400 Essays. 



aught of the people to whom such bones had belonged ; they also expressed 

 no astonishment at tiem, and always disowned their ever having belonged to 

 their tribe, and which, indeed, their conduct showed. Moreover, the very 

 great number of their jade (greenstone) war implements and ornaments 

 (found by Cook and others, even at the Bay of Islands and the North Cape) 

 seem to indicate their antiquity as a race in Wew Zealand. The great 

 number appears the more remarkable when it is considered that they always 

 endeavoured to hide them securely in time of war, through which great 

 numbers have been lost. J^ow that stone is only found at one spot in the 

 South Island,^ difficult of access both by sea and land. It was only obtained 

 thence with great difficulty, increased through the superstitious belief that 

 it was produced by a " fish " under the guardianship of a " god," to propitiate 

 whom many ceremonies were observed. Further, there is also the known 

 antiquity of many of those prized stone weapons and ornaments which have 

 descended as heirlooms through several generations, and the great length of 

 time necessarily taken in the making of one of them. Again, there is the 

 silent evidence of the mako, or tooth of the long-snouted porpoise, the prized 

 ear ornament of the New Zealanders, many of which are also heirlooms of 

 great antiquity. How did their ancestors obtain these teeth, seeing the 

 animal which produces them inhabits the open ocean ? The natives say, by 

 occasionally finding the animal driven on shore after a gale. But during the 

 writer's long residence of more than thirty years, always on the sea coast, 

 and his frequent travelling over all the beaches, he has only heard of one of 

 those animals having been found, and that was too small for its teeth to be 

 of any value. What amount of years, then, may it not reasonably have 

 required to obtain all those teeth now left among the natives, exclusive of 

 the large number sold and lost. 



(3.) History. — I'rom Tasman and Cook we learn that the natives were 

 very numerous. Tasman, who came suddenly upon them from the south, 

 coasting up the western side of the South Island, and who only remained at 

 anchor for a few hours in one of its bays, was visited by eight canoes filled 

 with men, who attacked him, and having killed his quartermaster and four 

 others, they retreated, bearing off one of the bodies. Tasman " immediately 

 left the scene of this bloody transaction, when twenty-two more loats jDut off 

 from the shore and advanced towards them." Erom a drawing given by 

 Tasman, we find the " boats" he speaks of to be the ancient double canoe, 

 long since out of date. This occurred in 1643, some 280 years, according to 

 our calculators, after the arrival of the first few emigrants in this country. 

 Here let it be observed that according to the natives' own legends those so- 



* Foimd from Duu Mountain to Maxtin Bay, wherever the serpentine rocks occur. — Ed. 



