90 Transactions. 
inquired anxiously what natives we had on board. As we leaped from our 
boat he advanced to meet us, and, with looks of evident fear and mistrust, 
eagerly sought our hands to exchange the missionary greeting. During the 
whole of the ensuing conversation he seemed uneasy and insecure in his own 
opinion, and the whalers present described this behaviour as totally at 
variance with his usual boastfulness and arrogance. He made us a pious 
speech about the battle, saying that he had had no part in it, and that he was 
determined to give no encouragement to fighting. He agreed to come on 
board the next day, and departed to one of the neighbouring islands. He is 
rather under the average height, and very dignified and stately in his manner, 
although on this occasion it was much affected by the wandering and watchful 
glances which he frequently threw around him, as though distrustful of every- 
one. Although at least sixty years old he might have passed for a much 
younger man, being hale and stout, and his hair but slightly grizzled. His 
features are aquiline and striking, but an overhanging upper lip, and a 
retreating forehead on which his eyebrows wrinkled back when he lifted his 
deep sunken eyelids and penetrating eyes, produced a fatal effect on the good 
prestige arising from his first appearance. The great chieftain, the man able 
to lead others, and habituated to wield authority, was clear at first sight ; but 
the savage ferocity of the tiger, who would not scruple to use any means for 
the attainment of that power, the destructive ambition of a selfish despot, was 
plainly discernible on a nearer view. Innumerable accounts have been 
related to me of Rauparaha’s unbounded treachery. No sacrifice of honour or 
feeling seems to have been too great for him, if conducive to his own 
aggrandizement or security. He has been known to throw one of his own 
men overboard in order to lighten his canoe when pursued by the enemy, and 
he had slaughtered one of his own slaves at the late feast at Mana to appear 
opulent in the eyes of his assembled guests. This was one of the poor, 
submissive, hard-working tributaries whom we had seen at the Pelorus. In 
his intercourse with the white whalers and traders and the shipping in the 
strait, he had universally distinguished himself by the same qualities. By 
dint of cringing and fawning upon those who showed power and inclination to 
resist his constant extortions, and the most determined insolence and bullying 
towards those whom he knew to be at his mercy, he succeeded in obtaining a 
large revenue from the white population, whether transient or permanent, 
which he invariably applied to the extension of his power among the natives. 
He was always accompanied in these marauding excursions, which he 
frequently extended over to Cloudy Bay and Queen Charlotte Sound, by 
Rangihaeata, who had become his inseparable companion since his rise in 
authority. Their respective stations were pithily described by one of the 
whalers, who told us that ‘the Robuller’ as he mispronounced his name, 
