[QUOTATIONS]
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"If there is in the affairs of mortal men any one thing which it is proper uniformly to explode; which it is incumbent on every man, by every lawful means, to avoid, to deprecate, to oppose; that one thing is, doubtless, War. There is nothing more unnaturally wicked, more productive of misery, more extensively destructive, more obstinate in mischief, more unworthy of man as formed by nature, much more of man professing Christianity."
ERASMUS.
"They who deem it a trifling loss and injury when the poor and the low are robbed, afflicted, banished, BURNT OUT, oppressed, or PUT TO DEATH, do in truth accuse Jesus Christ (the wisdom of the Father) of folly, for shedding his blood to save such wretches as these.
ERASMUS.
[TITLE PAGE]
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NARRATIVE
OF
TWO VISITS TO NEW ZEALAND.
SECOND VISIT.
[QUOTATIONS]
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"If there is in the affairs of mortal men any one thing which it is proper uniformly to explode; which it is incumbent on every man, by every lawful means, to avoid, to deprecate, to oppose; that one thing is, doubtless, War. There is nothing more unnaturally wicked, more productive of misery, more extensively destructive, more obstinate in mischief, more unworthy of man as formed by nature, much more of man professing Christianity."
ERASMUS.
"They who deem it a trifling loss and injury when the poor and the low are robbed, afflicted, banished, BURNT OUT, oppressed or PUT TO DEATH, do in truth accuse Jesus Christ (the Wisdom of the Father) of folly, for shedding his blood to save such wretches as these.
ERASMUS.
SECOND VISIT TO NEW ZEALAND
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SECOND VISIT TO NEW ZEALAND.
In consequence of an application, 1 dated Government House, 23d August, 1834, from the Governor in Council of New South Wales, to Captain Lambert, requesting him to proceed with H.M.S. Alligator, to obtain the restoration of the British subjects, (nine sailors, one woman, and two children) then in the hands of the New Zealanders, and who had formed part of a crew wrecked in the Barque Harriett, on the northern part of New Zealand, near Cape Egmont, in the month of April, A.D. 1834; the remainder, it was alleged, having been murdered by the savages: at 5h. 30m. A.M., on the 31st of August, the Alligator, having on board Lieutenant Gunton and a detachment of the 50th, or Queen's Own Regiment, weighed and made sail from Port Jackson, in company with the Isabella, Colonial schooner, on board which, Captain Johnson of the same regiment and another detachment of soldiers were embarked to co-operate with Captain Lambert.
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Mr. Guard, late Master of the Harriett; Mr. Battesby, appointed to act as interpreter, and a pilot named Miller, accompanied the expedition. The two last were landed on the 12th of September, under a Pa called the Numa, (sand-fly) belonging to the Natiruanui tribe; and instructed to acquaint the natives with the object of the visit paid them by His Majesty's vessels, and the anxious desire of Captain Lambert to avoid hostilities; also to express his determination not to give any ransom for the prisoners, and his readiness to employ force for their recovery, should force be required to effect that end.
It being deemed necessary that the Interpreters should proceed by land from the Numa to the Waimate, a Pa belonging to the Taranaki tribe which held the woman and children in captivity; the Alligator and Isabella worked along shore until abreast of that and another Pa, the Ranghi-tuapeka, from which it is separated by a narrow river, the boundary line dividing the territories of the above tribes. Here the anchor was let go, and an unsuccessful attempt made to negociate the business amicably; Guard professing to interpret between the officers in the boats, and the natives on the beach, although grossly ignorant of the New Zealand language. A survey was at the same time taken of the adjoining shore, in the hope of discovering a convenient landing place for the troops, in the event of circumstances arising to require their disembarkation. The whole of the roast thereabouts being bold and precipitous, and
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the shore rocky and difficult of approach on account of a very heavy surf.
The following day, at six, A.M., weighed, and shaped a course for Admiralty Bay, in Middle Island, but subsequently changed it, and. at 8h. 40m., P.M., came to in an open bay to the north west of Point Jackson. This bay is accessible at all times, has good anchoring ground, and is considered perfectly safe. It is situated at the northern extremity of the South or Middle Islands. From the Alligator's anchorage, the harbour point bore north-east by north, Point Jackson north-east, and the head of the bay, west. It is surrounded by a chain of steep hills, rising abruptly from the water's edge, covered with wood, and giving forth several streams of delicious water; so that Gore's Harbour, so called in honour of the Vice Admiral and Commander in Chief of His Majesty's Squadron in the East Indies, may be recommended to vessels trading on the west coast of New Zealand, as possessing four essentially good qualities; --secure harbourage, excellent anchoring ground, abundance of wood, and plentiful supplies of good water. A few deserted huts were visible in one of the bights, but no natives came off; and the character of the soil, and general appearance of the country, were not such as to encourage the formation of a native or other settlement on any spot visible from the ship.
16th. --Made sail for Cape Egmont; and at 5h. 40m., P.M. of the 17th Inst., the preconcerted signal of two fires on the cliff having already
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apprized us of the Interpreters' safety, a boat was sent ou shore for them at the Numa. On their coming on board, they looked worn and woebegone, and gave the following account of themselves: --the night on which they landed, they were frightened almost out of their wits, expecting to be put to death by the natives, and under the influence of panic eloped from the Pa, as secretly, and with as much dispatch as possible, and set off for Waimate, but failed to reach the latter place, in consequence of meeting, when within a few miles thereof, with a party of natives, who aggravated their fears by the information that the Taranaki people were looking out for, and intended to kill and eat them. This induced them to retrace their steps, but being afraid to return to the Numa until the ship hove in sight, they took to the bush for shelter by day, and only ventured abroad under the cover of night; being content, in the meanwhile, to feed upon bread and water. Fear, hunger, and fatigue, at last overcame them, and when they again joined the savages they delivered another version of the message they were entrusted to carry, deeming themselves excusable in altering it from necessity, equally the plea of tyranny and cowardice, and consequently at liberty to deceive the unsuspecting savages with promises of trade, barter, and a ransom, which they knew well would never be fulfilled. 2
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One of these promises was, that on the delivery of their prisoners the natives were to receive a barrel of gunpowder, &c by way of ransom. And another unworthy deception practised upon the too credulous race with whom they had to do, was, that the Alligator stood in need of large quantities of whalebone, and if the New Zealanders would collect as much of that commodity as they could, they might find a ready sale for the whole on board the two vessels of war. By such means, less disgraceful to the men who employed them than to those by whom such men were themselves employed on such a mission at all, it was finally arranged that "the Woman" should be brought down to the Numa, in readiness to be given up at our next visit.
On the evening of the 18th, the ship was piloted by Guard to a second harbour on the west side of Admiralty Bay, and the anchor let go there in fifteen fathoms; the rock at the entrance of the harbour bearing north, 1 deg. west, about four miles and a half; the eastern side of the entrance, 3 deg. east; the western side, north, 6 deg. west.
This noble inlet of the sea bifurcates at a little distance from its mouth to form two lesser harbours, one of which is completely land-locked, but both easy of access; and the shores of both deeply and beautifully indented with numerous little bays or coves, whence the land, as in Gore's Harbour, rises
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abruptly to form a barrier of hills between the interior of the country and the sea. These hills aro also covered with wood, and give rise to a thousand purling streams of fresh water. A party of the officers having landed, discovered a native track and a solitary hut, but did not fall in with any of the inhabitants. The parties destined to act against the natives were landed here to exercise in firing at a target, &c.
