NEW ZEALAND. 429 



snow. The day previous to their making land, they had been set to 

 the northward by current about twenty miles in fourteen hours. 



They next passed through Cook's Straits to Port Cooper, on the 

 north side of Banks' Peninsula, where they anchored. This harbour 

 is sheltered, except from the northerly winds, and is much frequented 

 by whalers, who resort thither to try out the whale-blubber. The 

 beach is in consequence strewn with the bones of these monsters. 

 On going on shore, a party of three natives and their wives were 

 found in a state of wretchedness and degradation, — their only cloth- 

 ing being an old blanket, disgustingly dirty, besmeared with oil and 

 with a reddish earth which had been rubbed from their bodies, and 

 a coarse mat of New Zealand flax; they depended for subsistence 

 on a small potato-patch, and smoked fish ; they lived in low huts, 

 formed of stakes, covered with mats, and thatched with grass in the 

 rudest manner : their condition was but little better than that of the 

 Fuegians. A fellow-passenger, who had seen the oldest man left of 

 the tribe, stated that these were the remnants of a tribe that, but a 

 dozen years before, could muster six hundred fighting men : they 

 were all cut off, about ten years since, by the noted chief Robolua, 

 residing near Cook's Straits. The old man appeared deeply affected 

 whilst dwelling on the history of his people. The cupidity of the 

 whites in this case, as in many others, had brought about, or was the 

 cause of, this deadly attack. The particulars were as follow. 



The master of an English vessel, by the name of Stewart, (the 

 same person from whom the small southern island takes its name,) 

 was trading along the northern island, and fell in with the chief, 

 Robolua, who was then meditating an excursion to the south. Feeling 

 confident that if he could come upon his enemies unawares their 

 defeat was certain, he offered Stewart to load his vessel with flax, if 

 he would transport him and his warriors to the place he wished to 

 attack. The contract was readily entered into by Stewart, and the 

 warriors were taken on board, and landed on various parts of the coast, 

 where the inhabitants, taken by surprise, were butchered without 

 mercy. Not less than fifteen hundred persons were cut off at this and 

 the adjoining harbour of Port Levy, or Kickurarapa. This Stewart 

 is said to be still living on the northern island of New Zealand. 



Many specimens of shells were obtained here, and a few presents, 

 consisting of pipes and tobacco, were made to the remnant of this 

 once powerful tribe. Two of their fellow-passengers intended to land 

 here for the purpose of establishing themselves, but the place offered 



vol. 11. 108 



