John Rutherford, the White Chief: A Story of Adventure in New Zealand

th, all except one, John Watson, who, soon after their arrival there, was carried away by a chief named Nainy.[AD] A house was assigned for them to liv

anything cooked in it; that, we suppose, being conside

, to pursue their way further into the interior; one of the

which was called Plama,[AE] another of them,

hat, three of them having been disposed of in the manner that has been sta

les further, they stopped at a third vi

I observed many of the children catch the flowing blood in their hands, and drink it with the greatest eagerness. Their own method of killing a pig is generally by drowning, in order that they may not lose the blood. The natives then singed off the h

ig unless he received some from us; and not even

s named Jefferson, who, on parting from us, pressed my hand in his, and with tears

charge of the luggage having come up in about an hour, bringing with them some potatoes and dried fish, we cooked a dinner for ourselves in the usual manner. We then crossed the river, which was only about knee deep, and immediately entered a wood, through which we

y resided. Having got into a canoe, we crossed over to the village, in front of which many women were standing,

with rushes, with which it was also thatched. A pig was now killed for us, and cooked with some coomeras, from which we su

he earth to roast in the manner already described in order to furni

r of the natives were set to work to build one for ourselves, of the sa

s, together with some scores of baskets of potatoes, tara, and water-melons, having first been brought forward by Aimy's people. The pigs, after being drowned in the river and dressed, had been laid to roast beside the potatoes. When these were eaten, the fire that had been made the night before was opened, and the body of the slave girl taken out of it,

ding to their own customs. As it was in this village that Rutherford continued to reside during the remainder of the time he spent in New Zealand, we may consider him as now fairly domesticated among his new associa

f the same complexion, by whom nearly all the islands of the South Sea are peopled, and who, in physica

f the great continent of Asia. This prolific clime, while it has on the one hand sent out its successive detachments of emigrants to occupy the wide plains of Europe, has on the other discharged its overflowing numbers upon the islands of the Pacific, and, with the exception of New Holland[AJ] and a few other lands in its immediate vicinity, the

in one direction, stretches over nearly half the equatorial circumference of the globe, and in another over at least seventy degrees of latitude. The peo

e. Crozet was so much struck with this circumstance that he does not hesitate to divide them into three classes-whites, browns, and blacks,-the last of whom he conceives to be a foreign admixture received from

i, or "Greedy," and Wha

the south; and their colour generally is afterwards described as varying from a pretty deep black to a yellowish or olive tinge. In like manner, Marsden states that the people in the neighbourhood of the Shukehanga are much fairer than those on the east coast. It may also, p

t, but sometimes curly; Crozet says he saw a few of them with red hair. Cook describes the females as far from attractive; but other observers give a more flattering account of them. Savage, for example, assures us that their features are regular and pleasing

se materials for ordinary wear, but is of a much finer fabric, and often, indeed, elaborately ornamented, when intended for occasions of display. Both these articles of attir

y live is the root of the fern-plan

s been extracted, serves the New Zealanders not only for bread, but even occasionally for a meal by itself. When fish are used, they do not appear, as in many other countries, to be eaten raw, but are always cooked, either by being fixed upon a stick stuck in the grou

ful animals, most of whom, however, were so much neglected that they soon disappeared. Cook, likewise, introduced the pot

nd. Marsden saw the wives of several of the chiefs toiling hard in the fields with no better spade than this; among others the head wife of the great Shungie, who, though quite blind, appeared to dig the ground, he says, as fast as those who had th

den, in the "Journal of his Second Visit," gives us some very interesting details touching the anxiety which the chiefs universally manifested to obtain agricultural tools of this metal. One morning, he tells us, a nu

he ship would come from England, and the hoes and axes would be of no advantage to them when dead. They wanted them now. They had n

and to carry their provisions for their journey. A chief's wife came with us all the way, and I believe her load would not be less than one hundred pounds; and many carried much more." But, perhaps, the most importunate pleader the reverend gentleman encountered on this journey was an old chief, with a very long beard, and his face tattooed all over, who followed him during part of his progress among the villages of the western coast. "He wanted

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ably

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aori orthography, and th

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Rutherford's pronunciation

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ta

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which was extensively cult

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e here," the usua

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s, Aus

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rcy Smith in "Hawaiki"; by Mr. E. Tregear, in "The Maori Race"