the civilization of New Zealand is the work of the last fifteen or sixteen years; and the honour of the enterprise belongs to certain religious societies in our own country. The Church Missionary Society, in particular, has distinguished itself in this benevolent and enlightened crusade by a liberality of expenditure, a prudence of management, and a perseverance in the face of numberless difficulties, which claim for its directors the gratitude and applause of every friend of humanity. Their attention, as has been already mentioned, was first called to this field of Christian and philanthropic labour by the Reverend Mr. Marsden, of New South Wales; and that gentleman has ever since continued to devote himself to the welfare of New Zealand with an ardour which, even among the natives themselves, has procured him universal regard and admiration. The condition of the New Zealanders, their national character, habits, and manner of life, have been more accurately observed, and more graphically described, by him than by any other person who has attempted to give us an account of the country; and to his communications, and those of the mission of which he is the founder, we are indebted for nearly all the very recent information which we possess regarding them. The Church Missionary Society has now three settlements established at the Bay of Islands, consisting in all, as appears by the last published Report, of twenty-four individuals {besides children), of whom three are clergymen of the church of England. They have also five schools at three different stations, which are now attended by 106 boys, 55 girls, and 12 adults. Of these,

[Image of page 411]

MODES OF CIVILIZATION.

most, it is stated, labour diligently in learning to read and write; and some also receive instructions in arithmetic. Most of the settlers have acquired a considerable command of the native language; in which, besides the grammar already mentioned, a spelling-book, and some short extracts from the scriptures, have been already printed. A translation of the bible and a dictionary are in progress. The houses at all the stations are built after the English fashion; and one is a chapel of forty feet by twenty, with a smaller apartment attached to it. English, agriculture and gardening have also been introduced both in the grounds belonging to the mission, and in those of several of the neighbouring chiefs. It may be interesting to add the following list of the vegetables that are stated to be growing at one of the settlements in 1821:

"Wheat, oats, barley, peas, horse and kitchen beans, tares, hops, turnips, carrots, radishes, cabbages, potatoes, lettuce, red beet, brocoli, endive, asparagus, cresses, onions, shalots, celery, rock and water melons, pumpkins, cucumbers, parsley, vines, strawberries, raspberries, orange, lemon, apple, pear, peach, apricot, quince, almond, and plum trees, pepper and spear mint, sage, rice, marygolds, lilies, roses, pinks, sweetwilliams, rosemary, featherfew, lavender, dutch clover, meadow, feschu, rib, and sweetscented vernal grasses." 9

The secular persons in the employment of the society, though most of them assist in the literary and religious instruction of the natives, continue to exercise their several trades in their new country. Thus one is a shoemaker, another a flaxdresser and weaver; some are blacksmiths, and others carpenters. One is employed in taking charge of the cattle, of which the stock is considerable. The mission had also, till

[Image of page 412]

lately, a small vessel of their own, which was built in the country, and was employed in making frequent trips to Port Jackson; but the last accounts announce that it had been wrecked. The Wesleyan Methodists, as has been already intimated, also established some years ago a mission at Wangaroa, the celebrated scene of the catastrophe of the Boyd, and had created in the midst of the cruel and treacherous inhabitants of that district a very interesting copy of European comfort and cultivation: but the buildings and gardens were destroyed by an attack of the natives in January 1827; and the mission, we believe, has been since suspended.

