422 NEW ZEALAND. [CHAP. xvni. 



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 land. 



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 Robert into the 

 burning 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 to 

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



