292 HISTORY AND ETHNOLOGY. 



Zealanders is their inordinate passion for war, although many are not 

 insensible to the unfortunate effects of their dissensions. Beyond all doubt, 

 many of the New Zealand wars have their origin merely in the ambition 

 and covetousness of individuals. Some asserted to Englishmen that their 

 fathers and ancestors had always been engaged in warfare, which fact they 

 appeared to consider a sufficient reason why it should never be otherwise 

 among them or their descendants. The wars of these savages are kept up 

 through their fondness for conflict and carnage, and by reason of the spirit 

 of revenge, which among them appears to be more insatiable than with any 

 other nation of the earth. The law of retaliation, in the most rigorous and 

 literal sense, is their only rule for the accommodation of differences ; and so 

 long as satisfaction is not rendered to the claims of this inexorable principle, 

 both parties can consider each other only as enemies. If old offences give 

 no pretext to the New Zealanders for their insane and destructive quarrels, 

 their pride, their irritability, and quick sensibility are skilled, in an extra- 

 ordinary degree, in discovering in a moment reasons for taking offence. 

 The most trifling neglect, or anything that they consider an affront or 

 a want of respect, puts them into a violent rage, and furnishes apparent 

 cause for long continued strife. Although the courage of the New 

 Zealanders is great, and they display an extraordinary indifference to 

 danger and death, yet they are imbued with a spirit of boasting, by which 

 their character suffers almost as much as by their ferocity and cruelty. 

 With the New Zealand warrior, hatred or contempt for his enemy is 

 expressed in every word, tone, and gesture. He challenges him to the 

 combat with every distortion of the limbs and posture of the person which 

 he can call to mind as most expressive of scorn and insult ; and after having 

 vanquished and slain him, vents his remaining fury and disdain on his dead 

 body, and even the suspicion of eating the flesh of his enemies is founded 

 on strong probability ; indeed facts narrated by former travellers reduce 

 it to certainty. 



Their ideas of theft are very loose, if it is not committed upon their friends, 

 but only upon those who have no claim on their hospitality or indulgence. 

 Their covetousness and greediness are extraordinarily great, and they are 

 fond of ornaments and finery. The New Zealand chieftain adorns his head 

 with feathers, and without doubt is proud of this splendid distinction. His 

 cloak of state is carefully embroidered, and both sexes frequently wear 

 pretty carved combs in the hair, and masses of ornaments suspended from 

 their ears and neck. All display the vanity of children when they are more 

 magnificently dressed than usual. 



Unacquainted as are the New Zealanders with everything deserving the 

 name of science, and insignificant as are the advances made by them in the 

 arts, yet their intellectual faculties are evidently of a high order. Those 

 who have come in contact with European civilization have, in general, 

 exhibited extraordinary quickness and tact in comprehending its spirit, and 

 in adjusting themselves to the new opinions and customs with which they 

 have been made acquainted; and all the facts reported concerning them 

 prove sagacity, reflection, and other capacities of the mind, which betray a 

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