es, for a long series
of years, were a mere train of mishaps, till at last they were reduced
to extreme poverty; merely from having, in their first dealings with
the natives, got a bad name, in consequence of not having been able to
understand clearly the beauty of the set of regulations I have just
mentioned, and from an inability to make them work smoothly. The bad
name I have mentioned was short and expressive: wherever they went,
there would be sure to be some one who would introduce them to their
new acquaintances as "a pakeha _pakeke_,"--a hard pakeha; "a pakeha
_taehae_"--a miser; or, to sum up all, "a pakeha _kino_."

The chief who claimed me was a good specimen of the Maori _rangatira_.
He was a very old man, and had fought the French when Marion, the
French circumnavigator, was killed. He had killed a Frenchman himself,
and carried his thighs and legs many miles as a _bonne bouche_ for his
friends at home at the pa. This old gentleman was not head of his
tribe; but he was a man of good family, related to several high chiefs.
He was head of a strong family, or _hapu_, which mustered a
considerable number of fighting men; all his near relations. He had
been himself a most celebrated fighting man, and a war chief; and was
altogether a highly respectable person, and of great weight in the
councils of the tribe. I may say I was fortunate in having been
appropriated by this old patrician.

He gave me very little trouble; did not press his rights and privileges
too forcibly on my notice; and, in fact behaved in all respects towards
me in so liberal and friendly a manner, that before long I began to
have a very sincere regard for him, and he to take a sort of paternal
interest in me; this was both gratifying to observe, and also extremely
comical sometimes, when he, out of real anxiety to see me a perfectly
accomplished _rangatira_, would lecture on good manners, etiquette, and
the use of the spear. He was, indeed, a model of a _rangatira_, and
well worth being described.

He was a little man, with a high massive head, and remarkably high
square forehead, on which the tattooer had exhausted his art. Though,
as I have said, of a great age, he was still nimble and active: he had
evidently been one of those tough active men, who though small in
stature, are a match for any one. There was in my old friend's eyes a
sort of dull fiery appearance, which, when anything excited him, or
when he recounted some of those numero