Of the Inhabitants of New Zealand; from the fame.

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HE ftature of the men in general is equal to the largest of thofe in Europe: they are ftout, well limbed, and flefhy; but not fat, like the lazy and luxurious inhabitants of the islands in the South Seas they are alfo exceedingly vigorous and active; and have an adroitness, and manual dexterity in an uncommon degree, which are discovered in whatever they do. I have feen the ftrokes of fifteen paddles on a fide in one of their canoes made with incredible quickness, and yet with fuch minute exactness of time, that all the rowers feemed to be actuated by one common foul. Their colour in general is brown; but in a few deeper than that of a Spaniard, who has been expofed to the fun; in many not fo deep. The women have not a feminine delicacy in their appearance, but their voice is remarkably foft; and by that, the drefs of both fexes being the fame, they are principally diftinguished; they have, however, like the women of other countries, more airy cheerfulness, and a greater flow of animal fpirits, than the other fex. Their hair, both of the head and beard, is black; and their teeth extremely regular, and as white as ivory: the features of both fexes are good; they feem to enjoy high health, and we faw many who appeared to be of a great age, The difpofitions both

of the men and women feemed to be mild and gentle; they treat each other with the tendereft affection, but are implacable towards their enemies, to whom, as I have before obferved, they never give quarter. It may perhaps, at first, feem ftrange, that where there is fo little to be got by victory, there should fo often be war; and that every little diftri&t of a country inhabited by people fo mild and placid, thould be at enmity with all the reft. But poffibly more is to be gained by victory among these people than at first appears, and they may be prompted to mutual hoftilities by motives which no degree of friendship or affection is able to refift. It appears, by the account that has already been given of them, that their principal food is fifh, which can only be procured upon the fea coaft; and there, in fufficient quantities, only at certain times: the tribes, therefore, who live inland, if any fuch there are, and even thofe upon the coaft, must be frequently in danger of perifhing by famine. Their country produces neither fheep, nor goats, nor hogs, nor cattle; tame fowls they have none, nor any art by which those that are wild çan be caught in fufficient plenty to ferve as provifion. If there are any whofe fituation cuts them off from a fupply of fifh, the only fuccedaneum of all other animal food, except dogs, they have nothing to fupport life, but the vegetables that have already been mentioned, of

which the chief are fern root, yams, clams, and potatoes: when by any accident thefe fail, the diftrefs muft be dreadful; and even among the inhabitants of the coaft, many tribes must frequently be reduced to nearly the fame fituation, either by the failure of their plantations, or the deficiency of their dry ftock, during the feafon when but few fish are to be caught. These confiderations will enable us to account, not only for the perpetual danger in which the people who inhabit this country appear to live, by the care which they take to fortify every village, but for the horrid practice of eating thofe who are killed in battle; for the hunger of him who is preffed by famine to fight, will abforb every feeling, and every fentiment which would reftrain him from allaying it with the body of his adverfary. It may however be remarked, that, if this account of the origin of fo horrid a practice is true, the mifchief does by no means end with the neceffity that produced it: after the practice has been once begun on one fide by hunger, it will naturally be adopted on the other by revenge. Nor is this all, for though it may be pretended, by fome who wish to appear fpeculative and philofophical, that whether the dead body of an enemy be eaten or buried, is in itself a matter perfectly indifferent; as it is, whether the breafts and thighs of a woman fhould be covered or naked; and that prejudice and habit only make us hudder at the violation of cuftom in one inftance, and blush at it in the other: yet, leaving this as a point of doubtful difputation, to be difcuffed at leifure, it may fafely be affirmed, that the practice of eat

ing human flesh, whatever it may be in itfelf, is relatively, and in its confequences, moft pernicious; tending manifeftly to eradicate a principle which is the chief fecurity of human life, and more frequently reftrains the hand of murder than the fense of duty, or even the fear of punishment.

The fituation and circumstances, however, of these poor people, as well as their temper, are favourable to those who fhall fettle as a colony among them. Their fituation fets them in need of protection, and their temper renders it eafy to attach them by kindness; and whatever may be faid in favour of a favage life, among people who live in luxurious idleness upon the bounty of Nature, civilization would certainly be a bleffing to those whom her parfimony scarcely furnishes with the bread of life, and who are perpetually destroying each other by violence, as the only alternative of perishing by hunger.

