John Rutherford, the White Chief Part 5

Rutherford remained at the village for about six months, together with the others who had been taken prisoners with him and who had not been put to death, all except one, John Watson, who, soon after their arrival there, was carried away by a chief named Nainy.[AD] A house was a.s.signed for them to live in, and the natives gave them also an iron pot they had taken from the ship, in which to cook their victuals. This they found a very useful article. It was "tabooed," so that no slave was allowed to eat anything cooked in it; that, we suppose, being considered the surest way of preventing it from being stolen.

At last they set out in company with Aimy and another chief, to pursue their way further into the interior; one of them, however, whose name is not given, remaining with Rangadi.

Having come to another village, the chief of which was called Plama,[AE]

another of them, whose name was John Smith, was left with him.

The number of those preserved alive, it will be recollected, was six; so that, three of them having been disposed of in the manner that has been stated, there were now, including Rutherford, as many more remaining together.

When they had travelled about twelve miles further, they stopped at a third village, and there they remained two days.

"We were treated very kindly," says Rutherford, "at this village by the natives. The chief, whose name was Ewanna,[AF] made us a present of a large pig, which we killed after our own country fashion, not a little to the surprise of the New Zealanders. I observed many of the children catch the flowing blood in their hands, and drink it with the greatest eagerness. Their own method of killing a pig is generally by drowning, in order that they may not lose the blood. The natives then singed off the hair for us, by holding the animal over a fire, and also gutted it, desiring nothing but the entrails for their trouble. We cooked it in our iron pot, which the slaves who followed us had brought along with the rest of the luggage belonging to our party.

"No person was allowed to take any part of the pig unless he received some from us; and not even then, if he did not belong to a chief's family.

"On taking our departure from this village, we left with Ewanna one of our comrades named Jefferson, who, on parting from us, pressed my hand in his, and with tears in his eyes, exclaimed, 'G.o.d bless you both! we shall never see each other again.'

"We proceeded on our journey, in company with Aimy and his family, and another chief; and having walked about two miles without one word being spoken by any of the party, we arrived at the side of a river. Here we stopped, and lighted a fire; and the natives who had charge of the luggage having come up in about an hour, bringing with them some potatoes and dried fish, we cooked a dinner for ourselves in the usual manner. We then crossed the river, which was only about knee deep, and immediately entered a wood, through which we continued to make our way till sunset. On getting out of it we found ourselves in the midst of some cultivated ground, on which we saw growing potatoes, turnips, cabbage, tara[AG] (which is a root resembling a yam), water-melons, and coomeras,[AH] or sweet potatoes.

"After a little while we arrived at another river, on the opposite side of which stood the village in which Aimy resided. Having got into a canoe, we crossed over to the village, in front of which many women were standing, who, waving their mats, exclaimed, as they saw us approaching, 'Arami, arami,'[AI] which means, 'Welcome home.'

"We were then taken to Aimy's house, which was the largest in the village, having the walls formed of large twigs covered with rushes, with which it was also thatched. A pig was now killed for us, and cooked with some coomeras, from which we supped; and, afterwards seating ourselves around the fire, we amused ourselves by listening to several of the women singing.

"In the meantime, a slave girl was killed, and put into a hole in the earth to roast in the manner already described in order to furnish a feast the following day, in honour of the chief's return home.

"We slept that night in the chief's house; but the next morning a number of the natives were set to work to build one for ourselves, of the same form with that in which the chief lived, and nearly of the same size.

"In the course of this day, many other chiefs arrived at the village, accompanied by their families and slaves, to welcome Aimy home, which they did in the usual manner. Some of them brought with them a quant.i.ty of water-melons, which they gave to me and my comrade. At last they all seated themselves upon the ground to have their feast; several large pigs, together with some scores of baskets of potatoes, tara, and water-melons, having first been brought forward by Aimy's people. The pigs, after being drowned in the river and dressed, had been laid to roast beside the potatoes. When these were eaten, the fire that had been made the night before was opened, and the body of the slave girl taken out of it, which they next proceeded to feast upon in the eagerest manner. We were not asked to partake of it, for Aimy knew that we had refused to eat human flesh before. After the feast was over, the fragments were collected, and carried home by the slaves of the different chiefs, according to the custom which is always observed on such occasions in New Zealand."

