its ransom, we
got most of our things back again, with the exception of such as had been
carried off by the Ngapuhis.

Upon the cruelty of this custom I shall make no comments. Probably I
should have remained in ignorance of this savage law, had I not had the
misfortune to become its victim.

By redeeming from the natives what they had purloined from the fire, we
had restored to us some of our boxes, desks, and clothes; but all our
little comforts towards housekeeping were irretrievably lost. When the
fire was over we received a visit from one of the missionaries, who made
us a cold offer of assistance. We accepted a little tea, sugar and some
few articles of crockery from them; but, although they knew we stood
there houseless, amongst a horde of savages, they never offered us the
shelter of their roofs. I am very sure that had the calamity befallen
them, we should immediately have offered our huts, and shared with them
everything we possessed. Here was an opportunity of practically showing
the "pagans" (as they termed the New Zealanders) the great Christian
doctrine of "doing to others as we would they should do unto us." I must
acknowledge I was sometimes mortified at being obliged to sleep (three of
us huddled up close together) in a small New Zealand hut, filled with
filth and vermin of all kinds, while at only two miles' distance from us
stood a neat village, abounding in every comfort that a bountiful British
public could provide; and we, members of that community, and, indeed,
partly contributors to the funds for its support.

The high state of excitement into which the savages had been thrown by
the late conflagration gradually subsided, and as we had escaped the
dreaded calamity of our magazine blowing up, we began to look with
calmness on our desolate condition, and draw comfort from thinking how
much worse we might have been circumstanced than we then were. I hope our
distress may prove a benefit to future sojourners in this country, by
showing them the great importance of forming a proper magazine for
powder. The agonies I suffered in contemplating the destruction which six
barrels of powder, each of an hundredweight, would cause amongst a mob of
several hundred naked savages, it is impossible to imagine!

King George, as well as all his people, were most anxious to build us a
new habitation entirely themselves. They requested us to give them the
dimensions of the various dwellings, and said we should ha