ME. II. H. TBAVERS OX THE CHATHAM ISLAKHS. 137 



north-western side of the island, and at Ware-kawri Tuapeka and 

 Kaingaroa, on the north side, having altogether a population of 

 some 400 souls, all told. 



The remnant of the More-ores (the name given to the aboriginal 

 inhabitants), exclusive of the few who are still retained in slavery, 

 is settled at Ohangi, on the south-eastern side of the island. 

 They do not exceed 200 in number, and are said to be rapidly de- 

 creasing. I believe this to be the case ; for during my six months' 

 stay not less than eight deaths occurred amongst them. In their 

 habits of living they now assimilate to the Maories, and speak a 

 language compounded of their own original language and of that 

 of the New Zealanders- Before the invasion of the islands by 

 the New Zealanders, which took place about the year 1832 or 

 1835, the More-ores were very numerous, numbering little short 

 of 1500 people- They are much shorter, but stouter-built than 

 the New Zealanders, and have darker skins, but the same straight 

 coarse hair ; their faces are rounder and more pleasing in expres- 

 sion ; their noses are Roman in shape, resembling those of the 

 Jews. They never tattooed ; and, although they originally prac- 

 tised cannibalism, they had discontinued it before the arrival of 

 the New Zealanders, They appear to have been a very cheerful 

 people, fond of singing and of telling laughable stories. Their 

 habits of living, however, were originally very rude and impro- 

 vident. They built no huts, merely using a few branches of trees, 

 stuck into the ground, as a shelter from the wind. Their chief 

 food consisted of fish, birds, shell-fish, and fern-root, which latter 

 they prepared in the same manner as the New Zealanders ; but 

 the women always ate apart from the men. Like many other 

 savage tribes, they were very indolent, seldom seeking food until 

 pressed by hunger. They had no canoes, there being no timber 

 on the islands suflB^ciently large for constructing them : but they 

 formed rafts of the flower-stalks of the PJiormium tenax^ lashed 

 together with supplejack, and having an upright wooden stem, 

 ingeniously carved. The paddles were shaped like a spade, and 

 were used at the stem of the rafts, very much in the same manner 

 as a spade would be used in digging. They made stone axes, 

 similar to those of the New Zealanders ; and these, with clubs, &c., 

 constructed from the harder woods growing on the islands, formed 

 their weapons. In their own quarrels, it was understood that 

 the first blood drawn terminated the battle. Such fights were 

 uncommon, and were generally for the possession of a seal's 

 carcass or of some mass of whale-blubber which happened to be 