The house that had been ordered to be built for Rutherford and his companion was ready in about a week; and, having taken up their abode in it, they were permitted to live, as far as circ.u.mstances would allow, according to their own customs. As it was in this village that Rutherford continued to reside during the remainder of the time he spent in New Zealand, we may consider him as now fairly domesticated among his new a.s.sociates, and may therefore conveniently take the present opportunity of completing our general picture of the country and its inhabitants, by adverting to a few matters which have not yet found a place in our narrative.

No doubt whatever can exist as to the relationship of the New Zealanders to the numerous other tribes of the same complexion, by whom nearly all the islands of the South Sea are peopled, and who, in physical conformation, language, religion, inst.i.tutions, and habits, evidently const.i.tute only one great family.

Recent investigations, likewise, must be considered to have sufficiently proved that the wave of population, which has spread itself over so large a portion of the surface of the globe, has flowed from the same central region, which all history points to as the cradle of our race, and which may be here described generally as the southern tract of the great continent of Asia. This prolific clime, while it has on the one hand sent out its successive detachments of emigrants to occupy the wide plains of Europe, has on the other discharged its overflowing numbers upon the islands of the Pacific, and, with the exception of New Holland[AJ] and a few other lands in its immediate vicinity, the population of which seems to be of African origin, has, in this way, gradually spread a race of common parentage over all of them, from those that const.i.tute what has been called the great Indian Archipelago, in the immediate neighbourhood of China, to the Sandwich Islands and Easter Island, in the remotest east of that immense expanse of waters.

The Malay language is spoken, although in many different dialects and degrees of corruption, throughout the whole of this extensive range, which, measured in one direction, stretches over nearly half the equatorial circ.u.mference of the globe, and in another over at least seventy degrees of lat.i.tude. The people are all also of the same brown or copper complexion, by which the Malay is distinguished from the white man on the one hand, and the negro on the other.

In New Zealand, however, as, indeed, in most of the other seats of this race, the inhabitants are distinguished from each other by a very considerable diversity in the shades of what may be called the common hue. Crozet was so much struck with this circ.u.mstance that he does not hesitate to divide them into three cla.s.ses--whites, browns, and blacks,--the last of whom he conceives to be a foreign admixture received from the neighbouring continent of New Holland, and who, by their union with the whites, the original inhabitants of the country, and still decidedly the prevalent race, have produced those of the intermediate colour.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Two Maori Chiefs--Te Puni, or "Greedy," and Wharepouri, or "Dark House."]

Whatever may be thought of this hypothesis, it is certain that in some parts of New Zealand the natives are much fairer than in others. Cook remarks, in the account of his first voyage, that the people about the Bay of Islands seemed darker than those he had seen further to the south; and their colour generally is afterwards described as varying from a pretty deep black to a yellowish or olive tinge. In like manner, Marsden states that the people in the neighbourhood of the Shukehanga are much fairer than those on the east coast. It may also, perhaps, be considered some confirmation of Crozet's opinion as to the origin of the darkest coloured portion of the population, that those who come under this description are a.s.serted to be characterized, in addition, by the other negro peculiarity of a diminutive stature.[AK]

In general, however, the New Zealanders are a tall race of men, many of the individuals belonging to the upper cla.s.ses being six feet high and upwards. They are also described as strong, active, and almost uniformly well-shaped. Their hair is commonly straight, but sometimes curly; Crozet says he saw a few of them with red hair. Cook describes the females as far from attractive; but other observers give a more flattering account of them. Savage, for example, a.s.sures us that their features are regular and pleasing; and he seems to have been much struck by their "long black hair and dark penetrating eyes," as well as "their well-formed figure, the interesting cast of their countenance, and the sweet tone of their voice." Cruise's testimony is almost equally favourable.

