1836 - Marshall, W. B. A Personal Narrative of Two Visits to New Zealand - [Second Visit: Pages 200-249]

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creetly, left, below to await the arrival of the promised prize.

In a little, one New Zealander after another seemed anxious to approach us, and drew nearer and nearer by degrees, but always at a stealthy pace. To meet such, I went on in front of our men, and succeeded in getting near enough to communicate with them. One, a fine fellow, six feet high and upwards, consented to accompany me back; he had no musket in his hand, but, like several more of his countrymen, had a cartouche-box slung across his shoulder, and concealed under his mat. Subsequent events render it not improbable that his firelock was at hand, concealed, perhaps, behind some tuft of flax, in readiness for use when needed, and it was remarkable, that at the several stages of his advance towards me, he stooped lower than the ordinary stooping gait at which he and his fellows came on, as if to lay something down out of their hands. His tale corresponded with that of his fellows below, and contained an assurance that the child would be presently forthcoming, wherefore he forbad our fighting, alleging as a reason, --and was it not a sufficient reason?--that his tribe had no wish at all to fight us. While thus conversing with him, through the medium of the pilot, who very reluctantly interpreted his sentences, when he found them altogether conciliatory, at the same time that he expressed the most ferocious hatred himself to the whole race of New Zealanders, other natives acquired sufficient confidence to join us, and all

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appeared anxiously solicitous to avert hostilities, corroborating the statement that the child would soon arrive, and at the same time signifying, by a variety of gestures, that the occurrent delay was occasioned by the preparations necessary for his transfer being made decently and in order.

Suddenly the cry rose upon our ears that the child was coming, upon which my New Zealand friend drew me to the edge of the cliff, whither all feet were now bending their steps, and directed my notice to a procession of about half a dozen armed natives, headed by a very stately personage, who wore a white feather in his head, and a large and handsome mat across his back; while the captive boy appeared perfectly at his ease, seated astride the chief's shoulders. Somewhat in the rear followed our former prisoner, O-o-hit, apparelled in the dress he had taken with him from the ship; and near him our two voluntary visitants. The native who was with me hailed O-o-hit, who looked up, and recognizing me, stopped to "palaver," and was proceeding to do so with considerable volubility, and in apparently very high glee. But, impatient to have a nearer view of the young object of all this pomp and circumstance, I quitted the spot, and was hurrying along the cliff in order to descend it, when I beheld the youngster in one of the seamen's arms, and he running away with him towards the turning of the rock, as fast as his legs would carry him. In the twinkling of an eye more, a firing commenced among the sailors on the beach, and the sound

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and sight thereof being eagerly caught by their companions in arms above, in another moment, it was succeeded by a fire from the soldiers on the heights, which ran like electricity along the ranks from man to man; and, in utter breach of all faith, for our flag of truce was flying at the time, and in as utter despite of all discipline, volley after volley was poured down upon the too credulous and too confiding people below, who fled along the beach with the utmost precipitation, one every now and then falling to the ground, wounded or slain; while others crouched down, and sheltered themselves behind the massive blocks of stone, which, happily for them, lay scattered along that portion of the beach, by which alone they could hope to escape from the fire of their enemies.

While this cruel and bloody tragedy was performing, Ensign Wright, of His Majesty's 50th, or Queen's Own Regiment, an amiable young man and humane officer, hurried along the line, breathless with haste, and crying to the men at the top of his voice, to cease firing; for some time he was entirely disregarded, and not only generally disobeyed, but, in some instances, laughed at; nor, until several dead bodies were seen stretched upon the sands, could the united efforts of himself and the other officers put a stop to the frightful tide of slaughter. Shortly after, Captain Johnson joined us, evidently suffering intense anguish of mind: the firing from below had begun not only without, but contrary to and in direct disobedience of his express and positive orders that the natives were

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to pass unmolested if they gave up the child. Their prisoner they had already given up. The parties to whom he was consigned were effectually covered by nearly a hundred soldiers above them. The natives who brought him down were a scanty and impotent few; their muskets, as will be hereafter seen, in all probability unloaded. Nothing on the spot had occurred to provoke this sanguinary outrage. Not one jot or tittle of out demands, whether righteous or unrighteous, remained to be ceded. Nothing can justify so foul a deed of blood. And may God of his infinite mercy and goodness to the souls of the perpetrators, grant that hereafter something else may be found to account for it besides an insatiate thirst for the lives of others. And may we all lay it to heart, while we shudder to look upon this affair in the light of that law of love which says, "Thou shalt do no murder!" and while we exceedingly quake and tremble for our fellow men, lest blood-guiltiness be chargeable against them, and their brother's blood be heard to cry out to heaven for vengeance upon them; may we all, I, whose painful task it is with unflinching fidelity to record these events, and my Christian readers, upon whom I am obliged to inflict the pain of perusing them, may we all lay it to heart, that the guilt of these men is our guilt, their sin our sin, and their shame our shame. Whoso hateth his brother, and all man kind are brethren, is a murderer, so hath Jesus Christ the righteous, who is the Wisdom of God, and our Wisdom also, judged of that man that loveth not

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his neighbour, that hateth his brother. And remembering this, let him that is without sin cast the first stone, and be first to pronounce these unhappy menslayers more criminal than other men, or even more guilty in the sight of God, a holy and heart-searching God, than our own selves, for, "as in water face answereth to face, so doth the heart of one man to another;" and the heart of man, what is it? deceitful above all things, says the Lord God, "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked! who can know it?"

A cessation of firing at length took place, and it was proposed to fall back on some spot whence we might, as speedily as possible, re-embark. But every circumstance only militated against the unhappy natives, one of whom, either mistaking the pause in our fire, or willing to avenge himself upon the invaders of his country, discharged the contents of his musket with so deliberate an aim, that the ball fell at our feet, whereupon every thought of allowing the business to terminate without more mischief was dismissed from the mind; and an order to "advance!" immediately given, and obeyed with only too much alacrity, the natives on the same height, whom we drove before us, maintaining an irregular fire as they retreated.