20th. --Weighed, and made sail from PORT HARDY, so called for the first time out of respect to the gallant Sir Thomas Hardy, Nelson's flag captain at Trafalgar, whose services and public character well entitle him to the honour of giving an English name to one of the finest harbours in the Southern Hemisphere; although the propriety of giving arbitrary names at all to places not belonging to us, and names, too, having no manner of connection whatever with the character or circumstances of the places they are designed to represent, may be doubted. Would it not be much better, in all cases where it may be practicable, to adopt the native names of places, and translate them for our English use, a practice which would help to simplify, instead of confusing, our geographical nomenclature, and at the same time perpetuate ancient recollections in the minds of the Aborigines, who, in their simplicity, mistake all for gold that glitters in the hands of an Englishman, and are too fond of adopting all as improvements that an Englishman introduces among them. Thus the native names of places are in some instances abandoned, and the
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names employed by their visitors preferred; though the former were in all, or almost all, instances, names descriptive of things; and the latter are, as frequently, mere sounds without any corresponding sense.
21st. --Arrived at MOTUROA, the Sugar Loaf Islands of Captain Cook, by which the northern extremity of Cape Egmont is terminated. They consist of a remarkable cluster of high conical rocks, running out to the westward, of primitive formation, and partially clad in a mantle of luxuriant vegetation; wild flowers in beautiful variety, notwithstanding their exposure to wind and sea, growing and blossoming on the bleak bosoms of these rocks, and recalling to mind, in connection with the past history and present condition of the inhabitants of this country, the exquisite poetry of Gray, suggested probably by some similar objects: --
Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark, unfathom'd caves of ocean bear;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
One of these rocks only, has a sugar-loaf appearance, two of the others having lost their apices; and the third, or that nearest the land, being still further worn away by the convulsions of nature and the operations of time, and storm, and tempest; probably also by the labour of man, serving, as it does, to furnish a rugged but substantial basement for a strong native fortification, made stronger by
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the rock on which it stands being insulated at high water, and inaccessible at all points but one.
But the most singular, as, indeed, it is the most prominent feature of this picture, is a round and lofty promontory, rising by an almost perpendicular ascent from the main-land to the height of several hundred feet, and forming the scite of another Pa, the stockading of which seemed like reeds when seen from the ship, and the inhabitants proportionately diminutive. It occasioned an almost universal exclamation of surprise from those on board, how any human being could have dreamed of building on such a spot; and captious indeed must he be who could withhold his admiration from the courage, perseverance, and laborious industry of the men who have here fixed their highland home; or who would refuse to discern in these the germs of bold heroic daring; a capacity for patient endurance; and indications, neither faint nor feeble, of that true nobility of mind which no difficulty can retard, nor danger appal.
Several lesser rocks were also stockaded in at the top, and more or less thickly peopled; exhibiting, alas! too clearly to be mistaken, the military character, and, consequently, precarious lives of a people, who, with a country possessing every advantage for commerce or for agriculture, nevertheless neglect the arts of peace, and forsake the culture of their rich arable land, to build them habitations on the tops of mountains and in the clefts of rocks, whither they may retreat from the face of their
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enemies. And why? Because they are a people that "delight in war."
Four New Zealanders, who had been provided with a passage from Sydney, were put on shore here, heavily laden with rusty muskets, flints, powder, ammunition, &c. The boat in which they landed bringing off eight seamen who had belonged to the crew of the Harriett, and formed a majority of the captives whom the Alligator was despatched to rescue. They looked exceedingly haggard and poverty stricken, having been but thinly clad, and only scantily fed, for the four previous months; but, notwithstanding, bare favourable testimony to the treatment experienced by them at the hands of the barbarians, who, so long as they were content to minister to the necessities of their own bodies, exacted neither labour nor toil from them, but shared with them whatever they themselves had to eat. Captain Lambert very kindly proposed to clothe these men from the purser's slop-room at his own cost, upon which a subscription was entered into by the officers, with but one or two exceptions, to divide the expense with the captain, and the naked were speedily clothed. But they were a base and selfish set of men, altogether unworthy such an act of private beneficence, as was some time afterwards seen in their refusal to take part in working the Isabella, where they were furnished with accommodation and food on their way home, unless paid for doing so.
Of the natives who were now landed, I had been a vigilant observer during their stay on board; and
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am led to believe that they were harmless, inoffensive, and in three instances out of the four, good tempered, but, at the same time, miserly and covetous. One of them was active and industrious, invariably accompanying the men on deck when the hands were turned up, and laying hold of the main brace, or some other principal rope, along with the men stationed there. The others would sit huddled together from morning till night, scarcely furnishing any sign of life, except by the restlessness of their eyes, and at meal times. They would not taste any salted meat, and accordingly came but poorly off for provisions, save on those days when flour was served out; but they seemed very contented with their fare, only once complaining thereof, and then on very sufficient grounds: the bread which was generally served out, especially among the junior officers and seamen, during most of the Alligator's service on the New South Wales station, was abominable, worse, far worse, than is supplied to the convicts in that territory; and upon the occasion referred to, the purser's steward had put these poor fellows off with the mere bread-dust, the dust of such bread as myself and others could scarcely bring ourselves to taste! From their first coming on board I had given to each a small allowance daily of tobacco; and by the cheap kindnesses of a passing smile, and peaceful word, had won their confidence; at last it was evident a change had come over their countenances, and whenever I passed them they would gaze at me with such looks of intense anxiety as almost approached to anguish,
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for which, at first, no one seemed able to account. But the truth escaped at last: their fears had been wrought upon by some of their more civilized neighbours having assured them that, on their arrival at Moturoa, they were to be hung up in the sight of their tribe--decapitated--and eaten! One day in particular, one of these poor wretches was observed weeping, and upon being kindly spoken to, looked up with grief and sorrow in his face; drew his finger across his throat from ear to ear; sat down, and, burying his head in the lap of one of his companions, the whole party wept like children. I rejoice to add, that in this petty persecution of a few powerless barbarians, none of the officers, with the solitary exception of one youngster, took part; but, on the contrary, were all, when informed of it, at no small pains to reassure them that they were as safe while with us as they would be among their own people.
Cruelty is the offspring and inseparable companion of pride. And cruelty and pride appear to mark those who profess themselves to be wise in all their intercourse with their fellow men, whom yet they look upon as fools. But there is in such acts as the above, when perpetrated by the inhabitants of a civilized country, a devilish wickedness, which, unhappily for the boasted dignity of our human nature, has defiled the page of universal history with such like slime and venom of that great serpent the devil, from the earliest periods and in all ages, as to give a fearful emphasis and a fearfully wide application to that awful declaration of our
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Lord, in his address to some in his day: "Ye are of your father the devil, and the works of your father ye do: He was a murderer from the beginning, and a liar, and the father of lies." But if the wickedness be great of practising on the fears of the uninformed, and ignorant, and helpless, in the case of men comparatively civilized, and proud of their civilization; how infinitely aggravated does it become in the case of those who, while refusing to depart from iniquity, are not ashamed to make mention of the name of Jesus, to call him Lord! and themselves his disciples! There is no solution of the difficulty suggested by the above incident, which I have recorded, as illustrative of one of the dark phenomena of humanity as it is, not as Utopians dream it into form and symmetry, namely the delight men take in tormenting; one another, in scriptural language, their being "hateful, and hating one another!" unless the solution which scripture affords, be admitted, with all its humiliating consequences: viz., that not only is man conceived in sin and shapen in iniquity, but, also, a habitation for devils, dead unto every good word and work, dead in trespasses and sins, and walking therein "according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience." Admitting which, entails an awful responsibility upon us who "believe and are saved;" GOD, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us when we were also dead in sin, having quickened us together with Christ, and created us anew in
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Christ Jesus unto good works; and lays us under peremptory obligation to take the lamp of life which has been put into our hands, and carry it abroad into all the regions of darkness which blacken the face of our globe, and throughout the whole valley of the shadow of death, in which myriads of our fellow creatures are perishing for lack of knowledge, subject to the oppressions of the proud, and suffering unnumbered wrongs at the hand of evil doers; that the way of the Lord may be known upon earth, and his saving health unto all nations; that the Lord may add to his church in every land, as many as shall be saved; and that as many as are ordained to eternal life, may believe on the name of the Son of God. "If obedience to the will of God be necessary to happiness," reasons the great moralist of England, "and knowledge of his will be necessary to obedience, I know not how he that withholds this knowledge, or delays it, can be said to love his neighbour as himself. He that voluntarily continues ignorance, is guilty of all the crimes which ignorance produces; as, to him that should extinguish the tapers of a lighthouse, might justly be imputed the calamities of shipwrecks."
