PREFACE. 
VI1 
an English Colony, was enabled to watch the various 
changes it has successively passed through. Its present 
position, and its eligibility as a home for intending 
Emigrants, are also described ; but, in pointing out 
its advantages, he has not wilfully concealed any 
of its contraries. The Colony is now rapidly in¬ 
creasing in population and stability; it possesses a 
constitution, and though, perhaps, sufficient time has 
not yet elapsed to make all its benefits manifest, 
doubtless in a few years the economical management 
of the public revenue, and the disinterestedness of its 
officers, will win for them the esteem and admiration 
of their fellow-colonists, and succeeding ages will regard 
them as the patriot fathers of their country. 
The Author would here acknowledge the obligation 
he is under in the Natural History department to 
Cunningham, Dr. Hooker, Dr. Grey, and his coad¬ 
jutors in the British Museum. The Illustrations, he 
may state, are all from sketches taken by himself on 
the spot, and have at any rate the merit of being 
faithful drawings of the various objects they represent. 
And with the hope that Te Ika a Maui will not 
prove altogether uninteresting to the Public, the 
Author takes his leave. 