In this skirmish some more of the natives were wounded, and carried off the field by their friends; a young

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woman was also killed by a shot from one of the advanced guard. Her corpse was tracked into the bush, and found the following day by one of the soldiers. Heavy rain falling, and being drifted into our faces by a strong northerly wind, while the darkening air and overcast sky threatened a coming tempest, it was agreed to halt for the present, beside a romantic glen, where a running stream sufficed for the supply of our small camp with water; and the question was mooted, whether to advance upon the Pas, or fall back upon some spot where the men might quietly bivouac for the night, and be in readiness to take their departure in the morning. A majority of the officers carried it in favour of the former; and having abided the pelting of the storm, the whole party prolonged their march without meeting any further obstructions until they arrived at the edge of a deep, and seemingly impassable ravine, which yawned from beneath as if to devour them, and embedded a river at the bottom, whose waters, flowing with great rapidity, and forcing their impetuous way between large masses of rock, occasioned several falls, and added not a little to the apparent difficulty of the pass, over which it became necessary to transport, not only the troops, but also the piece of ordnance and the boxes of ammunition. Captain Johnson, when be came to the brink, and looked into the gulf before him, paused in despair of being able to effect a passage, and a last and final halt would have taken place, but for the determination and energy of Mr. M'Murdo, through whose exertions the task was

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finally accomplished; and in less than an hour the whole company stood upon the opposite height, where the natives had once formed an artificial ditch, by cutting through the earth and rock beneath diagonally across to the edge of the cliff fronting the sea, so as to insulate a large triangular space, formerly the scite of a Pa, though nothing now remains to indicate its previous existence, except a number of empty potatoe-pits, and a breastwork of earth thrown up on both sides of the ditch, to impede the progress of an enemy. The native name of this place is Oberakanui, and had the natives made a stand against us here, and chosen their time for doing so, when the carronade was at the bottom of the ravine, they might have disputed our transit with success; or, if finally compelled to give way before men better armed, accoutred, and disciplined than themselves, they, in all probability, would have been able to exact blood for blood, and life for life.

From Oberakanui, the distance to the remaining Pas did not exceed an English mile. On the way to them, we passed over patches of ground appropriated to the uses of a garden, but neither railed nor fenced in; and, turning a little aside to explore a small grove of trees, found the head and stern of a canoe, very handsomely carved; and near them a new canoe itself, just built, and ready for launching. And here I may notice, that it is alike customary with the northern and the southern tribes to complete their canoes on the spot where they obtain the wood for building them, which done, they transport

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them over land, with infinite pains and labour, to the nearest part of the river or coast upon which they are destined to be afterwards employed.

Arrived opposite the Waimate and Ranghituapeka, a circumstance occurred, strikingly illustrative of the thoughtlessness which characterises the mere soldier, and of the facility with which thoughtless minds may be diverted from a tragic into a comic mood. Having reached a part of the native foot-track whence both the above places are commanded, preparations were making for the carronade to commence operations, when, to the general surprise of the officers, the men ran away in a variety of directions, shouting, laughing, and hallooing, and firing as if at random, to the great danger of one another. Upon enquiry it turned out that one of them had started a pig, and that in the eagerness of their desire to hunt down the unoffending beast, they were forgetting every thing beside--gun --Pas--New Zealanders--and their own safety as well as the duty in which they were engaged. It did not, however, require much exertion to restore them to order. Meanwhile I had gone forward to join Lieutenant Gunton, who headed the advanced picquet, and upon whom a firing had just opened from the farthest Pa, supported with considerable spirit by a body of natives concealed in the brush-wood below, or thinly scattered among the flax, which in some places grew to upwards of six feet high. In the hurry of returning their fire, one of the soldiers exploded a small quantity of gunpowder, and injured the palm of his hand. The picture

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from this spot was beautiful in the extreme. We stood upon the superior of two terraces, having the sea on our left hand, and Mount Egmont on the right; in front of us a deep fosse surrounding the Waimate rock, on the top of which the thickly-built town lay fully exposed to our view; beyond this a deep ravine, covered with umbrageous woods, yielded a channel for the flowing waters of a small but lovely river to wend their way to the sea-side, widening as they went, and flowing at last between the two Pas; the Ranghituapeka rising above the further bank of that river like some proud tower or citadel, and frowning "defiance proud, and lofty scorn," upon our approach: ---its summit sloping towards the Waimate, which it also overlooks, afforded us a complete insight into the arrangement of the village which occupied it, a village so picturesque as a whole, and so beautiful in all its particulars, that one wish arose in almost every mind at the same time, and that wish was, to have it spared from the impending destruction.

The last person to abdicate that Pa was one, whose gallant bearing elicited commendation even from those who were most loth to bestow praise in aught pertaining either to the country or people of New Zealand. This man first fired at the strangers from the top of the Pa; then, although a dozen balls fell close to him almost immediately after, began stately and slow to descend along its many terraces, facing his antagonists the while; then stooped down, loaded his gun, and fired again. A second attempt to dislodge the single opponent of a

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hundred foes was made by nearly all hands; but the smoke of their fire had no sooner blown past than he was seen continuing his seemingly reluctant descent to another point, where he a third time stopped to reload, and slightly bending his body to the task, repeated his fire; then, amid a third volley from his numerous assailants, and while grape shot and canister from the carronade rained upon his path like hail, and knocked up the very dust of his own home about his heels, pursued bis downward path as if advancing to meet and brave his opponents, and, nothing daunted, fired again--and again--and again, and each time so nicely calculating his distance from us, that his every shot passed through the midst of our little band.

The chief of the Ranghituapeka was identical with the chief of the Numa, both those Pas belonging to the Natiruanui tribe. Now, Wai-ari-ari was the last to leave the latter place, as our hero, whose tale I have just told, was the last to leave the former. Was this man himself the chief now mentioned? and if so, does it pertain to the condition of chieftainship to be the last in flight? or was the noble conduct related above, ascribable only to individual heroism and loftiness of character in the person merely of the dauntless Wai-ari-ari? with whose departure, and I rejoice in being able to add that he effected his escape in safety, walking over the hill at the same steady pace as he had come down from the top of his rock, and finally disappearing altogether, the last of his tribe and the noblest of his race! it became evident that no one

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remained behind to dispute with us the possession of either place; and, accordingly, the seamen crossed the fosse, and escalading the southern side of the Waimate, hoisted the English ensign there in token to the ship of the complete success of the undertaking. The signal was soon made out by those on board, and answered with a salute of two guns, which complement was returned by double that number from the shore. And, in a few minutes after, the neighbouring Pa was entered by Gunton and his party..

In quiet possession of both places, ample leisure was afforded us to examine them thoroughly, and so far as that examination furnished us with materials for reflection, to reflect upon the character and pursuits of the previous inhabitants, as indicated thereby. Waimate itself was built on an insular rock, not unlike the Numa, in its general form, but larger, loftier, and more difficult of access. It was excessively crowded with huts, these being generally disposed in squares, but occasionally so ranged also as to form long narrow streets. Of these huts there were nearly two hundred standing when we entered the Pa, varying however in their form, as it was evident they varied in their uses. In the samples they afforded of the domestic architecture of the New Zealanders, there was little remarkable when contrasted with the similar edifices of the northern tribes, except that they appeared to have been constructed with more nicety, and carefulness, and with great attention to beauty of appearance. They were divisible into four varieties.

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1. The Ware Mehana; Warm, or sleeping-houses.
2. The Cautas; Cook-houses, or kitchens.
3. The Mauas; Open or store-houses. And,
4. The Watas, or Wood-houses.