I enquired of the above natives whether they would welcome a missionary, if one should be sent to them. The answer was, "Yes, but he must stay with as, or the other tribes might kill him." At present, they seem to have but a faint impression of the value of missionary labour, and the class of persons who visit them from our Australian colonies, cannot be looked to, to prepare the way, either by
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good report or good behaviour, for the introduction of such men as would of necessity diminish their unrighteous gains, by informing the native blind, and so protecting the native property. Mr. Guard, who was standing by when the above enquiry was made, at once scouted the idea of New Zealanders becoming Christians. I asked him how he would propose to effect their civilization, in the absence of Christianity--the reply, made in serious earnestness and a tone of energy and determination, at once unmasked the man, and made one's heart sick at the thought, that, upon the uncorroborated testimony of such a man, an expedition was fitted out against New Zealand, likely to be fraught with disastrous consequences. "How would I civilize them? shoot them to be sure! a musket ball for every New Zealander is the only way of civilizing their country!" When Guard quitted Moturoa, he left behind him the promise of returning for his companions, and of bringing with him a cask of powder in payment for the boat in which the Natiawa tribe assisted him to escape. And accordingly, they demanded the fulfilment of this pledge, but were refused it, as also every thing in the shape of ransom for their prisoners. Was this treachery, or was it not? If it was, on whose side does it lie? Not on the side of the New Zealander, for he fed, lodged, and protected those who bad confided themselves to his keeping: but on that of his civilized neighbours, who violated their pledge, and betrayed the trust reposed in them by the savage. Pending the negociation respecting the sailors,
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the Alligator's best bower anchor had been let go on a rocky bottom, and could not be again weighed, when the business was concluded; it had therefore to be left behind, and was, with from twenty to thirty fathoms of chain cable, lost. The value of these far exceeded the price it would have cost to redeem the enslaved, and had that price been forthcoming; there would have been no necessity for negotiation, no time need, have been lost, the anchor might still have hung from the bows, and the chain reposed quietly in its tier. Were the treasury of New South Wales taxed to defray the expenses incidental to an expedition like the present, the inhabitants of that territory would be less clamorous for invasion of the rights of a people like the New Zealanders; and the government thereof might employ a portion of the savings that would accrue, to the effectual prevention of native ferocity on the one hand, and British treachery on the other, by aiding the funds of the missions, and so helping to increase the number of the missionaries.
24th. --The landing party were collected together on board the Isabella, for the greater facility of disembarking. But Captain Johnson and the senior lieutenant of the Alligator, Mr. Thomas, having gone in, in the whale boat, to reconnoitre, the former considered the surf impassable, and the landing was consequently postponed. Mr. Battesby, who had gone on shore, brought off information of the female captive and one of her children being at the Pa, in readiness to be delivered up by their captors on payment of the promised ransom. A
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native, of a highly intelligent countenance, and very pleasing manners, took a passage in the boat, being desirous to visit the ship. The seamen and marines returned on board from the schooner, leaving all the soldiers and Guard's sailors there. These latter had so heightened, by their respective accounts of the savages, the general excitement which before prevailed, that the utmost impatience was manifested by all parties at the successive hindrances as they arose to our landing.
28th. --The wind came round to the north-west, and with it the surf greatly subsided, thereby enabling detachments of seamen, soldiers, and marines to disembark, which they did on a beautiful beach, in face of a high cliff, when we had occasion to witness the vast superiority for a mixed service, "by sea and by land," of that valuable corps, the Royal Marines, over their comrades, the mere soldiers. While the one took their muskets in their hands, and descended the ship's side with agility, and stepped out of the boats as light almost as the sailors themselves, the unfortunate landsmen had to encounter a dozen mishaps between the ship's gangway and the boat's gunwhale; a dozen stumbles and falls before they could be quietly seated in the boats at all, and at least as many risks of being completely soused before they could obtain a safe footing on shore.
While the military were falling in, two of the natives came along the sands, advancing unarmed and unattended to meet us; the heights above being crowded with others of their tribe, passive,
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few carrying muskets. One of the pair announced himself as the proprietor of the woman and her child, and was recognized to be so by Guard, with whom the unsuspicious chief rubbed noses in token of amity, at the same time expressing his readiness to give up his prisoners on receiving the "payment" guaranteed him by bis veracious, or rather, lest my meaning should be mistaken, by his mendacious friends, our very honest and competent interpreters. In reply, he was instantly seized upon as a prisoner of war himself, dragged into the whale boat, and despatched on board the Alligator, in custody of John Guard, and his sailors.
On his brief passage to the boat-insult followed insult; one fellow twisting his ear, by means of a small swivel which hung from it, and another pulling his long hair with spiteful violence; a third pricking him with the point of a bayonet. Thrown to the bottom of the boat, she was shoved off before he recovered himself, which he had no sooner succeeded in doing, than he jumped overboard, and attempted to swim on shore, to prevent which he was repeatedly fired upon from the boat; but not until he had been shot in the calf of the leg was he again made a prisoner of. Having been a second time secured he was lashed to a thwart, and stabbed and struck so repeatedly, that, on reaching the Alligator, he was only able to gain the deck by a strong effort, and there, after staggering a few paces aft, fainted and fell down at the foot of the capstan in a gore of blood. When I dressed his
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wounds on a subsequent occasion, I found ten inflicted by the point and edge of the bayonet over his head and face, one in his left breast, which, it was at first feared, would prove what it was evidently intended to have proved, a mortal thrust; and another in the leg.
Was this treachery--blood-thirstiness--and cruelty? or, was it not? If it was, on whose side lies the guilt thereof? Assuredly not on the part of the New Zealander, who, with one only companion, and without arms or weapons of war, ventured among us with a firm step and friendly face, fearing nothing, because suspecting nothing. And, as assuredly, on the part of the British, who met his confidence with arrest, and not only not according to law, either human or divine, but contrary to all law, both divine and human, made war upon one man, we being armed and he unarmed; and seized, and smote, and wounded, and well nigh murdered that unprotected solitary man, when in the very attitude of a pacificator, and in the act itself of friendly negociation. 3
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In the meanwhile, the other native was joined by two more, who came without apprehension of personal danger, to trade with their treacherous invaders; one bringing a bunch of onions in his hand, the other a bundle of fishing line; and both, like their predecessors, unarmed. One of these also was detained as our prisoner, the others fled on perceiving the boat's crew fire upon their chief; and our second captive took the earliest opportunity of making his escape likewise; which he was the better enabled to do, from the blind impetuosity with which the landing party pushed on for the Numa.
That Pa was found deserted of all its inhabitants, except a solitary pig. But the heated ovens in every direction, in which their simple dinner of potatoes was preparing, supplied abundant evidence of their having been taken by surprise; while the abandonment of their fortress, whence, had they but continued in it, they might have shot every individual of our party before we could have reached the foot of it, seemed to imply that they had no
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spectators of what might happen below, only a very idea of our landing being otherwise meant than in friendship.
