Chap. I. HONGFS 'WAES— DEPOPULATION. 7 
length of New Zealand, a distance of more than 
seven hundred miles. The population of the North 
Island was thinned and scattered ; and that of the 
Middle Island destroyed, with the exception of a 
miserable remnant. 
In one of these wholesale massacres of men, women, 
and children, which was remarkable for extreme 
treachery and cruelty, Rauperaha received the most 
efficient aid from an English savage of the name of 
Stewart. Some particulars of this horrible event will 
be related hereafter ; at present it suffices to state, 
that the wretch was tried for murder at Sydney, but 
acquitted. If British law had been established in the 
country where the event took place, he would inevi- 
tably have been convicted and hanged. The whole 
case is one of many. The irregular settlement of Eu- 
ropeans, which was now making rapid progress, led to 
numerous instances of crime for which no punishment 
could be inflicted. In addition to the spectacle of 
savage warfare in its most destructive excess, the 
country exhibited that of perfect anarchy as respects 
the European settlers. 
Such a state of things urgently required some 
remedy. It would be difficult to conceive one more 
inefficient than that which was applied. In 1831 
there was transmitted to the King, William the Fourth, 
a letter signed with the names or marks of thirteen 
chiefs, residing in the immediate neighbourhood of the 
Bay of Islands, whereby they prayed his Majesty " to 
" become their friend, and the guardian of these islands, 
" lest the teasing of other tribes should come near to 
" them, and lest strangers should come and take away 
" their land ;'* and also " to be angry with such of 
" his people as might be vicious or troublesome " 
towards the natives. 
