Some Time Ago, Mr. Bushby Suffered A Far More Serious
Attack.
A chief and a party of men tried to break into his
house in the middle of the night, and not finding this so easy,
commenced a brisk firing with their muskets.
Mr. Bushby
was slightly wounded, but the party was at length driven
away. Shortly afterwards it was discovered who was the
aggressor; and a general meeting of the chiefs was convened
to consider the case. It was considered by the New Zealanders
as very atrocious, inasmuch as it was a night attack, and
that Mrs. Bushby was lying ill in the house: this latter
circumstance, much to their honour, being considered in all
cases as a protection. The chiefs agreed to confiscate the
land of the aggressor to the King of England. The whole
proceeding, however, in thus trying and punishing a chief
was entirely without precedent. The aggressor, moreover,
lost caste in the estimation of his equals and this was
considered by the British as of more consequence than the
confiscation of his land.
As the boat was shoving off, a second chief stepped into
her, who only wanted the amusement of the passage up and
down the creek. I never saw a more horrid and ferocious
expression than this man had. It immediately struck me
I had somewhere seen his likeness: it will be found in
Retzch's outlines to Schiller's ballad of Fridolin, where two
men are pushing Robert into the burning iron furnace. It
is the man who has his arm on Robert's breast. Physiognomy
here spoke the truth; this chief had been a notorious
murderer, and was an arrant coward to boot. At the point
where the boat landed, Mr. Bushby accompanied me a few
hundred yards on the road: I could not help admiring the
cool impudence of the hoary old villain, whom we left lying
in the boat, when he shouted to Mr. Bushby, "Do not you
stay long, I shall be tired of waiting here."
We now commenced our walk. The road lay along a
well beaten path, bordered on each side by the tall fern,
which covers the whole country. After travelling some
miles, we came to a little country village, where a few hovels
were collected together, and some patches of ground cultivated
with potatoes. The introduction of the potato has
been the most essential benefit to the island; it is now much
more used than any native vegetable. New Zealand is
favoured by one great natural advantage; namely, that the
inhabitants can never perish from famine. The whole
country abounds with fern: and the roots of this plant, if
not very palatable, yet contain much nutriment. A native
can always subsist on these, and on the shell-fish, which are
abundant on all parts of the sea-coast. The villages are
chiefly conspicuous by the platforms which are raised on
four posts ten or twelve feet above the ground, and on
which the produce of the fields is kept secure from all
accidents.
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