All hands immediately divided into two parties and commenced a chace in pursuit of the fugitives when the double alarm was raised, that a body of armed natives had been seen in the swamp below and that an attack had been made upon the boats. Both were true. The midshipman who had been left, with a few men, in charge of the boats, reported that he and the boat keepers had been fired upon from the cliff, while a strong body of New Zealanders made a rush to get possession of the boats, which they ransacked and succeeded in emptying of every transportable article, including clothes, haversacks, &c, while he, deeming resistance useless, and being unwilling to cause needless bloodshed, drew off the men, and made good a retreat, leaving the boats in quiet possession of the savages, who, could they have known that these were all we had, save one, might, very effectually, have cut us off from even the possibility of escape. The party of natives having the woman and child in custody, had escaped past us as we entered their Pa; they were instantly pursued by Lieutenant Thomas, but in vain; and on his coming up with Captain Johnson, on the height which overlooks the beach where the boats had been plundered, no trace of a single native remained. A strong picquet was planted here, to guard against future mischief; and the rest of the party returned to the Pa, where every
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individual's curiosity found full occupation in examining the neat and curious huts of the poor outcast inhabitants.
There were only two entrances to the Numa Pa, and they might have been defended by a dozen resolute individuals against a company of soldiers. One of these entrances being hardly perceptible from the outside; while the ascent to the other was facilitated by a notched stake of wood, which rested upon a perpendicular cliff, facing the beautiful running stream, whereby the triangular rock on which this Pa was built is separated from the main land to the southward. The sea-face to this rock is more precipitous than either of those overlooking the land, the escarpement being continued to the beach. The remaining face is towards the inland country, with which it is connected at its base by a narrow isthmus of sand, where the natives had excavated a small harbour, for their canoes. On this and the river side of the Pa, the height of the cliffs is lessened from about twenty to thirty feet by a broad bank of rich earth, over one half of which were seen traces of a recent conflagration, the effects of an attack made on the inhabitants of the Numa, by a hostile body of the Waikato tribes; when the latter succeeded in destroying all the huts at the base of the rock, leaving only the burnt ends of the stakes to tell of its having been occupied at all. The other half of the bank was thickly sown with the turnip and Kumera; the thick foliage of which served to cloak numerous holes, dug in the earth here, as well as on the rock, and varying
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in depth from four to seven and eight feet. These pits, which, at the time of our visit, appeared to be used only as potatoe stores, were generally exposed, and being irregularly scattered over the whole surface, occasioned several accidents both to officers and men, especially after nightfall; but, happily, beyond a few bruised shins and tattered garments, no one was seriously hurt by his fall. I have since learned that each family had its own potatoe pit, and that the exclusive rights of the several proprietors to the pits and their contents were generally respected, and never with impunity invaded.
Entering the Pa by an opening in the stockade which runs along the edge of the rock on both sides overlooking the land, whence alone either invaders or assailants were to be expected, we found ourselves in an oblong area, fenced in on all sides. Within this inclosure were two Ware Mehana, warm, or dwelling-houses; and two Cautas, cook-houses, or kitchens, with several Watas, or stages, supporting baskets of seed potatoes, carefully sewed up with dried grass, and covered in with fern leaf; and, smoking over the fires in the kitchens, long strings of dried shell-fish hung in festoons. Another opening, to the right of that by which we had entered, led to an irregular shaped yard, containing a sort, of guard-bouse, open in front, and at once commanding the entrance to the Pa and the approach to this yard, from which direct communication could be held with all the principal divisions of the place.
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The interior of a New Zealand Pa is too intricate to admit of a description at once particular and intelligible; and upon the one at the Numa I shall only further observe, that, while necessarily compact from the narrow limits within which it needed to be confined, the most had been made of the space allotted for building that could be made, so as to combine the advantages of a fortified town, security and defence; with the comforts of a country village, detached residence and separate garden grounds.
The entire space inclosed, was divided into fourteen lesser inclosures, each the dominion of a subordinate chief, while all were subject to the command of one superior. And in all the inhabited inclosures, patches of ground were hedged or fenced in, according to the taste of the cultivator, as culinary gardens. Over the only two sides by which it was practicable to escalade their fortress, the inmates had raised projecting stages, from the front of which an inclined plane had been carried, serving as a breast-work for the defenders, and helping materially to repel their assailants; one of the means of doing which, seems to have been by hurling huge stones, here collected in heaps as if in readiness for such employment, from these stages upon the heads of their enemies; a simple mode of warfare, but probably one that served them in good stead during the last attack made upon them; for although the fire kindled among their huts beneath, had scorched part of the stockade above in more than one place, the foe appears to have
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been compelled to retreat without planting his foot within this strong hold. These stages were called Popatos, the meaning of which term I have been unable to ascertain.
The chief's house was readily distinguished by its size, ornaments, and situation. It was twice as large as any other; five grotesque figures, rudely but elaborately carved, adorned its front, which, being mistaken by the soldiery for native gods, were torn down and appropriated for fuel during the night; it was, moreover, so carefully placed as to command immediate intercourse with every part of the town; to require that each part should be separately taken before the inclosure in which it stood could be gained; and finally to admit of an easy escape through a concealed opening in the stockade immediately behind it, for the chief, when by the irretrievable loss of his fortress, he might be forced to seek for safety in flight. The way of escape in his rear leading down the almost perpendicular side of the rock, to the little boat harbour below, whence, in the event of being hard pressed, he might either take to the sea in his canoe, or flee along the beach under cover of the high cliffs which oppose themselves as a wall of defence to this part of New Zealand, from the encroachments of the sea.
In expectation of overtaking the party of natives who quitted the Pa at one end, as we entered it at the other, Mr. M'Murdo, senior mate of the Alligator, had been despatched, in charge of a few men. He returned in about two hours time
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with the intelligence that he had come up with and nearly surprised a body of fugitives, but was discovered by them before he could secure any. The instant they perceived his approach they fled with the utmost precipitation, throwing away in their flight potatoes, fishing-tackle, and other articles with which they had originally attempted to make off, but of which they now sought to disencumber themselves in order to facilitate their escape.
The afternoon proved wet and comfortless, and the absence of every thing like employment left the men at liberty to explore their new territory, and provide themselves with lodgings for the night. Every half dozen persons chose a separate habitation, the door of which admitted of being easily, enlarged by the aid of adze and hatchet, and both of those tools were found under more than one roof. The interiors of their houses were such as left nothing to desire, except, indeed, freedom from vermin, which it were vain to look for in dwelling-places whose floors were strewed with dry reeds and old mats, and whose only openings were so small as scarcely to suffice for ventilation. Experience of the intensity of cold which characterizes the New Zealand nights, explained to us the reason of the natives making the doors to their sleeping-houses so small as barely to allow of one person crawling in by it; and doubtless to necessity, in all countries the same prolific mother of invention, were owing the contrivances of outlets as small as possible, doors within, even to these, hung upon hinges made of
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pieces of dog's or pig's hide, the little hollowed oven in the centre of every apartment, and the tapu'd bundle of prepared sticks, suspended from every roof.
Blazing fires were kindled in two of the principal areas, and at these the roasting and eating of potatoes went on through the whole night; which passed over without, accident, a watch being set within the Pa, to prevent surprise, and the more remote picquet being periodically relieved.
