t plunged almost beneath our keel, was not sufficiently inviting to
induce us to land, so we know nothing personally about the town called
Gisborne, except that no place can ever amount to much commercially
which depends upon such an exposed roadstead for its shipping
facilities. The disagreeable smell, the dirt, and the discomfort
generally caused by those poor sheep on their way to be slaughtered, is
remembered with a shudder. They were so closely packed together upon our
open and uncovered deck, as to be unable to lie down at all; and when
the hour of slaughter came it must have been to them--thirsty, hungry,
and weary as they were, after two days and nights on board--a great
relief from suffering. The outrageous inhumanity exercised toward these
poor helpless creatures rendered us quite miserable through those
forty-eight hours.

From Gisborne we were bound to Auckland, and when we arrived off that
port we passed Sir George Gray's island, which has a Maori name
signifying Shag Island. It is situated over twenty miles seaward from
the city of Auckland, at the entrance of the Hauraki Gulf. Here Sir
George has pitched his tent for life, being now well advanced in age. As
a young man, when in the engineer corps of the English army, his rare
ability and conspicuous talents commanded general respect, and he was
rapidly advanced through the several stages of promotion. He received
public honors at an early age, being Governor of South Australia at
thirty; afterward he was Governor of Cape Town, Africa, and later on was
made Governor of New Zealand, though he is now only a member of its
House of Assembly. His name is held in great reverence here by all
classes, as that of one who has ever been a true promoter of the best
interests of these colonies.

Sir George has a refined literary taste, and is a profound ethnological
scholar. Probably no European has so thoroughly mastered the Maori
tongue as he, or done so much toward producing a correct impression
concerning the race. In any serious trouble between the aborigines and
the colonists, both parties are always ready to abide by his settlement
of the matter. The natives know he has their best good at heart, and
follow his advice under all circumstances. He was Governor during the
last and most serious war which occurred between the Maoris and the
whites, and to his influence was chiefly due its successful and amicable
end. While he was firm and energetic during the war, at