em at the
fire.

The New Zealand chiefs, however, not excepting the most respectable
among them, were found to be sadly given to calumniate one another by
all sorts of fictions; and even Pomaree, bad as he really was, seems
sometimes to have been worse reported of by the others than he deserved.

Upon another occasion Korro-korro told a long story about a design which
he said had been formed to cut off the ship belonging to the
missionaries, and of which he maintained that Pomaree was the principal
instigator; but this was afterwards discovered to be a mere invention of
that otherwise very honourable chief.

Notwithstanding Pomaree's bad reputation, indeed, it is remarkable that
we do not find a single instance anywhere recorded in which any European
had reason to complain of his conduct. Nicholas was once dreadfully
alarmed by the apprehension that he had decoyed away his friend,
Marsden, to murder him; but was very soon relieved by the return of the
reverend gentleman from a friendly walk which he had been enjoying, in
the company of his supposed assassin, through one of the woods on his
territory.

Pomaree, in truth, was too thoroughly aware of the advantages to be
derived from the visits of the Europeans to think of exercising his
murderous propensities upon their persons, however fond he might have
been of embruing his hands in the blood of his own countrymen.

"We found Pomaree," says Nicholas, "to be a very extraordinary
character; he was of more service to us in procuring timber than all
the other chiefs put together; and I never met, in any part of the
world, with a man who showed so much impatient avidity for transacting
business. His abilities, too, in this line were very great; he was an
excellent judge of several articles, and could give his opinion of an
axe as well as any European; while handling it with ecstasy the moment
he got it in his possession, his eyes would still feast themselves on so
valuable an acquisition."

He then relates an anecdote of him which strikingly corresponds with one
of the circumstances which Rutherford mentions: his custom of
trafficking in preserved heads.

"This man," continues Nicholas, "displayed upon every occasion a more
uncomplying spirit of independence than any of the other chiefs. It is
customary with the New Zealanders to preserve from putrefaction, by a
curious method, the heads of the enemies they have slain in battle; and
Pomaree had acquired so great a p