At day-break, on the following morning, Sept. 29th, in consequence of a report made by John Guard, that he had fallen in with several huts at a little distance, and his conjecture that any natives who might be lingering in the neighbourhood would have sought to them for shelter from the inclemency of the weather during the night that was past, four of the officers, Lieut. Thomas, of the R.N., Messrs. Gunton, Dyke, and another, set off with a party of blue jackets and marines to reconnoitre. The morning was mild, and the day-dawn beautiful. The walk lay along the margin of a deep ravine, the river at the bottom of which wending its way seaward, gleamed like a vein of silver, on the opening eye of day; while the sides of the ravine, thickly and richly wooded, presented an infinite variety of lights and shadows, the lights becoming brighter, and the shadows being more distinctly defined as beam after beam of the ascending sun, shot athwart the sky, and lent a reflected radiance to the lovely though lowly valley, upon which we were looking down. In the far distance, but, from its stupendous-
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altitude, which has been estimated at 14,000 feet, brought apparently within an hour's reach of us, Mount Egmont reared itself in all its stateliness and pride, snow-capped and veiled in mist, seeming to hold mysterious converse with a congregation of clouds, upborne from sea and land, upon the morning's towering wings, and anon gathered together into a wreath of beauty, fit garland for that white and frosty head, from which the fires of youth no longer flashed! but were quenched and buried under the snows of ages, past and gone. A more striking or magnificent object in creation than this mountain, I have never beheld, and find it difficult to conceive, unless, indeed, it be its former self, lighted up by the fire that is now slumbering or extinct within its bosom, belching forth lakes of lava on the vast plain from whence it towers in lonely grandeur, made more grand by the very solitariness of its condition, a pyramid of God's own handy work, in sight of which the pyramids of man's erection grow dwarfish, and shrinking from the comparison into insignificance, are felt to be "poor indeed." The outlines of two craters on its summit are distinctly visible; and deep fissures, proceeding at equal distances, like undulating radii from a common centre, along the plain, show how the too solid earth has been rent and torn during the agonistic throes of the once convulsed and burning mountain; and with the beds of lava, visible in all directions, serve to prove that once the fierce volcano blazed upon its summit into a beacon, to attract the adventurous mariner to this uttermost end of the earth; to chill and cheer at one and the same time, the restless native wan-
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dering forth by land--and may I not be indulged the fond fancy, to win by the brightness of its glare, and the mingled lights therein of heaven and hell, the eye of the Christian philanthropist, to look on with pity, if, haply, pity might kindle into love; and love once kindled, defer not to send salvation to a land whereon the light of life had never shone; and to a people, who had never warmed themselves at the fire of divine love.
After more than an hour's march from, the Pa, we halted upon learning that a further march of at least ten miles lay between us and any of the native huts; and it was determined, therefore, to return. Before doing so, however, Mr. Dyke and myself descended to a fine flat at the bottom of the ravine, where the natives had brought into cultivation several acres of garden ground. The soil was excellent. The land seeming to have been occasionally flooded by the river that runs through it.
The existence of this and other gardens, equally extensive, in different places, and all disjoined from the haunts and habitations of men, furnished another proof of the predatory habits of the people, but combined at the same time with as pleasing an evidence of foresight and care to perpetuate the fruits of the earth for their future subsistence.
Retracing their steps, our party re-entered the Pa, just as the morning picquet returned, the officer of which announced, that the natives had been seen in considerable numbers to the southward, and Captain Johnson determined upon trying to obtain an interview with them; and accordingly, after partaking of a standing breakfast, set off for that
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purpose, escorted by the interpreter, and four seamen, who were selected in preference to soldiers, lest the natives should be intimidated by the red coats of the latter.
The native foot-track led him across a small rivulet of delicious water, one of the thousand flowing streams which irrigate the country; but no appearance of the natives was visible until he came to a grove of trees, on rounding which, several stragglers hove in sight, to disarm whom of their fears, if any, the sailors were ordered under cover, and Captain Johnson, the interpreter, and myself, advanced towards them. Here we came to the margin of a large natural basin, which, although dry at the time of our visit, is not improbably overflowed by the river running through it, at those seasons when the bed of the latter is swollen by the accumulation of waters from the neighbouring mountain. The whole of this basin wore the aspect of a well-watered garden, so densely was it crowded with rich and branching woods. From the border of this Eden Mr. Battesby was sent forward to confer with a group of natives, after talking to whom for some minutes, be was seen running back towards us and away from them. Upon which I took the liberty, regardless of Captain J. 's orders to the contrary, to advance and meet the runaway, fearing lest he should be cut off by a little body of men who were at this time hastening after him. Having joined him, I found he was flying from his own fears, being alarmed at the approach of other natives besides those with whom he was con-
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versing; and we returned together to resume the conference with the savages, several of whom, with their muskets in their hands, occupied a small pass through a second grove of trees, to the possession of which they seemed to attach considerable importance. A breast-work of earth had been thrown up to bar the entrance to this grove, and on the top of the bank stood a New Zealand Ajax, who, wordy as the Grecian warrior, brandished his tomahawk over his head with untiring arm, shouting and yelling like one possessed of a devil, as we drew near him, and at times thrusting forth his tongue as far as he could, in undisguised expression of the contempt he either entertained or affected to entertain for his opponents.
The arms we had with us were a brace of pistols and a sword, and we were met by two New Zealanders, who advanced with their firelocks in their hands, on seeing which, Mr. Battesby pointed his pistol at them, and gave them to understand that they must lay down their muskets before he could suffer them to come nearer his person. In reply, they called to him to look at the pistol in my belt, and signified that I ought to lay down that weapon of mine, if they were to dispose of theirs; and of course, upon being made acquainted with so reasonable a sentiment, hoping too by confidence to beget confidence, I deposited the dreaded pistol in the grass at my feet, and stepped forward with open band to salute them. At first it was not a little diverting to see the timidity, with which they were seized; only venturing sufficiently near to
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touch the tips of my fingers, and immediately recoiling at the touch, as though they had encountered a beast of prey; a circumstance readily accounted tor by the occurrences of the previous day, for how, after what had happened to their chief, were they to be at once assured that further treachery lurked not under the seeming welcome of our salutation? But in a minute or two after we were excellent friends, shaking hands together much more heartily than there was any need to do, and shortly entered upon the subject matter of debate between us; when they informed us that "the woman" had been removed to the Waimate; laughed at the idea of our attacking that place, as preposterous; accused us of deceiving and betraying them, and said we had behaved "badly, with exceeding badness, to O-o-hit," their wounded and captive chief, who, they declared, had been murdered by us, and was now, they doubted not, quite dead, for, the night before, they bad seen his spirit pass over their heads in a falling star; and ended with an unfortunate threat of bringing down all the Natiruanui tribes, to dispossess us of the Numa, and fight us back into the sea.
Encouraged by the sight of their companion's safety, other natives now drew near, bringing with them some of the booty they had stolen from the boats. One of these, who, however, took care to keep at a very respectful distance, had on an entire suit of seaman's clothing. One of the haversacks, with its contents, was redeemed with a piece of tobacco, and trial made to recover possession
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of another, but the possessor rose in his demands to so exorbitant a degree, that it was deemed wiser to let him keep it.
Failing to convince them that O-o-hit' was yet alive, they could not be persuaded that his freedom might at any time be purchased by an exchange of prisoners, and finding this impediment in the way of an amicable adjustment of differences, we were compelled to bring the conference to a close, but in doing so, my companion again exhibited his moral unfitness for the responsible office to which he had been appointed by the Sydney Government, of Interpreter. Turning round to me, he asked, with the most perfect simplicity of manner, "Shall I bounce them?" "Bounce them!" I replied, "what do you mean by that?" "Shall 1 tell them a lie?" "Certainly not! but pray what lie do you propose to tell them?" "Why, that if they won't promise to deliver up the woman and children, we shall set fire to the Numa!" Alas! alas! that would have been no lie, for upon that measure the mind of him who commanded our party was already made up.
