3-38 
TE ltAUPARAHA AND RANGIHAEATA. 
service over him; and thus terminated the eventful life ol 
this New Zealand warrior. 
In stature, he was not above live feet six inches; but his 
countenance was striking;* he had a Roman, or hooked, nose, 
an eagle glance, which read the thoughts of others without 
revealing his own, and a look which clearly marked his daunt¬ 
less bearing; it seemed impossible to take him by surprise. 
His being long accustomed to command, gave him a dignified 
demeanour ; and his fertility in expedients, a cunning, or rather 
shrewd cast of countenance. Even when clad in a blanket, 
few could look at him without being impressed with a feeling 
that he was no ordinary person. 
The character of this Chief has been variously drawn. The 
settlers in general viewed him as everything bad, most treacher¬ 
ous, and deceitful ; but this opinion was not founded on their 
personal acquaintance with him, so much as from report, 1 he 
whalers and traders, who had the best opportunity of being 
intimately acquainted with him, and that, too, at a time when 
his power to injure was the greatest, invariably speak of him 
as having ever been the white man’s friend ; he always placed 
the best he had before them, and in no instance have I heard 
of his doing any one of them an injury. Speaking ot him to 
an old whaler, he said most emphatically, that he never let the 
ivhite man who needed, want anything he could give, whether 
food or clothing. In fact, his natural sagacity told him that it 
was his interest to make common cause with the Europeans, 
for it was through them he acquired the sinews of ivar, guns, 
powder, and shot, and everything else that he required. 
In latter days, when the influx of Europeans became greater, 
and they held permanent possession of his land, without making 
common cause with him, as the whalers had done, but often 
treating him in a slighting way, it is natural to suppose that 
he would regard them with more suspicion than attachment; 
and so should we also, had we been in his place. That he 
was a savage conqueror and cannibal, guilty of many enormi¬ 
ties and unmerciful deeds, must be acknowledged, but it must 
* It is remarkable, that most great conquerors were small men;—Alexan¬ 
der, Cfesar, Napoleon, Wellington, &c.; and the eye and nose alike in all. 