We have already noticed one striking peculiarity in the character of this people which is decidedly encouraging to the hope of their ultimate civilization. We mean the eagerness which they have shewn, from the first moment they heard of the existence of other countries beside their own, to visit them, and see with their own eyes whatever they might contain that was new and strange. Even so long ago as the time of Captain Cook this spirit of curiosity displayed itself. The reader is already aware what difficulties have been braved and overcome in more recent times, by many of these enterprising islanders, in their prosecution of similar attempts to obtain an acquaintance with foreign countries. Some of the details which Mr. Marsden gives us in the journal of his third visit, are perhaps more strikingly illustrative of the general anxiety which prevails among them that their children at least, if not themselves, should be introduced to civilized life than anything we have yet related. Of a number of young men belonging to the first families in the country who had been with him at the commencement of that year (1820) at Paramatta in New South Wales, no fewer than seven were dead by midsummer, four of them having

[Image of page 413]

MODES OF CIVILIZATION.

breathed their last at Paramatta, and the other three shortly after their return to New Zealand. Yet this rapid mortality had little or no effect in deterring other parents from exposing their sons to the same risk. "Notwithstanding the death of so many of the chiefs' sons," says Mr. Marsden, in giving an account of an excursion he made to Tiama, "others are urgent to send their children to Port Jackson: when I have told them that I was afraid to allow them to go lest they should die, they replied that they would run the risk of their death, if I would only permit them to go." He then relates the anecdote quoted in a former page, of Korro-korro urging him to take his little boy to Port Jackson, and when it was represented to him that his child would most probably die if he went, replying that he would pray for him during his absence, as he had done for his brother Tooi, and that would keep him from all harm. A little after, he adds, "my opinion is that if half the New Zealanders were to die in their attempt to force themselves into civil life, the other half would not be deterred from making a similar effort; so desirous do they seem to attain our advantages." Those of the natives who have visited Port Jackson uniformly return highly gratified with what they have seen, and, gathering their friends around them, are wont to spend many hours, and sometimes whole nights, in giving them an account of the customs of the English and their manner of living. 10 Mr. Mariner, in his account of the people of the Tonga Islands, who are of the same family with the New Zealanders, remarks the strong interest which they also take in discoursing of the wonders of civilization. 11 But the New Zealanders go farther than this; they are proud to array themselves in the dress of Eu-

[Image of page 414]

ropeans, and endeavour as far as they can to imitate their manners, and it may almost be said their modes of feeling and thinking. Captain Cruise mentions a chief, named Wheety, who on taking leave of the people of the Dromedary, with whom he had had a good deal of intercourse, expressed his intention of getting a house built for himself when he returned home, as like those of the Europeans as he could, and of henceforth living as they did. This man, who does not appear to have been quite so zealous a patriot as some of his brother chiefs, used often to remark that "New Zealand would one day be the white man's country." Many of the more ardent admirers of what they called "Europee fashion," have even so far conquered one of the most inveterate of the native habits as to have abandoned the practice of crying either on meeting or parting with their friends; though to most of them the attempt was at first a severe struggle. Nothing makes either the men or the women so vain as to be arrayed in European clothes, which they seem to consider a much more honourable attire than even the finest of their native garments. Thus we find the chief Ahoudee Ogunna, requesting Mr. Marsden to send him a suit of English clothes to wear on Sundays, as he did not like to attend church in his New Zealand dress. The desire for European clothes, for blankets, for tea, sugar, bread, and the other comforts of civilized life, is spoken of as general among the inhabitants of the Bay of Islands. 12

Many of the people of this district even understand the language of their white visitors, and are themselves fond of speaking English. 13 This is perhaps one of the most promising signs of their advancing civilization. The language of a savage people is

[Image of page 415]

MODES OF CIVILIZATION.

