The Cordiality And
Happiness So Plainly Pictured In The Faces Of The Little Circle,
Appeared Equally Felt By The Older Persons Of The Mission.
December 24th.
- In the morning, prayers were read in
the native tongue to the whole family. After breakfast I
rambled about the gardens and farm. This was a market-
day, when the natives of the surrounding hamlets bring their
potatoes, Indian corn, or pigs, to exchange for blankets,
tobacco, and sometimes, through the persuasions of the
missionaries, for soap. Mr. Davies's eldest son, who manages a
farm of his own, is the man of business in the market. The
children of the missionaries, who came while young to the
island, understand the language better than their parents,
and can get anything more readily done by the natives.
A little before noon Messrs. Williams and Davies walked
with me to a part of a neighbouring forest, to show me the
famous kauri pine. I measured one of the noble trees, and
found it thirty-one feet in circumference above the roots.
There was another close by, which I did not see, thirty-three
feet; and I heard of one no less than forty feet. These trees
are remarkable for their smooth cylindrical boles, which run
up to a height of sixty, and even ninety feet, with a nearly
equal diameter, and without a single branch. The crown
of branches at the summit is out of all proportion small to
the trunk; and the leaves are likewise small compared with
the branches. The forest was here almost composed of the
kauri; and the largest trees, from the parallelism of their
sides, stood up like gigantic columns of wood. The timber
of the kauri is the most valuable production of the island;
moreover, a quantity of resin oozes from the bark, which is
sold at a penny a pound to the Americans, but its use was
then unknown. Some of the New Zealand forest must be
impenetrable to an extraordinary degree. Mr. Matthews
informed me that one forest only thirty-four miles in width,
and separating two inhabited districts, had only lately, for
the first time, been crossed. He and another missionary,
each with a party of about fifty men, undertook to open a
road, but it cost more than a fortnight's labour! In
the woods I saw very few birds. With regard to animals,
it is a most remarkable fact, that so large an island, extending
over more than 700 miles in latitude, and in many parts
ninety broad, with varied stations, a fine climate, and land
of all heights, from 14,000 feet downwards, with the exception
of a small rat, did not possess one indigenous animal.
The several species of that gigantic genus of birds, the
Deinornis seem here to have replaced mammiferous quadrupeds,
in the same manner as the reptiles still do at the Galapagos
archipelago. It is said that the common Norway rat, in
the short space of two years, annihilated in this northern
end of the island, the New Zealand species. In many places
I noticed several sorts of weeds, which, like the rats, I was
forced to own as countrymen. A leek has overrun whole
districts, and will prove very troublesome, but it was imported
as a favour by a French vessel. The common dock
is also widely disseminated, and will, I fear, for ever remain
a proof of the rascality of an Englishman, who sold the seeds
for those of the tobacco plant.
On returning from our pleasant walk to the house, I dined
with Mr. Williams; and then, a horse being lent me, I returned
to the Bay of Islands. I took leave of the missionaries
with thankfulness for their kind welcome, and with feelings
of high respect for their gentlemanlike, useful, and
upright characters. I think it would be difficult to find
a body of men better adapted for the high office which
they fulfil.
Christmas Day. - In a few more days the fourth year of
our absence from England will be completed. Our first
Christmas Day was spent at Plymouth, the second at St.
Martin's Cove, near Cape Horn; the third at Port Desire,
in Patagonia; the fourth at anchor in a wild harbour in the
peninsula of Tres Montes, this fifth here, and the next, I
trust in Providence, will be in England. We attended divine
service in the chapel of Pahia; part of the service being
read in English, and part in the native language. Whilst at
New Zealand we did not hear of any recent acts of cannibalism;
but Mr. Stokes found burnt human bones strewed
round a fire-place on a small island near the anchorage; but
these remains of a comfortable banquet might have been
lying there for several years. It is probable that the moral
state of the people will rapidly improve. Mr. Bushby mentioned
one pleasing anecdote as a proof of the sincerity of
some, at least, of those who profess Christianity. One of
his young men left him, who had been accustomed to read
prayers to the rest of the servants. Some weeks afterwards,
happening to pass late in the evening by an outhouse, he saw
and heard one of his men reading the Bible with difficulty
by the light of the fire, to the others. After this the party
knelt and prayed: in their prayers they mentioned Mr.
Bushby and his family, and the missionaries, each separately
in his respective district.
December 26th. - Mr. Bushby offered to take Mr. Sulivan
and myself in his boat some miles up the river to Cawa-
Cawa, and proposed afterwards to walk on to the village of
Waiomio, where there are some curious rocks. Following
one of the arms of the bay, we enjoyed a pleasant row, and
passed through pretty scenery, until we came to a village,
beyond which the boat could not pass. From this place a
chief and a party of men volunteered to walk with us to
Waiomio, a distance of four miles.
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