and his sooty mansion is crowded by
curious natives, who voluntarily perform the hardest and most dirty work,
and consider themselves fully recompensed by a sight of his mysterious
labours, every portion of which fills them with astonishment. Here is
heard daily the sound of the sawpit, while piles of neat white planks
appear arranged on the beach. These laborious and useful Scotchmen
interfere with no one, and pursue successfully their industrious career,
without either requiring or receiving any assistance from Home.

But there is another class of Europeans here, who are both useless and
dangerous, and these lower the character of the white people in the
estimation of the natives. These men are called "Beach Rangers," most of
whom have deserted from, or have been turned out of whalers for crimes,
for which, had they been taken Home and tried, they would have been
hanged; some few among them, having been too lazy to finish the voyage
they had begun, had deserted from their ships, and were then leading a
mean and miserable life amongst the natives.

There is still a third class of our countrymen to be met with here, whose
downcast and sneaking looks proclaim them to be runaway convicts from New
South Wales. These unhappy men are treated with derision and contempt by
all classes; and the New Zealanders, being perfectly aware of their state
of degradation, refuse all intercourse with them. They are idle,
unprincipled, and vicious in the extreme, and are much feared in the Bay
of Islands; for when by any means they obtain liquor, they prove
themselves most dangerous neighbours.

My friend Shand and myself were most comfortably situated. An intimate
friend of mine (Captain Duke, of the whaler The Sisters) had, in
consequence of ill-health, taken up his residence on shore while his
vessel completed her cruise. In his hut we found comfort and safety; and
from his information and advice we were enabled to avoid the advances of
all whom his experience had taught him were to be shunned.

On terms of the closest intimacy, and with his hut adjoining that of my
friend Captain Duke, lived Shulitea[4] (or King George, as he styled
himself), a chief of great power, who controlled the whole of the
district where we were. We all felt grateful to him for his
manifestations of friendship, and at the same time were conscious of
enjoying a greater degree of security by his proximity. He was the first
chief who offered protection to "the