NATIVE NOTABLES.

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note, distinguished for personal intrepidity, and one of the most daring skirmishers at Rua-peka-peka and elsewhere. He it was that discovered at Okaehau Kawiti's ambuscade, ready to fall on the flank of the besiegers. In different combats he courted danger and signalized the high-sounding name given him in his baptism, by wearing a white calico scarf, whereby he might be known as the beau sabreur Murat wore his snowy plume. His stature, like the majority of the natives on board, was above the ordinary standard. John Hobbs, who is not an aristocrat, or Ariki,* by descent, is but little marked by the Moku. All the rest were elaborately tattooed. It is a mark of effeminacy to have an unscored visage.

Some desperately foul specimens of the fair sex came on board with these really fine-looking Maori lords of the creation.

* Hereditary chieftain.

CHAPTER IX.

VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH-A LEE LURCH-NATIVES ON BOARD-HABITS AND CUSTOMS-A BOUT AT SINGLE-STICK-A PRACTICAL JOKE-MAORI AND HALF-BREED WOMEN-THEIR DEVOTION-THE NEW ZEALAND COMPANYFIRST SETTLEMENT-LAND QUESTION AND RIGHTS-BATTLE OF MONGANUI -THE WAIRAU, THE FIGHT, THE FLIGHT, THE MASSACRE-CONSEQUENCES -WHOSE THE FAULT RANGIHAIETA'S IMPUNITY GIBBET HEROES -RANGIHAIETA'S PERSON.

January 7th.-WEIGHED at 9 A.M., and made sail from Kororarika Bay-or rather Port Russell, (for its former title had better be forgotten,)-the Governor intending to proceed to Wellington, north about, visiting the settlements on the western coast. A stiff northwest breeze, however, compelled the captain to make the eastern passage our native passengers thus losing an opportunity of viewing the North Cape, or Rainga, where the ghosts of departed chiefs are supposed to stop to bait on their way to another world.

Our gallant ship encountered so much rough and adverse weather, especially off East Cape-a point of very stormy character that at one time she hardly made two knots an hour against a head sea. It was in rounding this headland on the 8th, that one of the

most genial occupations of the passenger on ship-board, namely dinner, met with a somewhat rude interruption. The pea-soup had been stowed away, and we were-in number about ten--in deep discussion of the first course, when a tremendous lurch jerked the legs of the table out of the cleats in the deck, and the festive board, "fetching way," rushed bodily to leeward with such an impetus that two thirds of the guests, especially the military ones, (not excepting the General,) were carried away, chairs and all, and prostrated beneath it—a relative position of table and company very uncommon in these abstemious times.

The worthy Vice-president, although a seafaring man, disappeared like a stage ghost through a trap, and the mahogany closed over his head against the bulkhead with a snap that guaranteed his clean decapitation had the edge chanced to catch his neck. The writer saved the cruets and himself from being picked up in small pieces by a tour de force, offspring of impulse and the moment, unaccountable even to himself. The viands, strictly observing the rules of gravitation, precipitated themselves by ricochet after their intended devourers; the captain stormed; the steward and loblolly-boys scrambled and tumbled over each other; the Governor "held on" and laughed; the carpenter and his mates rushed in with hammers and lashings; the two "young gentlemen" dining in the cabin stuffed their napkins down their throats, and grinned with furtive delight till they were blue in the face; and the good ship, having played the very deuce with comfort and crockery, righted herself and paddled onwards. Meanwhile, sad to relate,

his Excellency's fair lady was thrown out of her berth in the state cabin, and sustained many bruises.

(N.B.-Ladies ought never to go on board ship, or if they do, they should be laced up in a hammock and fed with a quill!)

The voyage, although rough and unpropitious, was amusing enough. A British man-of-war's quarter-deck was, I suppose, never before so crowded with live lumber. The native potentates and their wives and attendants lay sprawling, or sat crouched, day and night, amid a filthy heap of mats, blankets, and bedding, on that portion of the deck so tapu, so sacred, in the eyes of a sailor that a poor soldier officer cannot lean on the taffrail, or lay an arm on a hammock netting, without a hint being given him not to lounge on her Majesty's quarter-deck. It must have been gall to the captain, and wormwood to the first lieutenant, to see the dirty vermin-infested herd making themselves quite at home on the white planks of this nautical sanctum. Ould Rap" had two wives on board, one a pretty and delicately formed girl of, perhaps, eighteen. I never saw a hand and foot of more perfect symmetry than those of this young savage. She appeared, however, to have scarcely health and strength enough to rise from the deck where she lay coiled up; and, on nearer inspection, it was piteous to find that, in common with many of her compatriots, this pretty and delicate young creature was fearfully afflicted with scrofula. This malady is one of the many instruments by which the extermination of the one race before the footsteps of the other is too surely, however slowly, being accomplished.

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Captain Grey, ever greedy of knowledge, availed himself of the presence of the native chiefs to gain a further insight into the customs and traditions of the people. On these subjects they seemed far from willingly communicative; but his Excellency, not being one easily turned from his object, with the aid of his interpreter contrived to humour old Taniwha into garrulity. He described, although rather in ambiguous terms, the human sacrifices which in olden days made part of their religious rites; gave us several specimens of Maori poetry, some of which contained elegant imagery; and, at length, after much pressing, chanted a sort of wild incantation, to which his hoarse and hollow voice, his tall weird-like figure and excited gesture, gave eloquent effect. He treated his hearers, moreover, to a lecture on the measurement of time according to Maori computation, which was curious enough as far as it went. The year, it appears, is composed of thirteen lunar months, each day of the month rejoicing in a name, while the week-days are anonymous.

Te Whero-Whero appeared to disapprove of his compeer being drawn into an exposition of ancient customs, some of which were growing into disuse, and some whereof the more liberal Maoris are already ashamed; and both he and Te Rauperaka turned away with cold contempt when the simple old savage was betrayed into such forgetfulness of dignity as to sing us a song in their heaviness,for the others had penetration enough to see that in these pleasant sea-trips with his Excellency, they were, although ostensibly guests, actually prisoners. Without the slightest show of compulsion, and treated