But thefe people, from whatever caufe, being inured to war, and by habit confidering every ftranger as an enemy, were always difpofed to attack us when they were not intimidated by our manifeft fuperiority. At first, they had no notion of any fuperiority but numbers; and when this was on their fide, they confidered all our expreffions of kindness as the artifices of fear and cunning, to circumvent them, and preferve ourfelves: but when they were once convinced of our power, after having provoked us to the ufe of our fire-arms, though loaded only with fmall fhot; and of our clemency, by our forbearing to make ufe of weapons fo dreadful except in our

defence;

defence: they became at once friendly, and even affectionate, placing in us the most unbounded confidence, and doing every thing which could incite us to put equal confidence in them. It is also remarkable, that when an intercourse was once established between us, they were very rarely detected in any act of difhonefty. Before, indeed, and while they confidered us as enemies, who came upon their coast only to make an advantage of them, they did not fcruple by any means to make an advantage of us; and would therefore, when they had received the price of any thing they had offered to fell, pack up both the purchase and the purchase-money with all poffible compofure, as fo much lawful plunder from people who had no view but to plunder them.

I have obferved that our friends in the South Seas had not even the idea of indecency, with respect to any object or any action; but this was by no means the cafe with the inhabitants of New Zealand, in whofe carriage and converfation there was as much modeft referve and decorum with respect to actions, which yet in their opinion were not criminal, as are to be found among the politeft people in Europe. The women were not impregnable; but the terms and manner of compliance were as decent as thofe in marriage among us, and according to their notions, the agreement was as innocent. When any of our people made an overture to one of their young women, he was given to understand that the confent of her friends was neceffary, and by the influence of a proper prefent, it was generally

obtained; but when thefe preliminaries were fettled, it was alfo noceffary to treat the wife for a night with the fame delicacy that is here required by the wife for life, and the lover who prefumed to take any liberties by which this was violated, was fure to be difappointed.

One of our gentlemen having made his addreffes to a family of the better fort, received an anfwer, which, tranflated into our language, according to the mode and fpirit of it, as well as the letter, would have been exactly in thefe terms: Any of thefe young ladies will think themfelves honoured by your addreffes, but you must first make me a fuitable prefent, and you must then come and fleep with us on fhore, for daylight muft by no means be a witness of what paffes between you."

I have already obferved, that in perfonal cleanlinefs they are not quite equal to our friends at Otaheite; because, not having the advantage of fo warm a climate, they do not fo often go into the water; but the moft difguftful thing about them is the oil, with which, like the Iflanders, they anoint their hair: it is certainly the fat either of fish or of birds, melted down, and though the better fort have it fresh, their inferiors ufe that which is rancid, and confequently are almoft as difagreeable to the fmell as a Hottentot; neither are their heads free from vermin, though we obferved that they were furnished with combs, both of bone and wood: thefe combs are fometimes worn stuck upright in the hair as an ornament, a fashion which at prefent prevails among the ladies of England. The

men

men generally wear their beards fhort, and their hair tied upon the crown of the head in a bunch, in which they flick the feathers of various birds, in different manners, according to their fancies; fometimes one is placed on each fide of the temples, pointing forwards, which we thought made a very difagreeable appearance. The woThe women wear their hair. fometimes cropped fhort, and fometimes flowing over their shoulders.

The bodies of both fexes are marked with the black ftains called Amoco, by the fame method that is used at Otaheite, and called Tattowing; but the men are more marked, and the women less. The women in general ftain no part of their bodies but the lips, though fometimes they are marked with fmall black patches on other parts: the men, on the contrary, feem to add fomething every year to the ornaments of the laft, fo that fome of them, who appeared to be of an advanced age, were almoft covered from head to foot. Befides the Amoco, they have marks impreffed by a method unknown to us, of a very extraordinary kind: they are furrows of about a line deep, and a line broad, fuch as appear upon the bark of a tree which has been cut through, after a year's growth: the edges of thefe furrows are afterwards indented by the fame method, and being perfectly black,they make a moft frightful appearance. The faces of the old men are almoft covered with these marks; thofe who are very young, black only their lips like the wo

