194 DEGREE OF SECURITY IN NEW ZEALAND. 
preaching the Gospel*. The villages are very 
numerous, and the inhabitants scattered over a 
large tract of country : in most of these villages, 
and where the population is so great as to re- 
quire them, Chapels have been erected, strictly 
* I will here make a remark on the degree of security which 
I have enjoyed during my past residence in New Zealand. 
]My domicile has often been left, for many days together, lock- 
less, barless, and latchless ; with nothing more to secure the 
door from being burst open, than a chair placed against it. In 
all possible ways, when on visits amongst the natives, has my 
travelling apparatus been exposed in an open tent; yet nothing 
was ever missing. It is true, that among some strange natives, 
who came from a great distance, and with whom we were alto- 
gether unacquainted, some petty thefts have taken place. But, 
whether at home or abroad, I have for the most part reposed 
the utmost confidence in their honesty. In my journeys, more- 
over, I have gone over many thousand miles, by night and by 
day, usually alone ; and never met with a suspicious look from 
a native of the country. I have, indeed, occasionally heard of 
people being stopped on the road : but, upon inquiry, I found 
that they were either runaway sailors, or escaped convicts, 
whom the natives were pursuing, to take them back to their 
vessels, or to give them up into the hands of justice. Or, if 
more respectable characters than these have been stopped, I 
have usually found that justice was on the side of the natives; 
and that they had been wronged or misused by the persons, or 
the immediate friends of the persons, whom they would not ; 
allow to proceed on their way. I have also been accustomed to ^ 
place the greatest dependence upon those natives whom I sent 
on messages, or employed in carrying letters or parcels to any ' 
part of the island. I never knew a case, where a native has 
been entrusted by me with a message, a parcel, or a letter, but 
he has faithfully performed his errand. Not a week has passed j 
without my having had to make communication to Europeans j 
living at a distance from the Waimate; and whatever might 
be the value of what was to be sent, I had no hesitation in ^ 
giving it in charge to a bush-native, if I could find one ; that 
is, a native who has not been accustomed to Europeans, but 
has all his life resided among his own people. 
