OBITUARY OF PARU, 
?82 
the time?” From these horrors the believer in 
Christ is delivered. He has built his hope on the 
Rock of Ages ; and finds, that though every thing 
else is giving way beneath and around him, tliis 
foundation standeth sure. These remarks will 
be amply illustrated by the following narrations 
of the deaths of some of the New,. Zealanders ; 
who have scarcely yet learned so much of the 
ways of civilized man as to conceal or disguise 
their sentiments, when about to leave this world. 
Some of these appeared to die in their sins, 
clinging to the last to their native superstitions ; 
wliilst the sins of others, we trust, had been 
washed away in the blood of the Redeemer. I 
shall for the most part confine myself to a de- 
scription of their latter days : and some of their 
expressions will in a measure disclose their pre- 
vious character and conduct. 
Paru, a chief of much influence and authority 
amongst the tribe Ngai-te-waki, was a man of a 
bold and daring spirit ; savage in his disposition ; 
and reckless of the consequences of any of his 
actions, either to himself or others. He always 
had the appearance of a man verging on con- 
sumption ; and his tendency to this disorder was 
much increased by his having been exposed to 
severe cold and wet, in a predatory excursion to 
the southward. The excursion, in which Paru 
formed one of the party, was undertaken in 
the winter: some of those engaged in it were 