The Ware Mehana consisted of a single apartment, and appear to have been used almost entirely as dormitories. They displayed a greater degree of care as well as skill in the construction, than any of the other varieties. Yet, their external appearance was rude, the walls and roof being made of mud and clay, and the former staked in, on all sides; the stakes at the sides being pointed at the top, so as to correspond in height and appearance; while those in front and behind were cut to correspond with the gable ends of the roof; over which the turnip and kumera spread out their thick foliage, forming a sort of leafy canopy over all, very refreshing to the eye, which might otherwise have tired at gazing upon the monotonous dullness of the town generally. The interior of these houses was, on the other hand, beautifully and even elegantly fitted; the walls as it were wainscoted with a row of cane running round the whole room, and divided horizontally into square compartments by ligatures of carefully twisted and plaited grass, crossing at regular distances four smoothed and polished stanchions, these again sustaining a frame-work from which four arches sprang, to support the ridge-pole at top, it being upheld also by three pillars, in the shape of which the first dawning of architectural embellishment is seen, they being handsomely formed, and decorated with comparatively chaste carving.

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Rows of cane, ranged in parallel lengths, filled up the interstices between those arches. A carpet, or perhaps I ought rather to say, a bed of dried fern leaf was carefully spread over every floor. And a small hollow, scooped out of the ground mid-way between the door and the centre pillar of the room, and carefully walled in and bottomed with smooth oval stones, served for a fire-place, the fuel for which hung from one of the beams or rafters, carefully tapued by the owner of the house, for his own peculiar use. In such a room or house, as that now described, and which only requires to complete it, a hole in front large enough to creep in by, and a wooden door rendered indispensably necessary to confine the heat, all the members of a family are accustomed to sleep together, numbering sometimes ten, and even a dozen persons, and comprising men, women, and children. These repose their heads round the base of the pillar in the centre of the room, and stretch themselves out like the radii of a circle, the circumference of which they may be said to describe with their feet.

The Cautas were also detached buildings, into which none but slaves, or the meanest persons in a tribe, would choose to go; the Rangatira hardly condescending so much as to cast a glance at what might be passing within. They were readily distinguished from the lodging-houses by the difference of their external appearance, and internal fitting; the walls generally consisting of little more than wattled flax, and the roofs for the most part being merely dry-thatched with grass, the thatch pro-

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jecting on both sides over the wails, and the roof at both ends being prolonged to form a rustic porch. The door-ways also were much larger, to admit of easier ingress and egress; while there were no doors to them: but the size of the stone-ovens within, if everything else had been wanting, would at once have denoted the office to which this variety of buildings was appropriated. Occasionally, one roof was found to cover in two, three, and even four such kitchens; but each, otherwise unconnected with its neighbour, and all having separate entrances; the separation of these many kitchens under one roof being rendered more distinct, by stores of wood, all the pieces cut in equal lengths, being piled up with the most perfect regularity and compactness, against the several partition walls.

In the number of these stores and the abundance of wood contained in them, no little foresight was exhibited. The wood being cut at stated seasons in a sufficient quantity to last for several months.

The Maua, or Open Houses, are so called, either from a small opening in addition to the door, or from the wall at one end only reaching half way across the building, and thereby leaving a wide entrance to the space within; beyond which there is occasionally an inner and sleeping apartment. These houses are used, for the most part, as warehouses in common, where the joint proprietors may safely deposit their implements of husbandry, and weapons of war; together with the few articles employed in their still fewer manufactures.

The wood-houses are distinct from ail the others;

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the most perfect specimen of the kind which fell under my own observation was one at the Ranghituapeka. It was raised upon a stage about six feet above the ground, and in its external appearance resembled a large dove-cot; the roof and three of the sides were so built as to exclude the wet, one side only being exposed to the weather; and that, serving to draw out the wood by, admitted of being shut in by a door swung upon hinges, and fastened, when shut, by a thong of hide.

As observed before at the Numa, potatoe-pits. were found in all directions, and so numerous as completely to honeycomb the whole of the ground occupied by these Pas. Here, however, they were fitted in very many instances with trap doors, which, being shut down, excluded the wet from without, and allowed even the most incautious to walk over them in perfect, security. Most of these holes were well stocked, and several of them filled with potatoes for consumption; those for seed being put up in baskets carefully covered with fern, and stowed along the ridges of different houses, or heaped upon watahs in every corner of the Pa. In some of the above pits, there were large wooden bowls full of water, in which floated the Haliotus, with its shell attached; that fish being common to the whole of this coast, and serving the natives for food, while the pearly surface on the inside of its shell, is in common use among them for ornamental and other purposes. They cut it into eyes for the monstrous heads carved by them to decorate their canoes, and the fronts of their principal

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houses, and with it brighten and bait their fishhooks; the fish itself, we found in considerable numbers strung upon long lines, dried, and smoked, with the design, evidently, of preserving them for a future day, that day perhaps, one of anticipated scarcity--a prudent provision, resulting from the instinct of necessity. The openness of the coast, the violence and frequency of an impassable surf, along its shores, rendering any supply of fresh fish contingent upon the winds and weather; and, consequently, very precarious. While the absence of native animals, and the paucity of those imported, such as dogs, and pigs, occasion a dearth of flesh-meat, and force the people to feed chiefly upon vegetable diet, and if not on it altogether, to be at least provident of the fish they catch. Mention has been made, already, of their hooks; to these, which are curiously and ingeniously shaped, they attach small white feathers. The invaluable flax-plant supplies them with line, which they manufacture by rolling the yarn between the palms of their hands, and with this they make a variety of nets, of all shapes and sizes. In the innumerable streams which irrigate their country, eels are found in great plenty, and to catch these they use valvular baskets, and a sort of rake, than which it is hardly possible that any thing better adapted for the purpose should be contrived.

Their clothing is simple, and for the most part such only as appeared to be called for by the absolute necessities of their condition. A solitary mat suffices for a covering to their nakedness, and

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as a cloak to keep out the wet and cold. The most common is made of the rough peeling of the flax; the finer kind wrought out of its fibres, in the manner already described, 1 or formed of stripes of dog-skin, sewn together so as to contrast the different colours. On the making of this last two persons are generally employed, one on one side and the other on the other, the skins being suspended from a line stretched above their heads, one passing; his thread through a hole in front, and the other returning it through another hole behind, until the whole garment is sewed into form, which it frequently requires a fortnight to complete. The dog, from the treble purpose served by it, of a watch when living, and food and clothing when dead, is highly valued by those it serves, and its bones carefully preserved. The skeleton of one, bleaching in the sun, was found on a high pole at the Numa, with the tabu, or sacred thread, wound round it, and a tuft of white feathers fastened to its skull.

