to secure the whole, and the activity of the
natives, six of them found means do elude the
search, and here they now are.
The day on which our houses were burned,
these six landed in the train of one of the
chiefs ; and I have since entertained a suspicion
that it was their desire of revenge that
occasioned the destruction of our property at
the time the calamity happened. I chanced
to be in the house alone, and was amazed by
seeing an Englishman enter the hut with his
face tattoo’d all over. Not being aware he
was one of the runaways from the “ Wellington,”
I spoke to him. He slunk into our
cooking-house on pretence of lighting his
pipe, and before ten minutes had elapsed, the
house was in flames.
The summer was now far advanced, and
never, during its progress, had we been incommoded
by any very hot wTeather. Our
house was generally crowded with visiters;
for, as it was the workmanship of King
George and his people, they were prodigiously
proud of it, and each seemed to think he had
an undoubted right to sit in it as much as he
liked. This, at times, we felt as a great annoyance;
but we were obliged to be very
cautious not to say or do any thing that
should give offence to them, as all wrnre exceedingly
irritable, and we felt it to be most
essential to our comfort to continue on friendly
terms with them.
Although we were situated in the same
latitude as Sydney, we found the climate of
New Zealand infinitely superior. Moderate
heats and beautifully clear skies succeeded
each other every day. We were quite free
from those oppressive feverish heats which invariably
prevail in the middle of the day at
Sydney, and from those hot pestilential winds
which are the terror of the inhabitants of New
South Wales ; nor were we subject to those
loner droughts, which are often the ruin of the
Australian farmer. The temperature here
was neither too hot nor too cold, neither too
wet nor too dry. Reflecting on this country,
— its situation, inhabitants, and climate, —
I felt convinced that, if it were the object of
our government to form a new colony, they
could not select a more desirable spot than