Chap. XVIII. EFFECT OF IMPUNITY ON NATIVES. 483 
remains, but as though a battle had been fought 
between the two nations, in which King Rauperaha 
had been victorious, and had followed the customs at- 
tendant on a New Zealand victory ; and as though 
Great Britain were glad to end the campaign on re- 
ceiving from the conquerors a small portion of the 
booty taken in the battle, and an assurance that peace 
should be maintained for the future. 
So, at least, it appeared to the natives. They became 
daily convinced that they could affront, harass, or even 
kill the settlers, and each other, with impunity. 
They readily mistook the destructive humanity of 
the Government for pusillanimity, and the admirable 
forbearance and generosity of the settlers for cowardice 
and weakness. They had TVairau and its authorized 
impunity, with many lesser, only because not deadly, 
instances, constantly before their eyes. E Ahu, and 
many other of the chiefs at Otaki, who were most 
friendly to me and the White people generally, did nov 
disguise their utter contempt for the unwarlike habits 
of the pakeha, and their total disbelief of the extra- 
ordinary powers of the soldiers. With such children, 
seeing is believing. Some of them would often say to 
me, ** You White people are very good for building 
" ships and houses, for buying and selling, for making 
** cattle fat, and for growing bread and cabbages ; 
" you are like the rats, always at work. But as to 
" fighting, you are like them too, you only know how 
*' to run. Our children learn to handle a spear or a 
" tomahawk when they are quite young; and all natives 
" know how to fire a gun. As to your people, very few 
" of them know how to load one properly. As for your 
" soldiers, have they got four arms or four legs, that 
" they should be better than other men ? If I have got 
"a gun like a soldier, I am as good a man as he, 
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