It is somewhat singular that a people so constantly involved in wars with one another, and driven in consequence to the fastnesses of rock and mountain for security and a home, should make no provision for supplying themselves with water in case of a siege, unless, indeed, the siege forms no part of New Zealand warfare, or unless the besieged consider the flow of a natural stream round the base of every Pa, which is almost in-

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variably the case, as always accessible. Beyond a few gourds, which served them as water vessels, we found nothing containing that simplest and best of drinks, and, in all likelihood, the only one yet known to the simple but hardy tribes of the south. Mrs. Guard says they drink extremely little, a circumstance easily accounted for; they accustom themselves to no hard labour, they feed but sparingly upon either fish or flesh, and commonly only upon vegetables; nor will they eat salted provisions at all, of which we had a proof in the recovered haversack mentioned before; all the meat in it remained untouched, although the biscuit and its other contents had been removed.

The description given before of the Numa, may suffice to show that in their defensive architecture they display considerable skill. The introduction of musquetry among them has already modified their warfare, and from the use made by us of a single piece of ordnance, they will be taught the necessity of still greater changes in the sites occupied by their Pas, and in the construction of those Pas, in order to their being efficiently protected against the further introduction of artillery; before the occurrence, however, of any excuse for which, it is devoutly to be wished that the missionary corps may be strengthened in numbers sufficient to admit of their forming fresh settlements wherever Divine Providence may open a way before them, if, haply, the flow of blood in mortal strife may be stopped, and the deadly career of men of blood arrested.

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Horrid, at best, is the art and practice of war, from its beginning to its close, and destructive alike of the property, interests, happiness, and lives of those whose feet are entangled therein; while, if sorrow may have place in the habitations of the blessed, if the angels in heaven know, what it is to weep, the sight and hearing of what passes in the camp of even a civilized people, would cause sorrow to find an entrance even there, and draw forth rivers of tears even from them. "More dreadful," said Captain Johnson to me, in the course of a conversation between us at this time, "more dreadful is the condition of that country which is the seat of war, than would be the case of a land devastated by plague, pestilence, or famine." A testimony not the less remarkable, because voluntarily borne by an officer who had served many years in the Peninsula, and shared in most of the battles fought there during the last war; nor the less valuable because confirmatory, without designing to be so, of the wisdom of David's choice, in preferring to fall into the hands of the great and terrible Jehovah, and by his almighty power to have the kingdom plagued with three days of pestilence, or exhausted by seven years of famine, rather than flee three months before the face of his enemies, while, they, pursued after him. May the choice of Judah's king be the prayer of every one whose trust in in God, and whose hope the Lord is; "Let us fall now into the hands of the Lord, FOR HIS MERCIES ARE MANY, and let me not fall into the hand of man!"

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Extremes, as it has been proverbially expressed, meet. And in the art of war, and the military ardour to which military glory gives birth, we have the proverb wofully illustrated. The two extremes of society, its savage and its civilized states, meet at this one point--the military profession is the most honoured, and military success best rewarded, in both:

For, while the ancients decreed a civic crown to him who had merely saved the life of a citizen, the "triumph" was reserved for him who returned flushed with conquest, though the victories he gained might have cost the commonwealth thousands of lives. And, in our own days, a parliamentary grant, barely sufficient for defraying the expenses entailed upon its discoverer by the ardour with which he pursued his investigations, was deemed reward enough for the saviour, I mean, of course, instrumentally only, of thousands and tens of thousands of human beings, not in one country only, but in all lands; and the biographers

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of JENNER, in recording the fact, speak, not in irony, but in sober seriousness, of the grant as a grateful country's reward; while wealth and honours, the highest rank, and almost kingly power, are awarded by acclamation to the hero of a battle field; and not only himself, but his heirs and successors, enriched and ennobled by the larger gratitude of the same country, expressed too, at a time when the tears were still visible to the eye, and the groans still audible to the ear, of hundreds, perhaps thousands of widows and orphans, weeping and lamenting for their slain, and refusing to be comforted, because they were not. These instances are cited from the histories of the two most civilized nations in the world, pagan Rome and Christian Britain. And in what do they differ from the habit and custom of those extremely savage barbarians, the cannibals of New Zealand, or the more despised, only because more impotent, natives of New Holland? In both these latter the arts of peace are esteemed but woman's work, at best, and he who would advance in honour, and power, and glory, above his fellows, must excel in war, the murderous game of low ambition, whether in the savage or the civilized party, the reproach of kings, and the perpetual shame of Christian men.

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To return. Before the evening had closed, we were visited by Lieut. Thomas and Mr. Dayman, Midshipman, but the place chosen by them to land at was such, that in doing so the boat stove, and they and the crew had to remain on shore. Several fires were lighted in different quarters of the Pa for cooking, to the no small risk of all our lives; and accordingly, while the officers were conversing together in one of the huts, an alarm of fire was heard, and on looking out, flames were seen issuing from more than one of the houses, and in a little, upwards of a dozen caught the blaze, and threatened speedy destruction to all adjoining; providentially, most providentially! the wind blew from the quarter most favourable for the preservation of the greater number of houses. An occasional explosion told of the destruction of small quantities of gunpowder, but the arms and ammunition generally were saved from the devouring element, of whose ravages we all stood in fearful anticipation for some hours: nor was it without cause that we thus feared; bad the wind varied never so little, the flames must have fed upon the houses of straw to windward, and in that case the escape of every one in the Pa would have been but little short of a miracle. The whole ground being strewed with combustibles, would have become heated like the bed of a furnace; and being every where undermined by a countless number of pits, must have given way beneath our feet, and might have buried us in the hot ashes of the burning town. Or to avoid this peril, we must have withdrawn from the Pa, but how was a retreat

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to be effected? A great gulph yawned on every side; two only paths offered, by which to descend the precipice, on either hand one; this led, in the one instance, along a narrow ledge of rock with a smooth perpendicular crag several feet high, above and below; a false step in descending either must have led to the fall of him whose foot so erred, and where must such an one have fallen? Where he must inevitably have been dashed to pieces, upon the rocky bottom at the base of this Pa. And the avoidance of such a step could scarcely have been looked for on the part of every one, seeing that, up to this time, but few of our feet bad explored both paths. As it was, however, the mischief spread not beyond the destruction of a few huts; while no accident occurred to ourselves besides the loss of a couple of fire-locks and a few boxes of cartridges. Thus mercifully did our gracious God preserve us from destruction by fire, ever, at the very moment when the orders which had come ashore in the gig, to burn both Pas, was the subject of conversation, as if to entreat us, in the stead of hundreds of our outcast fellow creatures, including men, women, and children, young and old, aged and infirm, to spare them a lodging, and not devote them to utter ruin and starvation, by the consumption of all their stores of provisions, &c. But the lesson was read to us in vain. And, the danger once over, our deliverance, though manifest, might almost seem to have passed unheeded, for the song of merriment mingled again with the execrations of folly, and the filthy conversation of the wicked. The night passed over

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and the morning dawned, with hardly a perceptible change in the current of men's thoughts. "0 my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united; for in their anger they slew, not one man but many, and in their self-will, they broke down a wall. CURSED BE THEIR ANGER, FOR IT WAS FIERCE; AND THEIR WRATH, FOR IT WAS CRUEL."

