428 NEVv" ZEALAND [chap, xviir. 



seem here to have replaced mammiferous quadrupeds, in the same 

 manner as the reptiles still do at the Galapagos archipelago. It 

 is said that the common Norway rat, in the short space of two 

 years, annihilated in this northern end of the island, the New 

 Zealand species. In many places I noticed several sorts of weeds, 

 ^v'hich, like the rats, I was forced to own as countrymen. A 

 leek has overrun whole districts, and will prove very trouble- 

 some, but it was imported as a favour by a French vessel. The 

 common dock is also widely disseminated, and will, I fear, for 

 ever 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 being lent me, I returned 

 to the Bay of Islands. I took leave of the missionaries with 

 thankfulness for their kind w^elcome, and with feelings of high 

 respect 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 completed. Our first Christmas- 

 day was spent at Plymouth ; 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 ; this fifth here ; and the next, I trust in Providence, 

 will be in England. We attended divine service in the chapel 

 of Pahia ; part of the service being read in English, and part in 

 the native lanofuaoce. Whilst at New Zealand we did not hear 

 of any recent acts of cannibalism ; but Mr. Stokes found burnt 

 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 probable that the 

 moral state of the people will rapidly improve. Mr. Bushby men- 

 tioned one pleasing anecdote as a proof of the sincerity of some, 

 at least, of those who profess Christianity. One of his young 

 men left him, who had been accustomed to read prayers to the 

 rest of the servants. Some weeks afterwards, happening to pass 

 late in the evening by an outhouse, he saw and heard one of his 

 men reading the Bible with difficulty by the light of the fire, to 

 the otliers. After this the party knelt and prayed : in their 



