422 NEW ZEALAND. [chap, xviil 



tattooed. He had formerly been a great warrior. He appeared 

 to be on very cordial terms with Mr. Bushby ; but at various 

 times they had quarrelled violently. Mr. Bushby remarked that 

 a little quiet irony would frequently silence any one of these 

 natives in their most blustering moments. This chief has come 

 and harangued Mr. Bushby in a hectoring manner, saying, " A 

 great chief, a great man, a friend of mine, has come to pay me 

 a visit — you must give him something good to eat, some fine 

 presents, &c." Mr. Bushby has allowed him to finish his dis 

 course, and then has quietly replied by some such answer as, 

 " What else shall your slave do for you ?" The man would then 

 instantly, with a very comical expression, cease his braggadocio. 



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 ge- 

 neral meeting of the chiefs was convened to consider the case. 

 It was considered by the New Zealanders as very atrocious, in- 

 asmuch 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 laud. 



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. 1 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 Eobert into the 

 burnino; iron furnace. It is the man who has his arm on Ro- 

 bert's breast. Physiognomy here spoke the truth ; this chief 

 had been a notorious murderer, and was an arrant coward tt) 

 boot. At the point where the boat landed. Mr. Bushby accom- 