October 9. --This morning many an anxious eye was turned to the sea, but the surf along the shore was too high to admit of the troops being embarked; and here again we saw the peculiar advantage possessed by the corps of marines over any other body of troops, in the possession of a pair of sea-legs, by which expression any sailor will understand me to mean legs accustomed to stand equally sure upon the rocking sea, as upon the solid land. The blue jackets and marines of our party, would have seen no difficulty in the breaking billows outside but what might easily be surmounted; the soldiers, on the other hand, would have fallen, arms and all, into the sea, in their clumsy attempts to gain the boats, and nothing, therefore, remained for us but to wait the ocean's leisure, before we could look to depart in peace from a shore on which we had landed only to make war.

Having retired from the crowd to commune with my own heart, I seated myself on the brow of a rock overhanging the sea: there, while wrapt in meditation, I could see the Alligator miss stays on the very edge of a shoal, which runs out to a considerable distance, and for some minutes feared lest she had

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run aground; but she wore off, and a second time escaped being wrecked on this coast. As she again stood off to sea, I descended from my observatory, and visited the Ranghituapeka Pa, in which Gunton and his detachment had passed the night.

This Pa was the strongest of the three that had fallen into our hands, being built at the extremity of a peninsula, commanding the Waimate and all the neighbouring country; but, on account of its great inclination towards the point at which it terminates, commanded in its turn by both. Like its fellows, it occupies a high, rocky, and triangular-shaped position, having a perpendicular face to the sea, and two very precipitous land faces. It appeared to be of more recent date than the others, and was certainly far more beautiful. If its fortifications were not so elaborately constructed as those at the Numa, the advantages it derived from natural causes were much greater. The space occupied by it was detached from the high land adjoining by the manual labour of the natives, who had hewed off the solid rock at a part where it was narrowest, to the depth of several feet, and scarped it away on the land side to a still greater depth, and smoothed and edged the ridge at top so as to form a saddle between the country and the town, which none but a madman would attempt to cross. The slope from the top of the Pa to where it faces Waimate, is considerable; but this only served to call forth the ingenuity of the natives, whose several inclosures, divided from one another by various kinds of fence, occupy as many terraces, the effect of which from

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without was singularly pleasing; and a visitor to the interior could not fail of deriving gratification from the freshness of the objects surrounding him, and the ingenuity they betokened on the part of the inhabitants.

Before returning to the Waimate, I stopped by the side of the river which separates them, and washes a good part of the base of that I had just quitted, and thought, when preparing to bathe therein, that I should have enjoyed the immersion, but a swarm of sand-flies fastening on my body, effectually disappointed me of every thing like enjoyment from the bath, stinging where they fastened, and drawing blood from every part. Numa means sand-fly, and this insect, petty, yet powerful to annoy, abounds at that place; whence, perhaps, its name.

In the afternoon, the preserved head of some ill-fated European was taken out of the water which partially fills the trench at the back of the Waimate, where it was supposed to have been thrown by the barbarians in their flight. The complexion was changed, but the features and hair remained unaltered. This discovery formed a melancholy confirmation of part of Mr. Guard's tale of shipwreck and slaughter, and led to the belief that, however signal and severe their chastisement, it had not been altogether unmerited. But, strange to say, neither Guard nor his wife, nor any of the crew, could recognize the face as that of one of their former companions, although free enough with their conjectures as to its identity. A skull and several

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bones, had been, brought to me by one of the seamen the day before, but, from the acuteness of the facial angle, and the prominence of the jaws, I was satisfied that the former belonged to a native, and was probably the skull of a woman. The existence of these bones argue nothing against the humanity, of the people by whom they are preserved, one of their modes of sepulture being to deposit the skeleton of a deceased person in a tapu'd house.

The sight of the above head again stirred up their worst passions in some of the soldiers, and in the course of the day one of them, who had straggled without leave and against orders, brought in the head of a New Zealander, which he had detached from the trunk to which it belonged, being that of a chief, whose corpse had been left on the beach where he was shot; boasting, at the same time, of the manner in which he had mangled what remained of the lifeless carcase. One of the marines buried this, but it was dug up again by others, kicked to and fro like a foot-ball, and finally precipitated over a cliff among the rocks below, whence Lieutenants Clarke and Gunton and myself removed it to another place, where we buried it under a large rock, and heaped over it a cairn of stones. The dead warrior had been found stretched across the beach, with his head to the rocks, his feet to the sea, his back to the ground, and his face to the sky; a musket, that was neither loaded nor had been fired, clenched so firmly in his hand, that the ruffian mentioned above had to cutoff the thumb of that hand before he could release the firelock from

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his grasp. From a little bag hung round his neck a brooch was taken, which, it is feared, identifies him with the chief by whom the child had been adopted, and treated with every imaginable kindness in his limited power to bestow! In this case, which was the traitor, and which the betrayed?

In the following Elegy I have taken a poetical licence, in supposing the unfortunate chief to have been alive when the knife of his butcher was applied to his throat; and have endeavoured to embody his dying thoughts in English verse. My readers, of course, will not identify the sentiments put into his mouth, with those of the writer, who assumes no authority, and claims no right, to sit in Judgment on his fellow-men.

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Oct. 10. --Detained on shore still by the surf. Having strolled along the beach for the purpose of sketching the ravine where we had passed it, from the fall below, I found reason when there to be thankful that so few lives had been sacrificed; for the path from the beach at this spot had attracted the notice of an officer while disembarking, who pointed it out as a likely road to the native towns; but this suggestion was unheeded at the time, and hence the subsequently slow, and often impeded progress of

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the whole party. Had we detoured to the left instead of the right, and made for this pass instead of for the cliff, much time and no little labour would have been saved, but many more lives might, and in all probability would, have been lost. For it is scarcely to be supposed that, within the span which might have sufficed to conduct us to the height commanding both Pas, they would have been so entirely deserted as they afterwards were. The firing might have commenced as well there as on the beach, without orders; and not only commenced but been continued without orders, and contrary to orders. Six persons are thought to have been slain in the case as it did happen; six score might have fallen in the case thus mercifully prevented.

The English meaning of Waimate is, "bad water," which reminds me that several of the soldiers were attacked while on shore with bowel complaints; these they ascribed to too plentiful libations of a stagnant pool, which in part fills up the trench behind the Pa, the other part of that trench being in some degree choked by accumulations of black iron sand. It is to be feared that gluttony had quite as large a share in the production of the above complaint as bad water. And no mention would have been made of the fact, but for the appositeness of the name attaching to the place here mentioned. A feature in the local geognomy of New Zealand, not, indeed, peculiar to it; but, so far interesting, as it is illustrative of the language of the people, at present a language of simple ideas. My own opportunities of making

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notes upon the peculiarities of their language have been few, nor has advantage been always taken of those few: but, in addition to the above, I have already remarked, that Numa is characteristic of a pest infecting that part of the coast; and may further notice, that Motukokoko, the Motugogogo of Cook, signifying "a perforated rock," is exactly descriptive of the rock so called, which stands at the entrance to the Bay of Islands. Nothing can exceed the poetical beauty of some of these native names--such as the Waters of the Rainbow, and the River of murmuring Waters.

