ain had received
Tippahee with a little more civility, that he would have informed
him of his danger, and saved the ship; but that from being
treated in the manner I have mentioned, he entered into the plot
along with the others.

"I assure you it has been a most unpleasant thing for me to write
about, and I could only have been induced to do it from a sense
of duty, and a desire to give you all the information in my
power, which I suppose may be of some use.

"I am, Sir,
"Your obedient humble servant,
"ALEXANDER BERRY."

Considering Mr. Berry's limited acquaintance with these islanders, and
the horror of the scene before him, his is a good and an impartial
account; but facts which have been obtained subsequently have exonerated
the natives to a certain extent. By repeated conversations I have held
with several chiefs who were engaged in this dreadful affair, and from
information I procured at Sydney, I have no doubt but that the Captain
himself was the most in fault.

[Illustration: Whangaroa, Scene of the "Boyd" Massacre.]

He was commissioned by the Government of New South Wales to land a native
chief named Philip at New Zealand, whom he subjected to a cruel and
impolitic punishment. This man, smarting from his stripes, and burning
with a desire to revenge his dishonourable treatment, excited all his
friends to the commission of that bloody massacre.

CHAPTER XII.

THE FIRST SETTLEMENT AT KORORAREKA.

The tragic fate of the Boyd's crew is now fast sinking into oblivion;
and, like the islanders of Hawaii, after the murder of Cook, they seem to
wish to obliterate the remembrance of their disgraceful conduct by a kind
and friendly intercourse with our nation. The severe chastisement which
they have always received from us after a treacherous action, has proved
to them how little they gain by so debasing a line of conduct; and as
they are most anxious to possess many of our productions, they seem to
have come to a resolution to abandon their former system; which, if they
may not be sensible of the injustice of, they see is destructive to their
own interests; and now every chief is as solicitous for the safety of a
European vessel as he would have been formerly for its destruction.

They have not only lost a portion of their ferocity, but also much of
their native simplicity of character, which,