men;

when they are somewhat older, they have generally a black patch upon one cheek, and over one eye, and fo proceed gradually,

that they may grow old and ho nourable together: but though we could not but be difgufted with the horrid deformity which these stains and furrows produced in the "human face divine," we could not but admire the dexterity and art with which they were impreffed. The marks upon the face in general are fpirals, which are drawn with great nicety, and even elegance, thofe on one fide exactly correfponding with thofe on the other: the marks on the body fomewhat refemble the foliage in old chafed ornaments, and the convolutions of fillagree work; but in these they have fuch a luxuriance of fancy, that of an hundred, which at firft fight appeared to be exactly the fame, no two were, upon a close examination, found to be alike. We obferved, that the quantity and form of thefe marks were different in different parts of the coaft, and that as the principal feat of them at Otaheite was the breech, in New Zealand it was fometimes the only part which was free, and in generat was lefs diftinguished than any other.

The fkins of theie people, however, are not only dyed, but painted; for, as I have before obferved, they smear their bodies with red oker, fome rubbing it on dry, and fome applying it on large patches mixed with oil, which is always wet, and which the leaft touch will rub off, fo that the tranfgreffions of fuch of our people as were guilty of ravishing a kiss from thefe blooming beauties, were most legibly written upon their faces.

The drefs of a New Zealander is certainly, to a stranger at first fight, the most uncouth that can be imagined. It is made of the

5

leaves

leaves of the flag, which has been defcribed among the vegetable productions of this country: thefe leaves are fplit into three or four flips, and the flips, when they are dry, interwoven with each other into a kind of stuff between netting and cloth, with all the ends, which are eight or nine inches long, hanging out on the upper fide, like the fhag or thrumb matts, which we fometimes fee lying in a paffage. Of this cloth, if cloth it may be called, two pieces ferve for a complete drefs; one of them is tied over their shoulders with a string, and reaches as low as the knees; to the end of this string is fastened a bodkin of bone, which is easily paffed through any two parts of this upper garment, fo as to tack them together; the other piece is wrapped round the waift, and reaches nearly to the ground; the lower garment, however, is worn by the men only upon particular occafions; but they wear a belt, to which a string is faftened, for a very fingular use. The inhabitants of the South Sea islands flit up the prepuce fo as to prevent it from covering the glans of the penis, but these people, on the contrary, bring the prepuce over the glans, and to prevent it from being drawn back by the contraction of the part, they tie the ftring which hangs from their girdle, round the end of it, The glans indeed feemed to be the only part of their body which they were folicitous to conceal, for they frequently threw off all their dress but the belt and ftring, with the most careless indifference, but fhewed manifest signs of confufion, when to gratify our curiofity, they were requested to untie the ftring, and never confented but with the ut

thatched houfe; but this covering, though it is ugly, is well adapted to the ufe of thofe who frequently fleep in the open air, without any other fhelter from the rain.

But befides this courfe fhag or thatch, they have two forts of cloth, which have an even furface, and are very ingeniously made, in the fame manner with that manufactured by the inhabitants of South America, fome of which we procured at Rio de Janeiro. One fort is as coarse as our coarfeft canvas, and fomewhat resembles it in the manner of laying the threads, but it is ten times as ftrong: the other is formed by many threads lying very clofe one way, and a few croffing them the other, fo as to bind them together; but these are about half an inch afunder, fomewhat like the round pieces of cane matting which are fometimes placed under the dishes upon a table. This is frequently ftriped, and always had a pretty appearance, for it is compofed of the fibres of the fame plant, which are prepared fo as to fhine like filk. It is made in a kind of frame of the fize of the cloth, generally about five feet long, and four broad, acrofs which the long threads, which lie close together, or warp, are ftrained, and the cross threads, or woof, are worked in by hand, which must be a very tedious operation.

To both thefe kinds of cloth they work borders of different colours, in ftitches, fomewhat like carpeting, or rather like thofe ufed in the famplars which girls work at fchool. Thefe borders are of

various