The dress of the two s.e.xes is exactly the same, and consists of an inner mat or tunic, fastened by a girdle round their waists, and an upper cloak, which is made of very coa.r.s.e materials for ordinary wear, but is of a much finer fabric, and often, indeed, elaborately ornamented, when intended for occasions of display. Both these articles of attire are always made of the native flax. The New Zealanders wear no covering either for the head or the feet, the feathers with which both s.e.xes ornament the head being excepted.

The food upon which they princ.i.p.ally live is the root of the fern-plant, which grows all over the country.

Rutherford's account of the method of preparing it, which we have already transcribed, corresponds exactly with that given by Cook, Nicholas, and others. This root, sometimes swallowed entirely, and sometimes only masticated, and the fibres rejected after the juice has been extracted, serves the New Zealanders not only for bread, but even occasionally for a meal by itself. When fish are used, they do not appear, as in many other countries, to be eaten raw, but are always cooked, either by being fixed upon a stick stuck in the ground, and so exposed to the fire, or by being folded in green leaves, and then placed between heated stones to bake. But little of any other animal food is consumed, birds being killed chiefly for their feathers, and pigs being only produced on days of special festivity.

The first pigs were left in New Zealand by Cook, who made many attempts to stock the country both with this and other useful animals, most of whom, however, were so much neglected that they soon disappeared. Cook, likewise, introduced the potato into New Zealand; and that valuable root appears to be now pretty generally cultivated throughout the northern island.

The only agricultural implements, however, which the natives possess are of the rudest description; that with which they dig their potatoes being merely a wooden pole, with a cross-bar of the same material fixed to it about three feet from the ground. Marsden saw the wives of several of the chiefs toiling hard in the fields with no better spade than this; among others the head wife of the great Shungie, who, though quite blind, appeared to dig the ground, he says, as fast as those who had their sight, and as well, first pulling up the weeds as she went along with her hands, then setting her feet upon them that she might know where they were; and, finally, after she had broken the soil, throwing the mould over the weeds with her hands.

The labours of agriculture in New Zealand are, in this way, rendered exceedingly toilsome, by the imperfection of the only instruments which the natives possess. Hence, princ.i.p.ally, their extreme desire for iron.

Marsden, in the "Journal of his Second Visit," gives us some very interesting details touching the anxiety which the chiefs universally manifested to obtain agricultural tools of this metal. One morning, he tells us, a number of them arrived at the settlement, some having come twenty, others fifty miles. "They were ready to tear us to pieces," says he, "for hoes and axes. One of them said his heart would burst if he did not get a hoe."

They were told that a supply had been written for to England; but "they replied that many of them would be in their graves before the ship would come from England, and the hoes and axes would be of no advantage to them when dead. They wanted them now. They had no tools at present, but wooden ones to work their potato-grounds with; and requested that we would relieve their present distress."

When he returned from his visit to Shukehanga, many of the natives of that part of the country followed him, with a similar object, to the settlement. "When we left Patuona's village," says he, "we were more than fifty in number, most of them going for an axe or a hoe, or some small edge-tool. They would have to travel, by land and water, from a hundred to a hundred and forty miles, in some of the worst paths, through woods, that can be conceived, and to carry their provisions for their journey. A chief's wife came with us all the way, and I believe her load would not be less than one hundred pounds; and many carried much more." But, perhaps, the most importunate pleader the reverend gentleman encountered on this journey was an old chief, with a very long beard, and his face tattooed all over, who followed him during part of his progress among the villages of the western coast. "He wanted an axe," says Marsden, "very much; and at last he said that if we would give him an axe, he would give us his head. Nothing is held in so much veneration by the natives as the head of their chief. I asked him who should have the axe when I had got his head. At length he said, 'Perhaps you will trust me a little time; and, when I die, you shall have my head.' This venerable personage afterwards got his axe by sending a man for it to the settlement."

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote AD: Probably Nene.]

[Footnote AE: There is no "l" in the Maori orthography, and the name cannot be traced.]

[Footnote AF: This is another case where Rutherford's p.r.o.nunciation seems to have been at fault.]

