240 GENERAL ACCOUNT OF NEW ZEALAND cuap. x 
physicians almost useless; indeed I am inclined to think. 
that their knowledge of physic is but small, judging from the 
state of their surgery which more than once came under my 
inspection. Of this art they seemed totally ignorant. I saw 
several wounded by our shot, without the smallest applica- 
tion on their wounds; one in particular who had a musket 
ball shot right through the fleshy part of his arm, came out 
of his house and showed himself to us, making a little use 
of the wounded arm. The wound, which was then of several 
days’ standing, was totally void of inflammation, and in 
short appeared to be in so good a state, that had any 
application been made use of, I should not have failed to 
inquire carefully what it had been which had produced so 
good an effect. 
A further proof, and not a weak one, of the sound 
health that these people enjoy, may be taken from the 
number of old people we saw. Hardly a canoe came off to 
us without bringing one or more; and every town had 
several, who, if we may judge by grey hairs and worn-out 
teeth, were of a very advanced age. Of these few or none 
were decrepit ; the greater number seemed in vivacity and 
cheerfulness to equal the young, and indeed to be inferior 
to them in nothing but the want of equal strength and 
agility. 
That the people have a larger share of ingenuity than 
usually falls to the lot of nations who have had so little or 
no commerce with any others appears at first sight: their 
boats, the better sort at least, show it most evidently. 
These are built of very thin planks sewn together, their 
sides rounding up like ours, but very narrow for their 
length. Some are immensely long. One I saw which the 
people laid alongside the ship, as if to measure how 
much longer she was than the canoe, fairly reached from 
the anchor that hung at the bows quite aft, but indeed 
we saw few so large as that. All, except a few we saw at 
Opoorage or Mercury Bay, which were merely trunks of trees 
hollowed out by fire, were more or less ornamented by 
carving. The common fishing canoe had no ornament but 
