INTRODUCTION. 
11 
many even in the worst times, who entertained almost as strong 
a loathing for such food as we do. Yet even when most debased 
in their social relations, there was much to admire : tire love of 
their offspring and relations, who were more closely bound to¬ 
gether, by the mutual tie of self-preservation; their good feeling 
and kindliness one towards another ; their careful avoiding all 
cause of quarrels; their powerful emotions of joy, on meeting 
with absent friends; all tell in their favor, and prove them not 
to have been wanting in love for their own. In war they were 
savages; in peace they were not deficient in many of the 
kindlier feelings belonging to our nature. In war, their dis¬ 
torted features made them resemble fiends; in peace, in the 
bosom of their families, they became more like what they should 
be and have become, under the gentle influence of the Gospel. 
Naturally a noble race, bodily and mentally superior to 
most of the Polynesians, their fine intelligent countenances 
present the exterior of a fair-built house, which only requires 
to be suitably furnished, and we may hope that they have 
already passed through the worst part of that transition state 
which, under less favorable circumstances, it took centuries to 
bring our own country through, to attain its present highly 
advanced position in the scale of nations. 
THE MONUMENT OF RERETAWANGAWANGA, 
THE CHIEF OF WA1KANAE. 