October 11th. --The signal was this morning made to the Alligator, that the boats might approach the shore with safety, and they were accordingly sent in to convey the party off to their respective vessels--but before quitting the shore, the flames were kindled in both Pas, and every house having been separately fired, the whole were speedily consumed. The embarkation took up some time, but was effected, happily, without an accident. A party of marines occupying the height above the beach, covered the boats, and except a solitary straggler, visible here and there, in the distance, none of the natives came in sight to witness our departure. Three seamen having loitered behind to fetch away some baskets of potatoes from the foot of the Waimate, surprised a like number of the New Zealanders, who, deeming their enemy gone, had returned to survey the blazing ruins of their former home. One of the sailors fired at them, which so terrified the wretched creatures, that they

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leaped from a height of nearly twenty feet into the neighbouring ditch, and made their escape.

In the preceding narrative, I have endeavoured to relate events in the exact order of their occurrence; leaving facts to speak for themselves, and principally solicitous of putting facts on record-- for all facts are not true, seeing that some things are said to be facts that never had an existence at all, except in the imagination of the narrator, or in the credulity of the retailer. And some facts are so stated, as to be what Dr. Cullen calls false facts, either by the omission of something that happened, which, if added, would alter their character; or by the addition of something that never happened, which from being added to that which did happen, changes truth into falsehood; the one producing the effect of wrong perspective--the other of faulty colouring, or distortive caricature. In reviewing the whole affair, it is impossible, however, to close one's eye upon the errors of judgment which attended our expedition, any more than upon the complete success by which its operations were rewarded.

The first question which obtrudes itself, is obviously this. Why was His Majesty's Ship Alligator, assisted by a detachment, of soldiers, sent to New Zealand to act at all against the natives, without reference to, or the counsel of His Majesty's accredited representative in that country? And this too in the teeth of the Secretary of State's official letter to the Chiefs, introducing Mr. Busby, con-

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cerning whom Lord Goderich writes thus: --"In order to afford better protection to all classes, both natives of the Islands of New Zealand, and British subjects who may proceed or be already established there for purposes of trade, the King has sent the bearer of this letter, James Busby, Esq., to reside amongst you as His Majesty's Resident, whose duties will be to investigate all complaints which may be made to him, &c. &c."

Again, it cannot fail to be matter of deep surprise, as it ought ever to be a subject of sincere regret, that the expedition, when sent, was so inadequately provided with interpreters, Mr. Battesby's only knowledge of the tongue in which he was appointed to communicate on a question of life and death, had been acquired on Kororarika Beach, while his qualifications for the delicate office of an interpreter, both moral and literary, had been obtained while filling the somewhat different situation of a retail spirit-seller and a marker of billiards at the same place!!

Thirdly--Having a resident in their country-- having provided the people with a flag--having paid national honours to that flag as the standard of an independent nation, albeit a nation of savages: --Ought we not in our national capacity to have had respect to the laws and usages of the New Zealanders, for they are indisputably, not without laws of their own, and usages of which they exact the observance among themselves? and prior to making a peremptory demand for the release of their, it might be, lawful prisoners, and that too

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without the ransom they affirmed themselves entitled to, a demand becoming well our power, but of very doubtful propriety if taken in connection with our right to make it, and to make it too at the point of the bayonet; --ought not some negociation to have been entered into--some enquiry to have been made--as to the right of those natives, agreeably to their own laws, to demand such ransom, even when too weak to enforce its payment. "'Tis well to have the giants power, but tyrannous to use it like a giant."

The British Resident ought to have been applied to, to become the organ of communication between the Government of New South Wales and the New Zealanders at Cape Egmont. A competent interpreter of unimpeachable veracity might have been obtained, either from Mr. Busby's own immediate neighbourhood, Paihia, or from the settlement of the Wesleyan Mission at Hokianga; and, if not for the ungracious, undutiful, and hardly loyal purpose of acting under the King's authority, in direct contradiction of the King's word, pledged to the chiefs of New Zealand, a purpose which I am far from attributing to the Colonial Government of New South Wales, it is difficult to understand why there was nothing like enquiry or preliminary negotiation, unless the ex parte statement of John Guard be enquiry, respecting the particulars attending the loss of the Harriett, seeing that such enquiry might have elicited some truth necessary to be known, and that such negotiation might have placed any ulterior proceedings, however severe, upon the sure basis

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of justice and moderation. In Lord Goderich's letter, before cited, the natives are led to expect as much: --why their right to it, founded upon the promise contained in that letter, should have been so recklessly thrown out of sight altogether, let the local government answer to God and their own conscience: to their King and the country at large they are responsible for involving the national faith in suspicion, and bringing distrust upon the royal word, by a proceeding utterly at variance with a declaration like this: "The King is sorry for the injuries which you (the native chiefs) inform him that the people of New Zealand have suffered from some of his subjects. But he will do all in his power to prevent the recurrence of such outrages, and to punish the perpetrators of them according to the laws of their country, whenever they can be apprehended and brought to trial; and the King hopes that mutual good-will and confidence will exist between the people of both countries."

Of the errors committed in the execution of the affair, I have occasionally made mention in the course of my narrative. They consisted mainly in exacting too much from the Natives, and yielding too little. In acting rather according to momentary impulses, than upon a set of fixed principles. In treating the New Zealanders as savages, and forgeting that they were notwithstanding, men. In inflicting wrong upon them, and making no reparation; while suffering neither actual nor imaginary wrong from them, without inflicting summary vengeance, In hazarding which opinion, I put out of the

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question altogether, the private, unofficial, and unaccredited, though grievous injuries done to O-o-hit' at the Numa; to the natives when the firing first commenced; and to the dead body of the chief whose head was so inhumanly converted into a tennis ball, for the sport of private soldiers; and refer only to the public acts of public men, acting in a public capacity, which are and ought always to be public property. Looking to those acts, it is impossible not to censure the breach of faith at Moturoa, the refusing to give the natives what they had been promised, for a very essential benefit conferred. To the forcible seizure of O-o-hit', and the imprudence of committing him to the custody of bitter, personal enemies. To the savage cannonading of two villages, crowded with a mixed multitude of men, women, and children. And to the gratuitous and crowning cruelty of burning the habitations--destroying the defences-- and consuming the provisions and fuel, laid by in store for many coming months, of upwards of a thousand miserable wretches, and that, in the case of the two last towns that were burnt, after resistance had ceased, and forsooth! because, merely, resistance had been offered at all, by an independent people, to an unwarranted attack upon their lives and properties! and moreover, after every object proposed by the expedition in the New South Wales Council itself, had been fully accomplished, and without injury of any sort to us, and almost without accident of any kind already effected! What effect the operations previously detailed;