For the office of an interpreter between parties who are, or are likely to become belligerent, moral honesty, and personal and moral courage, are equally indispensable, for where these are wanting, each party is liable to misunderstand and to be misunderstood; the disagreements between both are likely to be multiplied, and the previous breach to be widened beyond the limits of forbearance. The absence of all three in the person chosen to
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accompany us, was abundantly certified by the little incident now related, when coupled with what took place between him and the natives on a former occasion; and his consequent incapacity for the office which he filled, placed beyond the possibility of doubt or question. That he should have been selected for so responsible a situation will be matter of grief to all who are interested in saving the lives of their fellow creatures, and of astonishment to such as consider the duty of governments to provide fit and proper persons for all public offices, and more especially for those in which ignorance and incapacity may prove destructive to the properties and fatal to the lives of other men. It was indeed a piece of culpable negligence to entrust such an employment as that referred to here, to one so ill qualified; it was unjust to Captain Lambert, and those who acted under him, to leave them at the mercy of one who was not to be depended on, for delivering a faithful message between them and a parcel of ignorant savages; and it was little better than homicidal indifference, to suffer communications affecting the lives of those savages, to flow to and fro through a channel altogether incapable of transmitting those communications, without, at the same time, altering their tenor by an admixture of falsehood and deception.
Having furnished Captain Johnson with an account of our interview, that officer proceeded again to the Numa, for the purpose of burning it to the ground. And accordingly, immediately on his-
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arrival there, fires were kindled in every dwelling, and all the stockades pulled down, and, with other combustible materials, added to the flames. In less than an hour after, nothing was discernible of the poor New Zealanders' town, but blazing ruins and burning embers--the officers and men concerned in this work of destruction returning on board as soon as it was accomplished; where we found the captive chief in a cot, suffering far less from his many wounds than had at first been anticipated, and highly gratified with the attentions he had received, as well as satisfied that none of the Alligator's Rangatira, or officers, but wholly disapproved of the brutal outrage perpetrated upon him by the master and crew of the whale boat.
In the afternoon the ship was found to be drifting towards the shore, which, and there not being a breath of wind, rendered it necessary that she should anchor; this took place at three, P.M. when the anchor was let go in fourteen fathoms. It was again weighed at six o'clock, but only to be dropped a second time in less than twenty minutes after; and it was past midnight before she was fairly at sea, and entirely safe from the peril of shipwreck, on a coast which, if not naturally inhospitable, would, in all likelihood, have proved so to us, from the character of our recent intercourse with its inhabitants. Was not the merciful interposition of Divine Providence on our behalf, designed to reprove our own unmercifulness towards others in the transactions of the two previous days?
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and ought it not to have engaged our mercy on behalf of the New Zealanders in any subsequent dealings we might have with them?
September 30th. Running along shore for Waimate, in from seven to ten fathoms water; the appearance of the coast such as sailors designate iron-bound, boldness and ruggedness characterizing it the whole of the way from Moturoa to beyond the place of our present destination; the grand outline being that of an extensive cape, the sweep of which is broken by a series of shallow bays, as these are parted from one another by huge promontories. The line of country is so level as almost to run parallel with the water line throughout its entire length; subject to numerous breaks in the solid rocks, occasioned by its having been rent and torn in those places where the mountain streams had found themselves channels for the conveyance seaward of Egmont's tributary waters; and along the banks of which they have deposited as they went a rich alluvial soil, thus affording growth to an endless variety of vegetable productions, which relieve the eye at these several fissures, with the sight of woods and groves--pleasing contrasts to a continuous wall of black and brown rock.
In speaking of Mount Egmont, as a slumbering or spent volcano, I had occasion to make mention of those remarkable rents in the ground, which have widened very generally into ravines, and being well watered are covered with vegetation; and I then referred the phenomenon to volcanic agency. It may be right, however, to mention in this place, that
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water probably had a share in producing them as well as fire; I suppose them to have been produced somewhat in this way. The expansion of steam within the womb of the earth, met with equal resistance at every part, except where the mountain torrents had worn away its surface into beds for the rivers which they fed with perpetual supplies, drawn from the sides and summits of the mountain. Here the resistance from without necessarily diminished as the bed of a river either widened or deepened, while the pressure from within, at such parts, as necessarily, caused the earth, elsewhere solid, to yield; and when at length the fires that had struggled for a vent, evolved at the craters, the pressure, and with it the support from within, being removed, and the weight of water, perhaps at those times mingled with streams of lava, impending without, the ground would give way under the superincumbent load; fall in, and thus occasion those, in some places fearful chasms, in others, wild but beautiful glens.
At noon the mountain bore N. by W. and we were distant about five miles from the Waimate Pa, off which the water shoals suddenly from five, to four, and three fathoms, with an uneven, rocky bottom. At 1h. 30m. P.M., out-boats, for the purpose of negotiating with the natives, who were seen in crowds upon the neighbouring heights, and swarming like bees upon, the two Pa's, and along the sea-shore. Mrs. Guard and her child were brought down to the beach, by her keepers, and was very distinctly seen from the boats, waving her hand to warn her deliverers off, the policy of the
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savages being at this juncture to seduce our men to land, and then to repay treachery with treachery, and put every one that might do so to death; "Haere mai! Haere mai!" inviting them to go on shore, while a number of women in a state of nudity added enticement to those invitations, by dances of the most unequivocal character. As the boats neared the shore, a multitude of warriors commenced dancing a war dance, and, either in defence or bravado, made the welkin ring with a terrific shout, tossed their muskets in the air, or waved them over their heads, and proudly flourishing the tomahawk and battle-axe, dared us to the strife.
At three, P.M. the boats returned, having landed the native who visited us first from the Numa, and had remained on board, as fearless as at the beginning, throughout the melancholy transactions at that place; and whose quiet demeanour, apparent intelligence, and interesting manners, during his stay, had engaged the good will of both officers and men. In landing him thus freely, it was due to the confidence he had reposed in us; while the policy of the measure was obvious, in as much as he would be, able to testify to the humane treatment finally experienced by O-o-hit', and might also persuade his tribesmen that we possessed the means of spreading destruction along the coast, and of razing to the ground all their defences.
At 5h. 30m. P.M., another boat was sent in to endeavour to learn the result of his liberation, but the dashing of the surf, and the roar of the breakers, between the boat and the beach, allowed not of any
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audible interchange of words between them. It was evident, notwithstanding, that some question was still under discussion, for large numbers of natives were assembled in circles, seated on the sand, or leaning against the rocks, and apparently listening with attention to a succession of orators, the expression of whose sentiments severally called forth loud demonstrations of public feeling. At last three distinct and spirited cheers came over the waters, drowning, in their loudness, the noise of winds and waves, and announcing, we knew not what, and hardly liked to conjecture. The crowd then dispersed, and as the shadows of evening now set in, nothing more was left to look at, but the ing smoke of the many fires, which, as we stood out to sea for the night, illuminated the whole heaven in our rear.
