laziness being the characteristic of the American
Indian from north to south, while the
New Zealanders are laborious in the extreme,
as their astonishing and minute carvings
prove. The moment the Indian tasted intoxicating
spirits his valour left him, he became
an idiot and a tool in the hands of the
white man. Here they have the utmost aversion
to every kind of “ wine or strong drink,”
and very often severely take us to task for
indulging in such an extraordinary and debasing
propensity, or, as they call it, fi of
making ourselves madj” but both nations are
equally fond of tobacco.
The first thing which struck me forcibly
was, that each of these savages was armed
with a good musket, and most of them had
also a cartouch box buckled round their
waists, filled with ball cartridges, and those
who had fired their pieces from the canoes,
carefully cleaned the pans, covered the locks
over with a piece of dry rag, and put them in
a secure place in their canoes. Every person
who has read Captain Cook’s account of the
natives of New Zealand, would be astonished
at the change which has taken place since his
time, when the firing a single musket would
have terrified a whole village.
As we sailed up the river very slowly, the
throng of savages increased to such a degree,
that we could scarcely move, and to add to
our confusion, they gave us “ a dance of welcome,”
standing on one spot, and stamping
so furiously, that I really feared they would
have stove in the decks, which our lady passengers
were obliged to leave, as when the
dance began, each man proceeded to strip
himself naked, a custom indispensable among
themselves.
We came to an anchor off a native village
called Parkuneigh, where two chiefs of consequence
came on board, who soon cleared
our decks of a considerable number. We
paid great attention to these chiefs, admitting
them into the cabin, &c., and it had the
effect of lessening the noise, and bringing
about some kind of order amongst those who
still continued on deck. The names of these
chiefs were Moortara, and A Kaeigh, and
they were the heads of the village opposite to