endurance must decide the contest. My antagonist was a strapping fellow
of about five-and-twenty, tremendously strong, and much heavier than
me. I, however, in those days actually could not be fatigued: I did not
know the sensation, and I could run from morning till night. I
therefore trusted to wearing him out, and avoiding his _ta_ and _wiri_.
All this time the mob were shouting encouragement to one or other of
us. Such a row never was seen. I soon perceived I had a "party." "Well
done, pakeha!" "Now for it, Melons!" "At him again!" "Take care the
pakeha is a _taniwha_! the pakeha is a _tino tangata_!" "Hooray!" (from
the British element). "The pakeha is down!" "No, he isn't!" (from
English side). Here I saw my friend's knees beginning to tremble. I
made a great effort, administered my favourite remedy, and there lay
the "Eater of Melons" prone upon the sand.

I stood a victor; and, like many other conquerors, a very great loser.
There I stood, _minus_ hat, coat, and pistols; wet and mauled, and
transformed very considerably for the worse since I left the ship. When
my antagonist fell, the natives gave a great shout of triumph, and
congratulated me in their own way with the greatest good will. I could
see I had got their good opinion, though I scarcely could understand
how. After sitting on the sand some time, my friend arose, and with a
very graceful movement, and a smile of good-nature on his dusky
countenance, he held out his hand and said in English, "How do you do?"
I was much pleased at this; the natives had given me fair play, and my
antagonist, though defeated both by sea and land, offered me his hand,
and welcomed me to the shore with his whole stock of English--"How do
you do?"

But the row is not half over yet. Here comes the chief in the ship's
boat. The other is miles off with its one man crew still pulling no one
knows, or at all cares, where. Some one has been off in a canoe and
told the chief that "Melons" and the "New Pakeha" were fighting like
mad on the beach. Here he comes, flourishing his _mere ponamu_. He is a
tall, stout fellow, in the prime of life, black with tatooing, and
splendidly dressed, according to the splendour of those days. He has on
a very good blue jacket, no shirt or waistcoat, a pair of duck
trousers, and a red sash round his waist; no hat or shoes, these being
as yet things beyond a chief's ambition. The jacket was the only one in
the tribe; and amongst the surrounding company