XVIII 
WAIMA TE 
455 
districts, had only lately, for the first time, been crossed. He 
and another missionary, each with a party of about fifty men, 
undertook to open a road ; but it cost them more than a fort¬ 
night’s labour! In the woods I saw very few birds. With 
regard to animals, it is a most remarkable fact, that so large 
an island, extending over more than 700 miles in latitude, and 
in many parts ninety broad, with varied stations, a fine climate, 
and land of all heights, from 14,000 feet downwards, with the 
exception of a small rat, did not possess one indigenous animal. 
The several species of that gigantic genus of birds, the Dein- 
ornis, seem here to have replaced mammiferous quadrupeds, in 
the same manner as the reptiles still do at the Galapagos 
Archipelago. It is said that the common Norway rat, in the 
short space of two years, annihilated in this northern end of the 
island the New Zealand species. In many places I noticed 
several sorts of weeds, which, like the rats, I was forced to own 
as countrymen. A leek has overrun whole districts, and will 
prove very troublesome, but it was imported as a favour by a 
French vessel. The common dock is also widely disseminated, 
and will, I fear, for ever remain a proof of the rascality of an 
Englishman who sold the seeds for those of the tobacco 
plant. 
On returning from our pleasant walk to the house, I dined 
with Mr. Williams ; and then, a horse being lent me, I returned 
to the Bay of Islands. I took leave of the missionaries with 
thankfulness for their kind welcome, and with feelings of high 
respect for their gentlemanlike, useful, and upright characters. 
I think it would be difficult to find a body of men better 
adapted for the high office which they fulfil. 
Christmas Day .—In a few more days the fourth year of 
our absence from England will be completed. Our first 
Christmas Day was spent at Plymouth ; the second at St. 
Martin’s Cove near Cape Horn ; the third at Port Desire in 
Patagonia ; the fourth at anchor in a wild harbour in the 
peninsula of Tres Montes; this fifth, here; and the next, I 
trust in Providence, will be in England. We attended divine 
service in the chapel of Pahia ; part of the service being read 
in English, and part in the native language. Whilst at New 
Zealand we did not hear of any recent acts of cannibalism ; but 
