2 4 o GENERAL ACCOUNT OF NEW ZEALAND CHAP, x 



physicians almost useless ; indeed I am inclined to think 

 that their knowledge of physic is but small, judging from the 

 state of their surgery which more than once came under my 

 inspection. Of this art they seemed totally ignorant. I saw 

 several wounded by our shot, without the smallest applica- 

 tion on their wounds ; one in particular who had a musket 

 ball shot right through the fleshy part of his arm, came out 

 of his house and showed himself to us, making a little use 

 of the wounded arm. The wound, which was then of several 

 days' standing, was totally void of inflammation, and in 

 short appeared to be in so good a state, that had any 

 application been made use of, I should not have failed to 

 inquire carefully what it had been which had produced so 

 good an effect. 



A further proof, and not a weak one, of the sound 

 health that these people enjoy, may be taken from the 

 number of old people we saw. Hardly a canoe came off to 

 us without bringing one or more ; and every town had 

 several, who, if we may judge by grey hairs and worn-out 

 teeth, were of a very advanced age. Of these few or none 

 were decrepit ; the greater number seemed in vivacity and 

 cheerfulness to equal the young, and indeed to be inferior 

 to them in nothing but the want of equal strength and 

 agility. 



That the people have a larger share of ingenuity than 

 usually falls to the lot of nations who have had so little or 

 no commerce with any others appears at first sight : their 

 boats, the better sort at least, show it most evidently. 

 These are built of very thin planks sewn together, their 

 sides rounding up like ours, but very narrow for their 

 length. Some are immensely long. One I saw which the 

 people laid alongside the ship, as if to measure how 

 much longer she was than the canoe, fairly reached from 

 the anchor that hung at the bows quite aft, but indeed 

 we saw few so large as that. All, except a few we saw at 

 Opoorage or Mercury Bay, which were merely trunks of trees 

 hollowed out by fire, were more or less ornamented by 

 carving. The common fishing canoe had no ornament but 