October 1, 1834. --At 10h. 30m. A.M., two boats were again dispatched to confer with the natives. In one of these was O-o-hit', whose anxiety to be released lent him strength for the occasion; while his wounds, sufficient to have killed outright any man with an European constitution, appeared to occasion him comparatively little inconvenience, beyond the weakness incidental to excessive haemorrhage. Nor was his case, I have been since told, a singular one of the rapidity with which serious and even dangerous wounds progress to a cure in the person of a New Zealander; which circumstance, altogether novel to one accustomed to the surgery of England and other civilized countries, may be accounted for by two facts in the character of the natives of
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New Zealand, who have not been contaminated by intercourse with Europeans--their temperance in eating, and their almost abstinence in drinking. A depraved constitution is that which most commonly couples disease with hurts; and gluttony and drunkenness tend most directly to deprave the habit of body of those who indulge therein. They whose diet consists chiefly of fruits and vegetables, whose drink is that of creation's own providing, in its simplest and purest form, water from the river or the brook,, and that drank only seldom and in small quantities, may well be expected to have constitutions that can stand up against almost any violence; and when to temperance in meats and drinks are added, moderate and only occasional exercise, freedom from the multiplied cares and anxieties of men in more civilized communities, and the total absence of all unwholesome occupations and sedentary pursuits, they may rightly be supposed also to have bodies in which one may look to find, on almost every emergency, a vis medicatrix naturae in its greatest perfection, to assist in the restorative process, and help to heal every wound. Such is one of the blessings of temperance, even when compulsory, and produced by condition rather than from principle; and how poor an exchange has been made, when this blessing has been bartered away for the tinsel gifts of mere civilization. It is one of the differences, but a very marked one it is, between the civilization which is independent of Christianity, and the civilization which is dependent upon, preceded by, and flows
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out of Christianity, that while the former multiplies sensual gratifications, and varies without repressing the bias of the appetite to intemperate indulgence in every material good; the latter, at the same time that it pronounces every creature of God to be good, and to be received with thanksgiving, prescribes the necessary limit to indulgence, and applies as indispensable a curb to appetite, and so removes the savage out of his savageness, without sacrificing the one virtue of necessity which attaches to savage life. --temperance.
O-o-hit', when the boat came within hearing of his tribe on the beach, stood upon one of the thwarts, and harangued them for a few minutes, whereupon they all set up a shout of gratulation, and several waded through the surf up to their mouths in water, hoping to get near to the boat in which he was; but failing to do so, deposited their female prisoner and her infant in a canoe, launched it from the shore, and brought them off alongside the Alligator's gig. In a few minutes more they were safe on board that ship, and under the protection of His Majesty's pennant. She was dressed in native costume, being completely enveloped from head to foot in two superb mats, the largest and finest of the kind I have ever seen: they were the parting present of the tribe among whom she had been sojourning. She was, however, barefooted, and awakened, very naturally, universal sympathy by her appearance. From her own lips I gathered the following particulars of what had befallen her in the interval between her removal
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from the Numa, and her release at the Waimate.
When the parties from the ship landed at the Numa, she was, as had been stated by O-o-hit', at that place, and in custody of one man alone, Wai-ari-ari, the principal chief of the tribe, who, on seeing the firing from the boat, and the rapid advance of the English, forced her out of the Pa, rolled her down the cliff, and then, with the assistance of another native who had lurked outside, dragged her along the northern bank of the river at a very hurried pace until the evening, when they reached a cluster of huts and halted thereat for the night. The following morning early, they all set off for the Ranghituapeka, and arrived thereabout five, P.M. Under the impression that O-o-hit' was killed, one of her companions snapped his musket at her, but very providentially it missed fire; he then cocked it a second time, and was about to fire, when she was endued with presence of mind enough to lay her hand upon the barrel and turn it aside, while she rushed to Wai-ari-ari and clung to him, till his repeated command not to kill the woman extorted a reluctant obedience from his more implacable subaltern, and the present danger was accordingly averted. At one time it appeared to herself a certainty, that, if O-o-hit' were really dead, her life would be forfeited in retaliation; and the native female to whose care her infant was committed, declared that, in such case, the infant being left without a mother, would be given up "for one of the rivers to drink," that is, would be
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drowned. With the exception of these threats, however, they treated her as before; and of the treatment she had all along experienced at their hands, her report was extremely favourable. 4
The arrival of the native with intelligence of O-o-hit's safety, and the assurance that he would be given up instantly upon her release, was welcomed with loud and long-continued acclamations, and a very general cry of--"Let the woman go! let the woman go!" was preliminary to those three rounds of applause which had been heard from the ship, but not understood.
The night before had been spent in wailings and lamentations, reproachful and recriminatory orations. "What fools we were not to cut up their boats!" was the cry of one party, while the complaint of a second was, "What fools we were not to shoot them all as they stepped on shore!" and had either of those measures been resorted to, doubtless we should have been seriously inconvenienced, even if we had not been altogether cut off from every way of escape. There were not less than six boats drawn
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up upon the beach at one time, all of which might have been broken to pieces as readily as they were plundered, for all the opposition that would have been offered by the boat-keepers. While, had the New Zealanders fired upon us before we commenced marching towards the Numa, if would scarcely have been possible for the whole of our party to reach it alive. Surely there was a gracious and merciful Providence keeping watch over us on that occasion; to whose mercy and goodness alone it is owing that we are now among the living, either to praise him who preserved us, or to continue unmindful of his benefits, unthankful and unholy.
They passed the night of their tribesman's arrival in a far happier mood. Forming themselves into widening circles, circle within circle, and placing him in the centre, they made him repeat again and again his tale of marvel, drinking in greedily all he had to say, while expatiating on the many wonders of the "war ship"--her five decks and five hundred men; the daily sword and gun exercise, with many other matters, all equally exaggerated, either by his fears or his fancy; and not allowing him the respite of a single lengthened pause, without interrupting his silence by loud vociferations of - "Tena koruru, tena koruru!" Go on, go on! talk away, talk away!
Captain Lambert had promised O-o-hit' that he was to be set at liberty upon the receipt of this woman; and notwithstanding that another prisoner yet remained to be delivered up, he judged, as I think any honest man, and much more any man of
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honour, would have judged, that the promise was binding upon him, and very properly allowed the captive to go free. Yet that was looked upon by some as an act of uncalled-for leniency, and by others set down as a piece of mawkish refinement, alike inexpedient and impolitic. Such men would do well to reflect upon the noblest eulogy pronounced upon that prince of modern orators and statesmen, Edmund Burke, if indeed such men posses minds capable of understanding the excellence of any man who is, with him, "too fond of the right to think of the expedient." The right, in short, is always the expedient; and, were it not that all men have not faith, - that would never be deemed expedient to be done which, in the abstract, it would not be right to do.
Accordingly, O-o-hit' had his wounds carefully dressed for the last time, received a supply of trifling articles as farewell gifts, and was rowed to the back of the surf, where a canoe waited to carry him through it, into which he stepped, and was straightway paddled by willing hands on shore. Before quitting us, he had apparelled himself in some of his various presents, putting on first a blanket; over that, forcing on a shirt, and through both contriving to humour his arms into a jacket, this latter being so put on as to button behind instead of before; and having finished his toilette and completed his disguise by a Scot's cap drawn over his eyes, escaped from our custody as proud of his new plumage as any beau just released from the more gentle hands of some fashionable tailor. His friends
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were impatient to greet him, and before he had time to be landed, they waded up to their necks in water, surrounding the canoe, to meet and rub noses with him, after which, both parties wept aloud--then sang and danced for joy.