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may have upon the subsequent relations of the two tribes so severely punished, or upon the future intercourse of Europeans with the coast on which we made such hostile descents; whether the tribes in the neighbourhood of the Taranaki and Natiruanui people will come down upon them in their crippled and houseless condition, war with, and enslave, or destroy them altogether; or whether they may be able to strengthen their weakness, by a defensive alliance with some of their neighbours, time alone can discover, and time will certainly tell. It is greatly to be feared that the former will be the case, for they possess powerful and hitherto implacable enemies in the Cabiti and Waikato tribes, whose aggressions in times past they have hardly been able to repel, and by whom they are in present peril of being cut off, unless, indeed, they should find time, before the return of their ancient foes, to reconstruct their overthrown fortresses and rebuild their demolished towns; when it is thought they may be able to recruit their numbers by a junction with the Natihawa tribe, who have recently sustained an assault from the Waikato natives. As regards their future visitors from the Australian colonies, woe to the crew of any vessel hereafter to be shipwrecked on their coast! Even fools are taught by experience, and however ignorant the New Zealanders may be, they are certainly no fools. The experience they have acquired by our recent visit, may teach them that if Europeans fall into their hands, it is not consistent with their own safety, that any should escape alive to com-

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plain of ill usage, and bring down upon them an aimed force, compounded of naval and military men, from New South Wales. It remains to be seen whether they will be content to wait till the winds and waves convey victims to their shore for slaughter, or whether they will not rather choose to wreak speedy vengeance upon the crew of the first vessel that may venture near to trade with them. The massacre of the Boyd is sufficient to show that the eyes of a barbarian's vengeance may seem to be shut, at the very moment when his hand may be uplifted to strike a deadly blow. How devoutly is it to be wished, that a Christian mission may be speedily established on this coast, along which, though there be few temptations to commerce, and no harbour to encourage the habitual resort of shipping, there is abundance of wood, plentiful supplies of water, a rich and productive soil; added to which, and above all which, there are many thousands of miserable savages, perishing for lack of knowledge, without God, and without hope in the world! And, to adopt the language of the eloquent Erasmus, "OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST SHED HIS BLOOD FOR THE REDEMPTION OF THESE MEN, DESPISED AS THEY ARE, NO LESS THAN FOR THE REDEMPTION OF KINGS. AND WHEN WE SHALL STAND BEFORE THE JUDGMENT-SEAT OF CHRIST, WHERE THE MOST POWERFUL LORDS OF THIS WORLD MUST SHORTLY STAND, THAT IMPARTIAL JUDGE WILL REQUIRE A NO LESS STRICT ACCOUNT TO BE GIVEN OF

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THOSE POOR AND DESPISED ONES, THAN OF DESPOTS AND GRANDEES."

October 12th, 1834. --Having yesterday received every one on board, sail was made upon the ship, and a course steered for Entry Island, where we came to an anchor at 8h. 30m. A.M. to-day, in fifteen fathoms. The extremes of the island run from N.N.E. to S.S.W. 1/2W., but the atmosphere was too hazy to admit of our discerning its general characters with distinctness. A low tongue of land runs out a considerable way, forming a natural pier. On this a native village has been built; and, hauled up on the beach, were numerous Wa-kanue, or large canoes. The opposite shore was literally covered with canoes and huts, thereby warranting the belief, that the tribe to which it belongs must be exceedingly numerous. Several of the natives came off to the vessels, and among others, Ropera, the principal chief, who expressed himself well pleased, when told of what we had done to the natives elsewhere; but at the same time disappointed that the number of killed was so small. He took care, likewise, to enquire why none of the dead bodies had been brought down for him to eat; and announced his intention to pay the Taranaki tribe a speedy visit, for the purpose of fighting them. His appearance, conduct, and character, were altogether those of a complete savage; but his treatment of Europeans is described as uniformly good, and such as to encourage the resort of shipping to his

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place of abode. An Englishman has resided on the island for several years past as the agent of a mercantile house in Sydney, and his report of the usage experienced by him at the hands of Ropera is satisfactory. Covetousness appears to be that chief's besetting sin, and the indulgence of it, his aim in all he does. If any one accosted him while on board, he immediately made a demand for muskets, blankets, pipes, and if denied all these, tobacco. He is said to be both a warrior, and a conqueror, and to have made repeated and successful attacks upon the inhabitants of Middle Island, multitudes of whom he has subjected to his yoke.

Some of the natives wore convict clothing, such as is used at the penal settlement at Norfolk Island, whence, on various occasions, the felons confined there have managed to escape in open boats. Have these men escaped hither, and if so, what has now become of them? According to a law of Huahine, a runaway felon from our colonies is nothing bettered in his condition by landing there; care being taken to treat him as a felon still, until opportunity offers of restoring him to the land from which he may have fled. Might it not be advisable to encourage the chiefs of New Zealand to frame a similar enactment, by empowering the British Resident to give them small rewards for the apprehension and delivery of such runaways, and to authorize their being employed in compulsory labour, until they can be shipped off from the island.......

October 22. --The winds have been variable, and the weather unsettled, since we quitted Entry

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Island, where we only remained a few hours. In the meanwhile, we have passed several places mentioned by Cook, and through the strait called by his name. This evening we stood in to Bream Bay, hove to there, and expected to have anchored. If is an extensive and noble harbour, but beyond this I am unable to say more respecting it. In a little sandy bay, about two miles to the westward of the Peak, a large boat was seen drawn up on the beach, and on the verge of a wood, behind, a tent; a white flag with a plain red cross along the centre, hoisted near the boat, pointed it out as the neighbourhood of a missionary. And, accordingly, in a short space of time, Messrs. Wilson and Preece came alongside, on their way from the Bay of Islands, to the River Thames, who, while coasting it in an open boat, put in occasionally to such places as promise them not only a rest for the night, but also an audience of natives by day, whom they may persuade to seek the rest that remaineth for the people of God.

October 25th, 1834. --Arrived in. the, Bay of Islands this morning, and came to, off Kororarika. Every nook and corner, bay and islet, rock and promontory, of this vast harbour, seemed to welcome us with their smile; and were truly, welcomed by us. But the pleasure of being once more at anchor at a place fondly familiar to us all, after a most weary cruize, was not a little embittered by the uncertainty attending the Isabella's fate, that schooner having parted company from us in a gale of wind, two nights since, when both vessels were

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on a lee-shore, and only darkness brooded over the deep.

