114 . ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. IV. 
majestic in itself, and naturally productive of awe, 
had doubtless been handed down from father to son 
in the chiefs family; and was wisely calculated to 
maintain the aristocratic position of the leader, by 
apjiealing to the weak and superstitious imaginations of 
the crowd. When I rememl)ered the strong effect 
produced upon myself by the mere sight of the pass in 
" The Place of Cliffs," I inwardly admired the wisdom 
of the ancestors of these people, who had so contrived 
to weave up their own precarious dignity with legendary 
superstition, and the venerable testimony of nature's 
most kingly works. 
Like the first rulers of young Rome, who proclaimed 
their descent from gods, and imposed laws advised by a 
celestial nymph, so Heuheu backed his other claims to 
empire by maintaining inviolate the mysterious tapu of 
his mountain ancestor. 
Any visit made to the spot would, of course, be cal- 
culated to lessen the mystery, as the natives would soon 
learn from the White men that none of the danger 
existed which they supposed to attend such a pro- 
ceeding. 
Mr. Dandeson Coates, the lay Secretary of the 
Church Missionary Society, has lately addressed a 
pamphlet to Lord Stanley in support of the position 
that every spot of the islands is the private property of 
the natives. In this pamphlet he adduces this very 
case in support of his rather curious argument : — 
He says, " An illustration of this fact, extracted 
" from the Journal of the Rev. A. N. Brown, is re- 
" corded in the * Church IMissionary Gleaner ' for De- 
" cember 1842. In a journey into the interior, he came 
" into the vicinity of Tonga Riro, a snow-capped moun- 
" tain, probably 6000 feet high, and its summit an un- 
** extinguished crater. At Te Rapa, Mr. Brown fell 
i 