While the boats lay upon their oars, several natives came through the surf with trifling articles for barter, and gladly exchanged as much line, as in Sydney would have cost from four to five shillings, for a fig of tobacco; and at the same rate brought out their potatoes for sale, in baskets weighing from fifteen to twenty pounds. This harmless traffic had no sooner commenced, than it was prohibited, by the officer commanding the boats, very unwisely, it being one of the most evident means of conciliating the natives, and thereby inducing them to resign in peace, their only remaining prisoner, A little while after, Mr. Battesby cautioned Lieutenant Thomas to beware of treachery, as he saw, or fancied he saw, movements among the crowd on shore indicative of hostility, upon which warning both boats returned on board, leaving a little boy still captive among the Taranaki tribe, who hesitated to give him up, because, as they alleged, his more immediate owner was at a distance; promising however to convey a message to him with our demand, and appointing the afternoon for us to receive his answer. At one, P.M. the senior lieutenant again approached the shore, but the boat in which he was, had not lain long on her oars, before a ball whizzed over his head, discharged from the musket of some one in the Waimate Pa, and he came back to the
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ship to report the circumstance; which, with the wardance that accompanied it, was deemed a signal of defiance, and worthy of being summarily avenged. The drum now beat to quarters, both vessels edged towards the shore till they touched bottom, and a furious cannonading took place from both, the direful effects of which it is impossible to estimate, seeing that it continued for nearly three hours, and that most of the shots told with fearful precision, upon the canoes floating in the river on the one side of the Pa, or drawn up in the fosse on the other; and upon the roofs of the houses in the Pa itself. When the firing began, the natives hoisted a white flag--but after some minutes had elapsed, lowered it again, and then, after a second pause, re-hoisted it. Was that symbol spread out as a flag of truce? Could it be that those unhappy wretches meant, by displaying it, to deprecate our further wrath? None of us knew, few cared, and fewer still were at the pains to enquire. It seemed as though a signal, sufficient when used in the warfare of civilized nations, to command instant respect, and an immediate cessation, however temporary, of hostilities, was powerless when shown by a savage people, though to civilized enemies: or as if when a civilized power condescends to make war upon savages, it is at liberty to throw off the restraints imposed by civilized society upon nations as well as individuals, even at seasons of greatest licence, and may become as utterly and deplorably savage in its conduct as its most savage neighbour. At one time, a tall, athletic native got upon a
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house-top, and held up to our view with one hand, the little captive boy, while with the other he repeatedly waved the white flag over his head. In vain! the work which had commenced in anger, was continued in sport, and it was deemed too excellent a joke to demolish their canoes and houses, by firing at them as at a mark, for aught to be suffered to interrupt the cruel play of men, who on this occasion proved themselves to be but children of a larger growth in both size and wickedness. Throughout this ostentatious and melancholy parade of the power we possessed to do mischief, the unfortunate New Zealanders displayed the utmost fearlessness, evincing no apprehension of danger beyond that of sending away their women and children, but, on the contrary, tracking with apparent eagerness the flight of the shot, and having marked where they fell, running to and fro upon the beach, exposed all the while to our fire, to pick up the balls, thinking perhaps to melt them down into bullets for their own muskets, which, as if in mockery of our attempts to dislodge them from their rocky abode, they would occasionally fire at us in their turn: but we were very far out of reach of any power possessed by them to render us back evil for evil-- and, having crushed all the canoes that were in sight, weaned ourselves with shooting at a rock, and wasted a large quantity of ammunition with no beneficial result, stood out to sea once more.
The fatal bullet which bad caused all the above firing, in vindication of our insulted flag, was, very probably, according to New Zealand custom, no
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indication of hostility at all, but contrariwise, of friendship. It is their usage, to discharge their muskets in the air, when approaching as friends, and to reserve their fire when advancing as enemies. Had we not been strangers to this usage, or had we bad any one on board who really understood their customs, we should have judged differently of the deed we were so hasty in avenging; and might have acted differently in reference to it. How superior the conduct of the New Zealand savages to that of the British Christians, if I may be allowed, for the sake of the antithesis, to desecrate that sacred title, by yielding it as a name not characteristic, but recognized and claimed by those of whom I am speaking. The former beheld their chief, kidnapped, stabbed, struck, fired upon, carried into captivity, and, for aught they knew to the contrary, murdered --but they murdered not the innocent woman and her two children in revenge--nay! they did not even ill-treat her for the injury done by her countrymen, on her behalf. We, oh! that I could spread the blush of burning shame that crimsons upon my own cheek, over the cheeks of all that read this page, at the dishonour done my country by her children! We heard, but felt it not; saw, but were struck not by it; as a solitary musket ball whizzed over our heads, and in the pride of our indignation, poured down in reply a thunder-storm of shot, --round, grape, and canister, --upon a town which, for aught we knew, or felt, or cared, might have contained scores, nay hundreds, of women and children. Oh! shame, shame, shame.
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October 2, 1834. At anchor in Port Hardy, of which acting Lieutenant Woore had now time to complete the survey, taking me with him for an amanuensis, in the absence, on other duty, of his usual helper, Mr. N. C. Phillips, the second master. He informed me upon this occasion, that at one part of the inner harbour, it is only separated from Admiralty Bay by a very narrow isthmus, which at no distant date, the natives will probably find it their interest to cut through, and in that case the united harbours will form one of the most commodious ports in the world.
October 3 and 4. --Still at anchor. Mount Egmont distinctly visible from the harbour, forming a beautiful object beyond the distant horizon, though upwards of a hundred miles off.
5th. --Weighed and made sail for Waimate.
6th. ---At day-light, Mount Egmont bearing N.N.W., our longitude by chronometer was 174 deg. 02' E. At eleven o'clock, A.M., the gig was sent in to demand the child, and the officers who went in her were invited by the natives to land, but declined doing so, and came back as they went. At 1h. 30m. P.M. another unsuccessful demand was made for the child, a look-out being kept in the meanwhile for an easy landing-place, of which the New Zealanders seemed fully aware, as they brought the youngster down to the beach opposite the Pa, offering to give him up if the boats would pull towards that place, but refusing to do so after they had succeeded in drawing her away from the spot at which alone a safe landing could be effected in such boats as the Alligator's.
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Oct. 7th. --The boats were again sent in at an early hour, but with no better result than before. A message, however, came off to the ship in one of them, to the effect that the holder of the child wanted to come on board with him himself, and would do so if any of the officers would go on shore in his stead, and remain there to await his safe return. One of the natives also visited us, unarmed and alone, professing to belong to the Cabiti tribe, and, after receiving a present of some tobacco and other trifling articles, was allowed to go back unmolested. But Captain Lambert declined granting the request of one of his officers to go as the chief had desired, thinking that such an undertaking;, would be extremely perilous, and fearing, as he said, to incur the responsibility of allowing the individual in question to expose himself to what Captain L. thought would be certain and instant destruction.
Nothing further occurred for several hours, when upon alarm of "treachery," raised by the interpreter, the boats pulled on board again, and the ship proceeded to sea; the men in a state of excitement almost bordering on madness, and every thing appearing as if the further prosecution of the enterprise was to be abandoned; towards the evening, however, we again bore up for Waimate, and the following clay, October the 8th, six officers and 112 men, including sailors, soldiers, and marines, were landed without opposition on a sandy beach, about two miles to the southward and eastward of the Waimate Pa, under a bold and lofty
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cliff. A small six-pounder carronade, two boxes of ammunition, and a quantity of round shot, were taken charge of by the sailors, under the command of Mr. M'Murdo, and the first gig, carrying a flag of truce, was sent to lie off the Pa, to amuse the natives while our men were landing, if not to prevail upon them to launch from their shore the little captive who was endangering their very existence as a tribe; Lieutenant Clarke, R.N., marching off the marines and some of the military to the right, where, at the distance of about a hundred yards, the cliff terminates abruptly. It was escaladed with comparative ease, the ascent being aided by a contrivance of the natives for facilitating their own passage up and down its almost perpendicular face, consisting of two plaited ropes, suspended from strong stakes, driven into crevices of the rock, and capable of bearing the weight of several persons at the same time. The gun and ammunition followed the soldiers up this height, but had not all reached the top, when some of the natives advanced to confer with us; these, to prevent embarrassment during the landing of the few remaining troops, were ordered to retire, on peril of being fired at if they refused, but they succeeded in making known, before obeying the command, their desire to settle the affair quietly, and to resign their prisoner forthwith; in consequence of which intimation all hands halted, the soldiers, &c, occupying two heights, which rose like terraces one over the other, and the sailors, with an officer and interpreter, being, very indis-
