8 
INTRODUCTION. 
amongst them ; split into innumerable families and tribes, 
each under his own peculiar head and independent of the 
rest, it is not to be wondered, that constant feuds should 
have occurred, and the fiercer passions should have been 
called into action. Their history in this respect is only a 
counterpart of that of the Heptarchy, when one petty prince 
was ever warring with another ; or with that state which 
existed to a later period, amongst the Irish and the High- 
landers of Scotland, almost up to the present generation. If 
even the traditions which remain of the feuds and atrocities 
of those hostile clans, were to be compared with the Hew 
Zealander’s, it is doubtful which would be thought the most 
savage. 
The Tapu was a remarkable institution; it did not ori- 
nate with the Maori — he brought it with him ; it was of wide- 
spread observance, extending from Tonga to Tahaiti, and 
thence to the Sandwich Isles. Severe and bloody as were 
its demands, it was still, as Polynesian society was constituted, 
politic and wise; in fact it was the only bond of union which 
existed, and kept them from committing greater excesses. 
It must be remembered they were heathen — they knew not 
God, and great as their sins were, they were not against 
light and knowledge, but committed with darkened under- 
standings. Compare their warfare, as heathen, with that of 
civilized Christians ; the sack of a town — whether by French 
or English — and then what shall we say of savage warfare. 
Compare the war which the misguided patriots of Hew 
Zealand carried on with the British Governor in 1845-7 
with that of the French in Algeria during the same period. 
The sack of Kororareka, with the destruction of an Arab 
tribe. The conduct of Hone Heke, the Hew Zealand chief, 
with that of the French commander. The same number of 
the Times recorded both. Of the natives it said, they have 
hitherto enjoyed their triumph without cruelty;” in fact, the 
Governor himself lauded the chivalric conduct of Heke. 
But when the Oulad Biahs, a wild mountain tribe, vainly 
endeavoured to preserve their independence against French 
aggression, and fled with their wives and children to their 
