with them every thing we possessed. Here
was an opportunity of practically showing the
“ pagans ” (as they termed the New Zealanders)
the great Christian doctrine of if. doing
to others as we would they should do unto us.”
I must acknowledge I was sometimes mortified
at being obliged to sleep (three of us huddled
up close together) in a small New Zealand
hut, filled with filth and vermin of all kinds,
while at only two miles’ distance from us
stood a neat village, abounding in every comfort
that a bountiful British public could provide
; and we, members of that community,
and indeed partly contributors to the funds
for its support.
The high state of excitement into which
the savages had been thrown by the late conflagration,
gradually subsided ; and as we had
escaped the dreaded calamity of our magazine
blowing up, we began to look with calmness
on our desolate condition, and draw comfort
from thinking how much worse we might
have been circumstanced than we then were.
I hope our distress may prove a benefit to
future sojourners in this country, by showing
them the great importance of forming a
proper magazine for powder. The agonies
I suffered in contemplating the destruction
which six barrels of powder, each of an hundred
weight, would cause amongst a mob of
several hundred naked savages, it is impossible
to imagine!
King George, as well as all his people, were
most anxious to build us a new habitation
entirely themselves. They requested us to
give them the dimensions of the various
dwellings, and said we should have no further
trouble about them. A party accordingly proceeded
to the bush to collect materials. They
first formed the skeleton of a cottage containing
three rooms, with slight sticks, firmly tied
together with strips of flax. While this was
in progress, another party was collecting rushes
(which grow plentifully in the neighbourhood,
called Ra-poo). These they spread in the sun
for twenty-four hours, when they considered
them sufficiently dry. They then thatched
every part of the house j which for neatness
and strength, was equal to any thing I had
ever seen. The doors and windows we emh
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