INTRODUCTION. 
9 
have occurred, and that the fiercer passions should have been 
called into action ? Their history in this respect is only a 
counterpart of that of the Heptarchy, when one petty prince 
was ever warring with another, or with that state which 
existed, to a later period, amongst the Irish and the High¬ 
landers of Scotland, almost up to the present generation. If 
even the traditions which remain of the savage feuds and 
atrocities of those hostile clans, were to be compared with 
the New Zealander’s, it is doubtful which would be thought 
most savage. 
The Tapu was a remarkable institution; it did not originate 
with the Maori—he brought it with him ; it was of wide-spread 
observance, extending from Tonga to Tahaiti, and thence to 
the Sandwich Isles. Severe and bloody as it was, in its de¬ 
mands, it was still, as Polynesian society was constituted, 
politic and wise ; in fact it was the only bond of union which 
existed, and kept them from committing greater excesses. 
It must be remembered that they were heathen—they knew 
not God, and great as their sins were, they were not against 
light and knowledge, but committed with darkened under¬ 
standings. Compare their warfare, as heathen, with that of 
civilized Christians; the sack of a town—whether by French 
or English—and then what shall we say of savage warfare. 
Compare the war which the misguided patriots of New 
Zealand carried on with the British Governor in 1845-7 
with that of the French in Algeria during the same period. 
The sack of Kororareka with the destruction of an Arab 
tribe. The conduct of Hone Heke, the New Zealand chief, 
with that of the French commander. The same paper recorded 
both. Of the natives it said, “ they have hitherto enjoyed 
their triumph without cruelty; ” in fact, the Governor himself 
lauded the chivalric conduct of Heke. But when the Oulad 
Riahs, a wild mountain tribe, vainly endeavoured to preserve 
their independence against French aggression, and fled with 
their wives and children to their caves, and were completely 
at the mercy of their enemies, who had only to blockade the en¬ 
trance to make them submit to their terms, the French officer 
commanded his men to stop up the entrances with combustible 