necessarily in all cases a poor and imperfect instrument for the expression of thought; but it is seldom on that account less the object of pride and attachment to those by whom it is spoken. Many savage tribes hardly pique themselves so much upon anything as upon the propriety with which they speak their native tongue. This is the case with the people of Tonga, 14 and also with several of the American nations. 15 Even formal oratory is an art much practised among almost all savages, not in the lowest degree of barbarism; and some very high-coloured descriptions have been given of the masterly eloquence which they are wont to display. Their most able declamations, however, would probably not stand the test of a very rigid criticism, and owe as much of their effect, perhaps, to the vehemence with which they are delivered as to their intrinsic merits. Upon this subject Father Lafitau tells an amusing story. He and his brother missionaries, he says, while residing among the Hurons of North America, had a servant who did not know a word of the language of the Indians, but had caught what may be called its accent very correctly, so that he could give a good imitation of the general effect of it on the ear; and this man, merely to amuse himself, was wont to make long speeches to the savages in a jargon literally having no meaning whatever, but only pronounced in their own tone, which his hearers used to listen to with great attention, and never doubted were addresses in their own language, only his style of oratory, they said, was so elevated that they could not always comprehend him. It may be suspected that, even in listening to their own countrymen, these good people would sometimes in like manner very contentedly take sound for sense.

One disadvantage under which a barbarous tongue

[Image of page 416]

must very generally labour is the diversity of dialects into which it has a tendency to split, if the country in which it is spoken be at all extensive. This takes place to a great extent even with regard to cultivated languages; but in the case of these there is always a standard form of speech which is universally intelligible. In the instance of a savage tongue, again, all the dialects are usually on a par, and no single one possesses the property of being a general interpreter of the rest. This must make it in many cases an endless labour to attempt the instruction of the inhabitants of a barbarous country solely or chiefly through the medium of what is loosely called their mother tongue. In the island of Timor, in the East Indies, for example, it has been asserted that no fewer than forty different dialects or languages are spoken; while among the cannibals of Borneo it is supposed that probably many hundreds are in use. 16 We know so little of the greater part of the New Zealand isles, that it is impossible to say to how great an extent the language of the people is there broken down into different dialects. Rutherford, we may remark, asserts that the words collected in Professor Lee's vocabulary are not those in use farther south.

In general there is no great faith to be put in the collections from which the vocabularies of barbarous dialects are compiled, except when the materials are furnished, as was the case with Professor Lee's grammar, by missionaries or other persons acquainted with the language. For, however eager voyagers and scientific people may have been in collecting what they considered curious, the difficulty, without a very long experience, of representing by letters sounds which have not been previously written, presents an almost insuperable bar to accuracy. It is,

[Image of page 417]

MODES OF CIVILIZATION.

also, we believe, not an uncommon thing with some of the South Sea Islanders to amuse themselves with that sort of wit which Swift calls "selling a bargain." An instance of this occurred a few years ago. A young missionary, who was reading a book of travels in Sir Joseph Banks's library, was observed every now and then to burst out into a violent fit of laughter; and on the cause of this being asked, it was found that he was reading over a vocabulary in which the natives had cheated the scientific compiler, by giving such answers to his inquiries, that, had any future voyager attempted to use the work of his predecessor, no very good opinion would have been entertained of his morals, and he would have been far distant from the attainment of any object for which he might think he was asking.

Whatever be the number of the New Zealand dialects, the general tongue, as has been already observed, is radically the same with that spoken in Otaheite, in the Sandwich group, and in many of the other islands of the South Sea. Its principal characteristic is stated, by those who have studied its genius, to be the simplicity of its grammatical forms. There is no distinction of genders; declension and conjugation are effected by particles, as in English; and superlatives are made by reduplication, as in the language of children. The New Zealand method of numeration is, according to M. de Blosseville and M. Balbi, very peculiar, being not decimal, but undecimal, or proceeding by successive multiples of eleven. Thus, after ascending to eleven, they say for twelve eleven and one, for thirteen eleven and two, &c, till they come to twenty-two, which they call twice eleven. 17 This remarkable singularity is not noticed in Professor Lee's grammar, where the numbers are arranged

