446 CHARLES DARWIN 



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 general meeting of the chiefs was convened 

 to consider the case. It was considered by the New Zealand- 

 ers as very atrocious, inasmuch as it was a night attack, and 

 that Mrs. Bushby was lying ill in the house: this latter cir- 

 cumstance, 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 con- 

 sidered by the British as of more consequence than the con- 

 fiscation 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. I 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 Robert's breast. Physiog- 

 nomy 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 accompanied me a few 

 hundred yards on the road: I could not help admiring the 

 cool impudence of the hoary old villain, whom we left lying 

 in the boat, when he shouted to Mr. Bushby, " Do not you 

 stay long, I shall be tired of waiting here." 



We now commenced our walk. The road lay along a 

 well beaten path, bordered on each side by the tall fern, 

 which covers the whole country. After travelling some 

 miles, we came to a little country village, where a few hovels 

 were collected together, and some patches of ground culti- 



