their character; for if it had the leaft admixture of treachery,
they would have tried to fall upon us unawares, as
they could not have failed of meeting with frequent opportunities
of cutting off our numerous fmall parties,
when difperfed in different parts of the woods.
It was noon when we left thefe two men, and proceeded
down on the north fide of the long arm, of which captain
Cook took the bearings in his way. The night overtook
us before he had completed this furvey; fo that we were
forced to leave another arm unexplored, and to haften to
the veffel, which we reached about eight o’clock at night.
We were told that the native with his companion, the
young woman, had fta-id on board till noon, after our departure
j and having been informed, that we had left fome
prefents in his double canoe in Cafcade Cove, he employed
fame of his people to bring them away from thence,, after
which the whole family remained in the neighbourhood
of the Grip till this morning. They then took their departure,
and we never faw them again, which, was the
more extraordinary, as they never went away empty handed,
from us, but had at different times received nine or ten.
hatchets, and four times that number of large fpike-
nails, befides other articles. As far as thefe things may.
be counted riches among them, this man was the wealthieft
in all New Zeeland, being poffefled of more hatchets, than,
there were in the whole country befides, before the fecond
arrival
arrival of Britifh veffels. The thin population in this part
of the ifland makes it probable, that the few families in
it lead a nomadic or wandering life, and remove according
as the feafon, the conveniency of fiftnng, and other circum-
ftances render it neceffary. We were therefore of opinion,
that our friendly family had only removed upon this principle
; but we were likewife told that before they went
away, the man had made figns of going to kill men, and;
employing the hatchet as an offenfive weapon. If this-
circumftance was rightly underftood, we cannot fufficiently
wonder that a family fo fecluded from all the reft of the
world, in a fpacious bay, where they have a fuperfluity
©f food, and of all the neceffaries of life, the fewnefs of
their wants confidered, fhould ftill have a thought o f
warring with their fellow-creatures, when they might
live peaceably and happily in their retirement. The pleating
hope of facilitating the ceconomical operations of thefe
people, and of encouraging fome degree of agriculture
among them, by prefendng them with ufeful tools, was
defeated by this determination. The ftate of barbarifm,
in which the New Zeelanders may juftly be faid to live,
and which generally hearkens to no other voice than that
©f the JlrongeJi, might make them more liable than
any other nation to refolve upon the deftruftion of their
fellow-citizens, as foon as an opportunity offered ; and
their innate and favage valour may probably aflift them
to