428 NEW ZEALAND [cuap. xvIIL 
seem here to have replaced mammiferous quadrupeds, in the sainc 
manner as the reptiles still do at the Galapagos archipelago. It 
is said that the common Norway rat, in the short space of two 
yeats, annihilated in this northern end of the island, the New 
Zealand species. In many places I noticed several sorts of weeds, 
which, like the rats, I was forced to own as countrymen. A 
leek has overrun whole districts, and will prove very trouble- 
some, but it was imported as a favour by a French vessel. The 
common deck is also widely disseminated, and will, I fear, for 
ever remain a proof of the rascality of an Englishman, who sold 
the seeds for those of the tobacco plant. 
On returning from our pleasant walk to the house, I dined 
with Mr. Williams ; and then, a horse being lent me, I returned 
to the Bay of Islands. I took leave of the missionaries with 
thankfulness for their kind welcome, and with feelings of high 
respect for their gentlemanlike, useful, and upright characters. 
I think it would be difficult to find a body‘of men better adapted 
for the high office which they fulfil. 
Christmas-Day.—In a few more days the fourth year of our 
absence from England will be completed. Our first Christmas- 
day was spent at Plymouth; the second at St. Martin’s Cove, 
near Cape Horn; the third at Port Desire, in Patagonia; the 
fourth at anchor in a wild harbour in the peninsula of Tres 
Montes; this fifth here; and the next, I trust in Providence, 
will be in England. We attended divine service in the chapel 
of Pahia; part of the service being read in English, and part in 
the native language. Whilst at New Zealand we did not hear 
of any recent acts of cannibalism ; but Mr. Stokes found burnt 
human bones strewed round a fire-place on a small island near the 
anchorage; but these remains of a comfortable banquet might 
have been lying there for several years. Itis probable that the 
moral state of the people will rapidly improve. Mr. Bushby men- 
tioned one pleasing anecdote as a proof of the sincerity of some, 
at least, of those who profess Christianity. One of his young 
men left him, who had been accustomed to read prayers to the 
rest of the servants. Some weeks afterwards, happening to pass 
late in the evening by an outhouse, he saw and heard one of his 
men reading the Bible with difficulty by the light of the fire, to 
the others. After this the party knelt and prayed: in their 
