CflRISTiMAS DAY. 211 



annihilated, in this northern end of the island, the 

 New Zealand species. In many places I noticed 

 several sorts of weeds, which, like the rats, I was 

 forced to own as countrymen. A leek has over- 

 run whole districts, and will pr-ove very trouble- 

 some, but it was imported as a favour by a French 

 vessel. The common dock is also widely dissem- 

 inated, and will, I fear, forever remain a proof of 

 the rascality of an Englishman, who sold the seeds 

 for those of the tobacco plant. 



On returning from our pleasant walk to the house, 

 I dined with Mr. Williams, and then, a horse be- 

 ing lent me, I returned to the Bay of Islands. I 

 took leave of the missionaries with thankfulness for 

 their kind welcome, and with feelings of high re- 

 spect for their gentlemanlike, useful, and upright 

 characters. I think it would be difficult to find a 

 body of men better adapted for the high office 

 which they fulfil, 



Christmas Day. — In a few more days the fourth 

 year of our absence from England will be comple- 

 ted. Our first Christmas day was spent at Ply- 

 mouth ; the second at St. Martin's Cove, near Cape 

 Horn ; the third at Port Desire, in Patagonia ; the 

 fourth at anchor in a wild harbour in the peninsula 

 of Tres Montes : the fifth here ; and the next, I 

 trust in Providence, will be in England. We at- 

 tended divine worship in the chapel of Pahia, part 

 of the service being read in English and part in the 

 native language. Whilst at New Zealand we did 

 not hear of any recent acts of cannibalism, but Mr. 

 Stokes found burned human bones strewed round 

 a fire-place on a small island near the anchorage ; 

 but these remains of a comfortable banquet might 

 have been lying there for several years. It is prob- 

 able that the moral state of the people will rapidly 

 improve. Mr. Bushby mentioned one pleasing an- 



