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 then- 

 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 efi'ect 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 theii- 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 efi'ect, 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 introduction of firearms, and the efifects 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 



