customs, and even in their smallest actions. If a New Zealander is
struck, although but in joke, the blow must be returned and of this I
saw an instance with one of our officers.
At the present day, from the progress of civilization, there is much
less warfare, except among some of the southern tribes. I heard a
characteristic anecdote of what took place some time ago in the south.
A missionary found a chief and his tribe in preparation for war;--their
muskets clean and bright, and their ammunition ready. He reasoned long
on the inutility of the war, and the little provocation which had been
given for it. The chief was much shaken in his resolution, and seemed
in doubt: but at length it occurred to him that a barrel of his
gunpowder was in a bad state, and that it would not keep much longer.
This was brought forward as an unanswerable argument for the necessity
of immediately declaring war: the idea of allowing so much good
gunpowder to spoil was not to be thought of; and this settled the
point. I was told by the missionaries that in the life of Shongi, the
chief who visited England, the love of war was the one and lasting
spring of every action. The tribe in which he was a principal chief
had at one time been oppressed by another tribe from the Thames River.
A solemn oath was taken by the men that when their boys should grow up,
and they should be powerful enough, they would never forget or forgive
these injuries. To fulfil this oath appears to have been Shongi's
chief motive for going to England; and when there it was his sole
object. Presents were valued only as they could be converted into
arms; of the arts, those alone interested him which were connected with
the manufacture of arms. When at Sydney, Shongi, by a strange
coincidence, met the hostile chief of the Thames River at the house of
Mr. Marsden: their conduct was civil to each other; but Shongi told him
that when again in New Zealand he would never cease to carry war into
his country. The challenge was accepted; and Shongi on his return
fulfilled the threat to the utmost letter. The tribe on the Thames
River was utterly overthrown, and the chief to whom the challenge had
been given was himself killed. Shongi, although harbouring such deep
feelings of hatred and revenge, is described as having been a
good-natured person.
In the evening I went with Captain Fitz Roy and Mr. Baker, one of the
missionaries, to pay a visit to Kororadika: we wandered about the
village, and saw and conversed with many of the people, both men,
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