HISTORICAL SKETCH CONCLUDED.

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will on the part of the British troops and tars and their commanders, but because the crafty Maori never waited for touch of steel-the true British test of strength of heart and arm. A good stand up fight, hand to hand, foot to foot, would, I firmly believe, have materially assisted in simplifying and even strengthening and cementing the future relations of the white and native

races.

It is for this, that I venture thus frankly to lament that I was denied the satisfaction of hearing the war-yell of the Maori and the battle cheer of the British in martial unison, and of seeing the firelock and bayonet fairly crossed in open field with the double-barrel and tomahawk; and I hope there is nothing unpardonably truculent in the sentiment!

CHAPTER IV.

NEW ZEALAND IN SIGHT-AUCKLAND-HEAD-QUARTERS-MAORIS' LOVE OF TRADE-THEIR EXTERIOR, ATTIRE, ETC.-HALF-BREEDS-GOVERNMENT HOUSE-BISHOP'S AUCKLAND-LEISURE UTILIZED-PENSIONER VILLAGES -UTU-AN INQUEST-NATIVE NOTABLES-A COTEMPORARY OF COOKTHE LANGUAGE-SOBRIETY, AND AN EXCEPTION.

December 10th.-SAW land on the starboard bow, and from 3 to 5 P.M., we were steaming past the group of the Three Kings, consisting of one rocky isle, three or four miles in extent, showing partial spots of verdure, surrounded by six or eight smaller ones- ragged, volcanic, insulated peaks, tops of submarine mountains forming the northern outworks of the Islands of New Zealand. On the larger of the "Kings" live a small party of natives. Our proper course would have taken us between these islands and the mainland-a safe passage; but a current had set us 15 miles to the northward, so we passed outside of the group.

Cape Maria Van Diemen―or Rainga as it is called by the natives the northern extremity of New Zealand, is holy ground in their eyes. It is there that the soul, released from the corpse of the deceased warrior, takes a

VOYAGE TO NEW ZEALAND.

71

kind of purgatorial rest, exposed to the furious storms of the rugged promontory, before its final absorption into -what?

December 11th.-At 4 A.M. we were traversing the mouth of the Bay of Islands, a splendid barbour, much frequented by whaling vessels as well as her Majesty's ships, and a considerable military station, to which I shall make a future visit. At 9 A. M. we passed Bream Head. Running within five to ten miles of the coast, its volcanic and peaked character was very apparent as well as striking. The shore is indented with many inlets, but there are but few good harbours, even for small vessels. A fine bluff was indicated to me as "Cape Rodney ;"* and I was pleased to find an ancestor's name commemorated in these distant islands. We passed during the day several groups of islands,—the "Cavallos," the "Poor Knights," and the great and little "Barriers." About 2 P.M. the ship was gradually becoming involved on either hand, and fore and aft, in a frame of landisland and continent; but all alike in feature and expression. It was a very plain repulsive face indeed, with a dingy brown complexion, spotted over with extinct volcanoes-like irruptions on the human skin. Verdure seemed to be very scarce, the higher order of vegetation still more so. Certainly there is nothing inviting in the aspect of New Zealand at this point, so far as is to be gathered by a distant view of its shores.

We were now approaching Auckland, the present capital. On our left was the island of Rangi-toto,-an immense volcanic cone, composed of scoria and stunted

* So named by Cook, Nov. 24, 1769.

bushes; on our right, Mount Victoria, a long tongue of land terminating in a lofty knoll, surmounted by a signal post, from whence a sudden jet of little flags announced our approach to the expectant functionaries of Auckland; expectant, I say, because the InflexAuckland;-expectant, ible's trip to Sydney was "a visit to my uncle," on the part of the New Zealand Government, and 50,000/. was the result, by way of loan, from the military chest of Sydney.

Right ahead we saw, some six miles off, the Bishop's College; and shortly after, wheeling round the signal promontory, we opened the truly splendid harbour of Waitemata. We passed on the right or northern shore the fire-blackened spot where, only four weeks previously, the entire family of Lieutenant Snow, R.N. had been massacred, and, as was then supposed, half devoured by the natives,—almost rubbed sides with her Majesty's ships Dido, Captain Maxwell, and Calliope, Captain Stanley; and finally, at 4 P.M., anchored about threequarters of a mile distant from, and right abreast of the city of Auckland. The Inflexible had made a good passage, considering that she had not long before lost about 40 feet of her false keel in Sydney harbour; and had no prospect of getting it repaired any nearer than Bombay.

Arekana, the Maori name for Auckland, and indeed their closest approach to its pronunciation, contains about 6 or 7,000 inhabitants. It is seated on a rather high plateau of land, divided by ravines into three coves -called "Mechanic's," "Commercial," and "Official Bays." The former is a strand devoted to boat-building