[Image of page 418]

upon the common decimal principle. According to Mr. Savage, the New Zealanders count without embarrassment as far as twenty score, or four hundred; for numbers higher than that they merely repeat catteekow(twenty) a great many times, to indicate that it is beyond their powers of calculation. They are also in the habit of counting by pairs. Time they reckon by moons, as do most other savages. A year they call Raw mathie,literally Ripe,or dead leaf; 18naturally, in all probability, considering the round of the seasons to finish with the falling of the leaves from the trees. M. Balbi mentions, on the authority of M. Lesson, a curious circumstance, which may be taken as indicative of the inroads which European civilization is making upon their peculiar habits. While the more unsophisticated natives continue to adhere to their undecimal scale of numbers, those of them, it seems, who reside in the neighbourhood of the English missionaries, vibrate in their practice between that and the decimal method. Among these latter the hundred is very frequently the same as in Europe; but in the more remote villages it always runs to a hundred and twenty-one. 19

[Image of page 419]

MODES OF CIVILIZATION.

Prom all that has been stated, it may be pronounced that the civilization of this interesting people has now received a fair and even promising commencement. These dwellers in the remotest ocean, so lately separated from the more cultivated portion of their species, not more by their distance than by the deep night of barbarism in which they were involved, have already been brought at least into contact with the light of knowledge and of religion, and are at any rate no longer ignorant that there are other arts than those of war, and other enjoyments than those of revenge and butchery. Even this is much, and must in time lead to more. Such a mild and moral sway as is at this moment exercised among these rude but noble barbarians, by the pious men who have dedicated themselves with a praiseworthy devotion to their improvement, can hardly fail to be rewarded by much speedier as well as much more unmixed success than could reasonably be expected to attend the adoption of any harsher or more violent measures, for restraining their destructive animosities, or abolishing their sanguinary superstitions. Christianity, emphatically the religion of civilization, goes forth among them with her appropriate attendants, when she takes literature and

[Image of page 420]

the arts along with her; and it is not possible that she should not eventually triumph even over all the ignorance, prejudice, and ferocity, with which she has here to contend. Perhaps no feeling less ardent and steady than a sense of religious obligation could support the labourers in such a cause as this, in the midst of the difficulties and discouragements which, in the commencement of their enterprize at least, must meet them at almost every step. But even their task must become gradually an easier and more cheering one: while few gratifications can be conceived equal to that which must be theirs, when they shall at length behold any considerable and general amendment of the manners, and augmentation of the comforts, of the people effected by their efforts.

We may notice that an attempt was made a few years ago to establish a colony in New Zealand, on purely commercial principles, by an English company. The station selected for the experiment was near the mouth of the Shukehanga river on the west coast; and one vessel at least arrived with, settlers. After a trial of a few months, however, the design was abandoned, it being deemed dangerous to encounter the hostility of the natives; and with the exception of a few mechanics, all the people left the country in the spring of 1827. It may probably be yet some time before New Zealand is sufficiently tranquillized for a residence in it to be safely risked, by such an assemblage of adventurers as this appears to have been; whose intrusion, indeed, could hardly fail to excite the jealous temper of the natives. But two or three mercantile houses at Port Jackson have already agency establishments in the country. The persons intrusted with the management of these, as we learn from Captain Dillon, have been well treated by the natives, and permitted without molestation to build several small schooners, for the

[Image of page 421]

MODES OF CIVILIZATION.

exportation of pork, flax, spars, and the other productions of the island.

It is not on first being brought into contact with civilization, that a savage people present the most favourable exhibition of the effects of the new influence. For some time the barbarian often derives from his increased knowledge only additional and more injurious facilities for the indulgence of his old vices. The original turbulence and grossness of his appetites are as yet but little restrained by improved notions of morality or of decorum, while his opportunities of gratifying them are multiplied. The result is that, with less of the simplicity, he displays more of the brutality of barbarism than before. This must be particularly the case, when his intercourse with the civilized world is of that unregulated and indiscriminate sort, which it must always be if his country be frequented by other nations for commercial purposes, as New Zealand now is. In such circumstances, when civilization is introduced, much of corruption is, of inevitable necessity, let in with it. Of those strangers from the old world, who come and mix with the natives, comparatively very few feel any anxiety about their improvement: nay, many are ready to make a gain of their ignorance and degradation; while some are fitted only still farther to debase and brutalize them by the mere contagion of their own profligacy. 20 Hence the aspect which a

