1835. 



DIFFICULTIES OF FIRST MISSIOM. 



579 



thought I could not do better than leave a present : his wife, 

 or rather one of his wives, was pointed out to us, as the sister 

 of the notorious Shunghi. 'Titore^vvas the absent chief's 

 name. He was out in the country, with a hundred well-armed 

 followers, cultivating, as we were told, his yam and potato 

 grounds. We next saw a burying place, or rather a place 

 where the dead are exposed, upon a raised platform, to the 

 wind and sun. Wrapped in cloth of the country, the bodies 

 are placed upon small square platforms of boards, which 

 are fixed upon single central posts, ten feet high. Bushes 

 were growing, unmolested, in the enclosure (or ' Marae**), no 

 foot entering to tread them down. Among: these thickets I 

 saw several large boards standing upright like gravestones, 

 some of which were painted red, and uncouthly carved. Re- 

 turning to our boat, the chief whom we had visited presented 

 me with a garment of the country manufacture : his assumed 

 haughtiness was amusing, from being characteristic. Our 

 evening was passed in very interesting conversation with Mr. 

 W. Williams, and Mr. Baker;* the former had just arrived 

 from Waimate, an agricultural settlement, lately established 

 by the missionaries, in the interior. 



Of the difficulties encountered and surmounted by the first 

 missionaries in New Zealand full accounts have been lately 

 published : the little we then heard strongly excited our curi- 

 osity. Mr. Marsden appeared to have been the originator, as 

 well as the main instrument, in forwarding the great work. 



On the 23d, I went with Mr. Baker to Tipuna, the place 

 where the first missionaries, Mr. King and Mr. Kendal, esta- 

 blished themselves in 1813. Mr. King was absent, but I saw 

 his wife and son, who told me that he was travelling about 

 among the natives, and would not return for several days ; he 

 was on horseback, his son said, but quite alone. Mrs. King 

 described the former state of things which she had witnessed 

 herself in strong terms ; she could not look back to those days 



* I learned that de Thierry was sometime resident in the King's- 

 bench, and that his alleged purchase of land> in New Zealand, was a 

 theme of ridicule among the aborigines. 



2 p 2 