In the afternoon the Rev. H. Williams came off to fetch me from the ship, and I returned to Paihia in his boat. As we drew near my heart burnt within me while I contemplated the progressive cultivation of the land on the hill side, behind the missionary settlement, like a garden planted in a waste, and by little and little, converting that waste into its own similitude; so apt a figure of the parallel process in moral cultivation, and affording the delightful persuasion, that even then was proceeding with sure and certain steps, from every missionary's residence, the improvement of the native mind, eradicating error and wickedness therefrom, like rank weeds and fruitless brambles from a soil deteriorated by their existence in it. On landing, we were met by Dr. Ross, and Messrs. Chapman and Baker, the latter two, missionaries, the former a physician, who had come to New Zealand, as a settler, but was soon stripped of all he possessed by the natives, and glad to accept of shelter, and a small salary from the missionaries in lieu of his professional services, when those might be needed for any of the mission families. The reception I met with was a warm and hearty one, and the season chanced to be such as my jaded spirits stood greatly in need of. The weekly prayer-meeting being held in the evening, at which however, there were only a few persons present, owing to the absence of some, by reason of sickness, and of others, upon duty elsewhere. The hymn of

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praise, the voice of social prayer, from the hearing of which I had been so long shut out, was as the music of the spheres, not to my outward sense alone, but to my inmost soul as well, and moved me as the wind moves the waters, until my whole heart joined in the melody made unto God, while the Spirit of grace and supplication filled my very sighs and groans with prayer.

Lodgings being provided for me at Mr. Chapman's I went home with him afterwards. The natives employed about the house were all curious to see the pakia or stranger, and gathered round the door, laughing and talking in a way that shewed how entirely they retain their native simplicity, though in many particulars conformed to the manners and customs of Europeans. My friend and I sat up to see the Lord's day in, closing the last day of one week, and commencing the first of another, with hearty thanksgiving and humble prayer to Almighty God in the name of the Lord Jesus, and then retired to rest.

Oct. 26th. Die Domini. --The pattering of the rain upon the roof of my chamber, awoke me a little after the day dawn, and I arose refreshed in body and mind, to enjoy what for many, many months, I had scarce a single opportunity of enjoying apart, from the society of men otherwise-minded, communion and fellowship with God the Holy Ghost; where there was no eye but His to behold me, no ear but His to intercept my cry. It was a morning of blessedness, and a time of joy, with which those who are strangers to the covenant of promise can-

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not intermeddle, and of which, alas! only those can have any conception, who are born again of water and the Holy Ghost, and re-begotten unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

We met round the breakfast table a large and happy family, consisting of, Mr. and Mrs. Chapman, and several of the missionaries' sons, whose education has been entrusted to Mr. Chapman, and who are boarded in his house. Besides these, there were two who interested me very greatly; one, a little girl, the grandchild of the warrior 'Hongi, who is become, in a manner, missionary property, and, rescued from degradation of the lowest possible kind, perhaps, too, from murder, is now training up among Christians, will be instructed in wisdom and true knowledge, and by the divine grace and benediction, may yet adorn the gospel of God her Saviour. The other child was a boy, the son of a New Zealand mother, but having a profligate Englishman for his father, by whom he was deserted. Him, Mr. Chapman had adopted for his own, in the fond hope of being enabled to save him from the demoralizing contagion of native habits, and, at the same time, to ensure to him the privileges of a Christian education. After we had breakfasted, the custom of the family was followed, one of the Psalms being expounded to the boys every Lord's Day morning. During the meal-time the conversation had been such as might attract the attention of those young persons, and give them a desire to follow on to know the

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Lord. Family prayer succeeded this exposition, and at nine o'clock the village bell invited us to go up together to the house of prayer, and mingle with the great congregation.

The chapel at Paihia is extremely neat, I had almost said beautiful. It stands back from the road, in an inclosed square, within the fence on all sides of which the sweet brier forms an impervious hedge, and mixes its perfume with the breeze, thus scenting the pure atmosphere breathed by those who assemble on this spot to worship God; and seeing that Christians are said to be the trees of God's planting, excites the hope that every Christian in this land may raise around the place of his abiding a moral atmosphere both pure and perfumed, and be himself a sweet savour of Christ unto God, a savour of life unto life in them that are saved, and of death unto death in them that are lost. The only defect in this chapel is that it is too small to accommodate the united congregation of Europeans and natives. It has a well-toned hand-organ, which New Zealanders, as well as English, accompanied with their singing, and, as its swelling notes came pealing on the ear, bringing with them the music of the "human voice divine," in loud and lofty bursts of praise to the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, and whose name is Holy, it was difficult, notwithstanding the tattooed faces before me, to realize, the fact that this was taking place on an island of cannibals, and that by far the greater number of the throng whose voices conspired to raise those

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songs of high religious joy, had been themselves, and that but a very few years before, all savages, and all man-eaters.

The same devotional manner, the same appearance of fixed and deep attention, marked the native congregation here, as I had formerly observed at Waimate. And the mode of conducting the service did not very greatly differ, being conducted, for the most part, in the New Zealand tongue. One English lesson was read, and an English sermon also preached. These were rendered necessary by the many Europeans present, comprising the settlers with their families, and the families of the resident missionaries. It was pleasing to hear that Mr. Busby, by constant and unremitting attendance in his place in the church on every successive Lord's Day, lends his official sanction to the sacred observance thereof; nor is it less pleasing to believe that all the really respectable settlers in the neighbourhood gladly avail themselves of the public means of grace which the English services at the mission-chapel afford them, especially as some of them come from a considerable distance, and have an arm of the sea to cross on their way. My prayer for all such is, that to the means of grace thus valued by them, may be added the hope of glory, which God vouchsafes to every one sincerely in search of him, and of his great salvation. The English discourse was on these words, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches: To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the

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midst of the paradise of God." Rev. ii. 7. It was a calm, yet earnest--an affectionate, yet faithful address to the hearts and consciences of all present; and in it the preacher considered, first, Who are the parties called upon to hear; 2dly, Who the Spirit to be hearkened unto; 3dly, What the subject matter declared, this last including a description of character, "Him that overcometh," and a concomitant promise. In enlarging upon these several particulars, he carefully distinguished between the use and the abuse of the Christian privilege of hearing the words of God, explained what was meant by the Scripture expression of having an ear to hear, and pointed out by what means that ear could be made to hearken to the voice of the Lord the Spirit. He then exhibited the character, office, and person of the Holy Ghost, as the reprover of the world, the comforter of the church, and the guide into all truth of as many as trust themselves to his teaching; shewed what has to be overcome, that it is sin, the world, and the devil; and how to overcome it, viz. by a lively faith in Christ maintained unto the end, steadfast and immoveable. And, finally, directed attention to the promised blessing as one that is beyond price, and in no degree admitting of comparison with any of the things of time or sense. In dismissing each separate head of discourse, a personal and practical application of the same was made to us who heard. During the delivery the natives kept their seats, engaged, for the most part, in silent perusal of the words of eternal life in their own tongue.