islands of the southern seas,
many of them having a story to tell, but no story-teller.

Whalers, runaway seamen, shilling-a-month men, and escaped convicts
were the earliest settlers in New Zealand, and were the first to make
peaceful intercourse with the Maoris possible. They built themselves
houses with wooden frames, covered with reeds and rushes, learned to
converse in the native language, and became family men. They were
most of them English and Americans, with a few Frenchmen. They loved
freedom, and preferred Maori customs, and the risk of being eaten, to
the odious supervision of the English Government. The individual
white man in those days was always welcome, especially if he brought
with him guns, ammunition, tomahawks, and hoes. It was by these
articles that he first won the respect and admiration of the native.
If the visitor was a "pakeha tutua," a poor European, he might
receive hospitality for a time, in the hope that some profit might be
made out of him. But the Maori was a poor man also, with a great
appetite, and when it became evident that the guest was no better
than a pauper, and could not otherwise pay for his board, the Maori
sat on the ground, meditating and watching, until his teeth watered,
and at last he attached the body and baked it.

In 1814 the Church Missionary Society sent labourers to the distant
vineyard to introduce Christianity, and to instruct the natives in
the rights of property. The first native protector of Christianity
and letters was Hongi Hika, a great warrior of the Ngapuhi nation, in
the North Island. He was born in 1777, and voyaging to Sydney in
1814, he became the guest of the Rev. Mr. Marsden. In 1819 the rev.
gentleman bought his settlement at Kerikeri from Hongi Hika, the
price being forty-eight axes. The area of the settlement was
thirteen thousand acres. The land was excellent, well watered, in a
fine situation, and near a good harbour. Hongi next went to England
with the Rev. Mr. Kendall to see King George, who was at that time in
matrimonial trouble. Hongi was surprised to hear that the King had
to ask permission of anyone to dispose of his wife Caroline. He said
he had five wives at home, and he could clear off the whole of them
if he liked without troubling anybody. He received valuable presents
in London, which he brought back to Sydney, and sold for three
hundred muskets and ammunition. The year 1822 was the most glorious
time of his life.