[Footnote AG: The taro.]

[Footnote AH: The k.u.mera, a sweet potato, which was extensively cultivated by the ancient Maoris.]

[Footnote AI: "Haere mai," "come here," the usual words of welcome.]

[Footnote AJ: That is, Australia.]

[Footnote AK: The origin of the Maori is dealt with exhaustively by Mr.

S Percy Smith in "Hawaiki"; by Mr. E. Tregear, in "The Maori Race"; and by Professor Macmillan Brown, in "Maori and Polynesian."]

CHAPTER V.

Taken altogether, New Zealand presents a great variety of landscape, although, even where the scenery is most subdued, it partakes of a bold and irregular character, derived not more from the aspect of undisturbed Nature, which still obtrudes itself everywhere among the traces of commencing cultivation, than from the confusion of hill and valley which marks the face of the soil, and the precipitous eminences, with their sides covered by forests, and their summits barren of all vegetation, or terminating perhaps in a naked rock, that often rise close beside the most sheltered spots of fertility and verdure.

If this brokenness and inequality of surface oppose difficulties in the way of agricultural improvement, the variety and striking contrasts thereby produced must be often at least highly picturesque; and all, accordingly, who have visited New Zealand, agree in extolling the mingled beauty and grandeur which are profusely spread over the more favoured parts of the country, and are not altogether wanting even where the general look of the coast is most desolate and uninviting.

The southern island, with the exception of a narrow strip along its northern sh.o.r.e, appears to be, in its interior, a mere chaos of mountains, and the region of perpetual winter; but even here, the declivities that slope down towards the sea are clothed, in many places to the water's edge, with gigantic and evergreen forests; and more protected nooks occasionally present themselves, overspread with the abundance of a teeming vegetation, and not to be surpa.s.sed in loveliness by what the land has anywhere else to show. The bleakness of the western coast of this southern island indeed does not arise so much from its lat.i.tude as from the tempestuous north-west winds which seem so much to prevail in this part of the world, and to the whole force of which it is, from its position, exposed.

The interior and eastern side of the northern island owe their fertility and their suitableness for the habitation of man princ.i.p.ally to the intervention of a considerable extent of land, much of which is elevated, between them and the quarter from which these desolating gales blow. The more westerly portion of it seems only to be inhabited in places which are in a certain degree similarly defended by the surrounding high grounds. In these, as well as in the more populous districts to the east, the face of the country, generally speaking, offers to the eye a spread of luxuriant verdure, the freshness of which is preserved by continual depositions of moisture from the clouds that are attracted by the mountains, so that its hue, even in the heat of midsummer, is peculiarly vivid and l.u.s.trous.

Much of the land, both in the valleys and on the brows of the hills, is covered by groves of majestic pine, which are nearly impervious, from the thick underwood that has rushed up everywhere in the s.p.a.ces between the trees; and where there is no wood, the prevailing plant is a fern, which rises generally to the height of six or seven feet.

Along the skirts of the woodlands flow numerous rivers, which intersect the country in all directions, and several of which are navigable for miles up by ships of considerable burthen. Various lines of communication are in this way established between the opposite coasts of the northern island; while some of the minor streams, that rush down to the sea through the more precipitous ravines, are interrupted in their course by magnificent cataracts, which give additional effect to the other features of sublimity and romantic beauty by which the country is so distinguished. Many of the rocks on the coast are perforated, a circ.u.mstance which proceeds from their formation.

The quality of the soil of this country may be best estimated from the profuse vegetation with which the greater part of it is clothed, and the extraordinary vigour which characterizes the growth of most of its productions. The botany of New Zealand has as yet been very imperfectly investigated, a very small portion of the native plants having been either cla.s.sified or enumerated. From the partial researches, however, that have been made by the scientific gentlemen attached to Cook's expeditions, and subsequent visitors, there can be no doubt that the country is rich both in new and valuable herbs, plants, and trees as well as admirably adapted for the cultivation of many of the most useful among the vegetable possessions of other parts of the world.