[Image of page 422]

people most commonly presents, when in the state in which the inhabitants of the greater part of New Zealand at this moment are. They are still savages in almost every thing, except in their knowledge of the wealth and power of their civilized visitors, and in their possession of a few of the products of arts or manufactures, which they have not learned to practise. The savage is spoiled, but the civilized man is not yet formed. Some of the worst propensities of the native character are inflamed; and other bad habits formerly unknown have been acquired. The New Zealanders, for example, have probably carried on their wars with much more wide-spreading devastation than formerly, since they have got the firelocks of Europe into their hands. Doubtless, too, the licentiousness of the female population has been immeasurably augmented by the resort of Europeans to their shores. The habit of drinking ardent spirits is a completely new vice, which many of them have already learned from their intercourse with what is called civilized society. Nor has the general condition of the people been as yet so far improved in any respect, as to afford them a compensation for these evils. On the contrary, the white man too often has approached their coasts only as a formidable invader, whom it has required all their strength and courage to keep at bay. Their national independence, the

[Image of page 423]

MODES OF CIVILIZATION.

most fondly cherished of their possessions, has been at least menaced, and that by a power sufficient to alarm all their fears for its security. They now, indeed, know that there are other countries besides their own; but they must feel also that their own is not so much theirs as it was heretofore. They have as yet received less injury at our hands than other Aborigines, whom civilized nations have curbed or nearly extirpated. Too often, in a blind spirit of injustice, when we receive some affront, which is a result of their ignorance, we punish or persecute them. They resist our power;--and then we shoot them as wild beasts. We fear that the natives of North and South America, of Van Diemen's Land, and of Southern Africa, are evidences of the cruelty and impolicy of the conduct of civilized men to savages. 21 Let us learn better lessons. Let us steadily impart as much as possible of the real blessings of civilized life, but veil its licentiousness and repress its tyranny. Above all let us teach sound and useful knowledge. If we should stop at our present point of advancement in our attempt to civilize the New Zealanders, it might well be doubted whether we had not rather inflicted an injury than conferred a benefit on them. The remedy for the mischief, is the continuance and wider diffusion of the training which has been already commenced. To this duty we are peculiarly called, in whatever region the commerce of our country has set up its marts. Indeed the extension of civilization throughout every region of the earth where the people are ignorant and wretched, appears to be the peculiar duty which Providence has imposed upon a maritime and commercial nation. It is the price which they are called

[Image of page 424]

upon to pay for the blessings they gather through their intercourse with universal mankind. If we obtain all the riches of the East from our Indian empire, we owe the natives protection; and we are further called upon, without insulting their prejudices, to introduce that knowledge which can alone obliterate their cruel and absurd superstitions. If we range through the great Polynesian ocean to exchange our own articles of manufacture for those commodities which its islands produce in such abundance, we are bound to give instruction for the mind as well as our clothes and implements. In fact, our interest alone would compel us to this course. A nation of barbarous savages are indifferent customers to a wealthy people; when we have taught them to value the comforts of social life, they open to us new havens for skill and enterprise. In this way, will New Zealand be ultimately civilized. When the natives shall become intelligent enough to clear their forests and cultivate their deserts--when towns shall rise up upon the banks of rivers instead of the solitary hut upon the naked rock--when the waterfall shall turn the mill-wheel, instead of dashing idly to the sea; then shall the merchants of London, and Liverpool, and Glasgow, have their correspondence with the descendants of the poor savages whom they taught to copy our arts and our luxuries, and the sons of a Shungie and a Tupai Cupa shall give a new impulse to the lathes and founderies of Birmingham and the looms of Manchester.

THE END.

London: William Clowes, Stamford-street.