either with fern or flax ; the former yielding
the natives their principal article of food, and
the latter their clothing. To this dearth of
animals may be attributed the chief cause of
their ferocity, and propensity to cannibalism.
In most uncivilised countries the natives
use their arms against the wild animals of the
forest. The dangers and difficulties they encounter
in overcoming them form a kind of
prelude to war, and perfect them in the use
of their weapons. The rifle of the North
American Indian would never be so much to
be dreaded, did he not depend upon its produce
for his subsistence. I have myself
(during my travels through North America)
had many opportunities of witnessing the certain
aim they take both with the arrow and
the bullet; while those in the southern parts of
that vast continent, who depend on taking
the wild cattle, acquire, by constant practice,
an equal dexterity with the lasso, which those
who have not witnessed it could scarcely
imagine possible. The New Zealander, while
handling a musket, is quite in a state of trepidation
; and though it is his darling weapon,
he seems always afraid of it, and is never sure
of his aim till he is quite close to his object.
I have mentioned this fact to several Europeans
who had accompanied various tribes
to battle, and they all informed me they made
a sad bungling use of the musket: their aim
would be surer if they had large and ferocious
animals to hunt or contend with. There is
another circumstance that operates against
their acquiring skill in the use of the gun:
they are so fond of cleaning, scrubbing, and
taking them to pieces, that in a short time
the locks become loose, the screws are injured,
and they are soon rendered entirely useless,
to the great surprise and dismay of their
owners, who are constantly pestering the Europeans
by bringing them sick muskets (as
they call them) to look at, and put to rights,
and are quite surprised that we “ cannot
make them well again.” They cannot be
made to comprehend that every white man
does not know how to make a musket, or, at
least, to repair it.
On the 24th of November we took our departure
from the bay, as we had to return to