Chap. VII. FRIENDLINESS OF NATIVES. 201 
thing made an impression of cheerfulness and content- 
ment. 
Then the mildness of the climate, the good prepa- 
rations made before leaving England, and the hearty 
good-feeling existing among the colonists themselves 
as well as between them and the natives, all tended to 
give the extensive bivouac the air of a pic-nic on a 
large scale, rather than a specimen of the first hard- 
ships of a colony. 
For, although all were often wet in the numerous 
boat-excursions and fording of streams and creeks, or 
occasional showers of rain, no one felt any injury to 
his health ; master and man toiled with equal energy 
and good-will ; and both enjoyed a good meal, often 
served up with all the comforts of civilized life. Thus, 
in a little, cramped, but weather-tight tent, you found 
a capitalist in shirt-sleeves, taking a hasty meal off 
preserved meat and good vegetables (the latter groWn 
from the seeds we had left with Smith), and drinking 
good beer or wine ; and this from excellent glass and 
crockery, with plate, and clean table-cloths, and cruet- 
stands, and all the paraphernalia. The labourer ate 
an equally comfortable dinner from the pot-au-feu, 
full of ration-meat and potatoes or cabbages, which 
had been prepared by his wife at the gipsy-fire out- 
side. 
Each English family had got a native or two par- 
ticularly attached to them. They supplied their guests 
with potatoes and firewood, and with an occasional pig ; 
shared in the toils and meals of the family, delighted 
at the novelty of every article unpacked, and very 
quick at learning the use of new tools and inventions ; 
chattered incessantly in Maori and broken English ; 
devoted themselves, each to his own pakeha, with the 
greatest good-breeding, patience, and kind attention ; 
