454 
NEW ZEALAND 
CHAP. 
Late in the evening I went to Mr. Williams’s house, where 
I passed the night. I found there a large party of children, 
collected together for Christmas Day, and all sitting round a 
table at tea. I never saw a nicer or more merry group ; and 
to think that this was in the centre of the land of cannibalism, 
murder, and all atrocious crimes ! The cordiality and happiness 
so plainly pictured in the faces of the little circle appeared 
equally felt by the older persons of the mission. 
December 24 th .—In the morning prayers were read in the 
native tongue to the whole family. After breakfast I rambled 
about the gardens and farm. This was a market-day, when 
the natives of the surrounding hamlets bring their potatoes, 
Indian corn, or pigs, to exchange for blankets, tobacco, and 
sometimes, through the persuasions of the missionaries, for 
soap. Mr. Davies’s eldest son, who manages a farm of his 
own, is the man of business in the market. The children of 
the missionaries, who came while young to the island, under¬ 
stand the language better than their parents, and can get 
anything more readily done by the natives. 
A little before noon Messrs. Williams and Davies walked 
with me to part of a neighbouring forest, to show me the 
famous kauri pine. I measured one of these noble trees, and 
found it thirty-one feet in circumference above the roots. There 
was another close by, which I did not see, thirty-three feet ; 
and I heard of one no less than forty feet. These trees are 
remarkable for their smooth cylindrical boles, which run up to 
a height of sixty, and even ninety feet, with a nearly equal 
diameter, and without a single branch. The crown of branches 
at the summit is out of all proportion small to the trunk ; and 
the leaves are likewise small compared with the branches. The 
forest was here almost composed of the kauri ; and the largest 
trees, from the parallelism of their sides, stood up like gigantic 
columns of wood. The timber of the kauri is the most 
valuable production of the island ; moreover, a quantity of 
resin oozes from the bark, which is sold at a penny a pound 
to the Americans, but its use was then unknown. Some of 
the New Zealand forests must be impenetrable to an extra¬ 
ordinary degree. Mr. Matthews informed me that one forest 
only thirty-four miles in width, and separating two inhabited 
