20 Transactions. 
and valour of their chief added to the prestige of frequent victories, and, above 
all, to the confidence inspired by the possession of new and powerful weapons, 
unknown, in most cases, to their earlier opponents, led them unhesitatingly to 
engage in enterprizes, the difficulties and dangers of which might otherwise 
well have deterred even bolder men. Nor was the special confidence inspired 
by the possession of firearms at all surprising, when we remember the 
extraordinary results which have recently been brought about, even amongst 
European nations, by mere improvements in the construction of the weapons 
used in warfare. In the case of Austria, for example, the power of one of 
the greatest military nations of the world was almost annihilated, and has 
certainly been permanently reduced, in consequence of the possession, by their 
recent adversaries, of weapons of somewhat greater precision than their own. 
We cannot, therefore, wonder at the results which would be produced upon 
even the most warlike savage people, where the arms on the one side were 
muskets, and on the other mere clubs and wooden spears and more especially 
where those who used the latter had had no previous knowledge of the 
destructive power of the more deadly weapons brought against them. My 
narrative will, indeed, often recall the graphic language of De Foe when 
describing the effect produced by the guns of Robinson Crusoe and Friday 
upon the savages engaged in butchering their prisoners: “They were, you 
may be sure,” he says, “in a dreadful consternation, and all of them who were 
not hurt jumped upon their feet, but did not immediately know which way to 
run or which way to look, for they knew not from whence their destruction 
came.” We shall find, in effect, that this was the principal reason why the 
wars carried on by Te Rauparaha were, notwithstanding the smallness of his 
own forces, quite as disastrous to the numerous tribes which occupied the 
scenes of his exploits, as those which were waged against their own neighbours 
by the more powerful chieftains in the northern parts of the country, and that 
Te Rauparaha contributed as largely as most of the former to the enormous 
destruction of life which took place during the two-and-twenty years above 
referred to. But before entering upon the immediate subject of this memoir, I 
have thought it desirable to compile a short account, showing—the habits and 
character of the New Zealanders ; their laws in relation to the acquisition and 
ownership of land ; their customs in war ; the general condition of the tribes 
before the (rodait of firearms, and the effects which that circumstance in 
their history produced upon them. I have thought it would be satisfactory 
to my readers that I should adopt this course, not merely as a matter of 
speculative interest, but because some knowledge upon these subjects will 
really be found necessary to a full appreciation of the events I propose to 
relate, and of the characters of the chief actors in those events. 
I propose in the present chapter to inquire, shortly, into the habits and 
