A Narrative of a Nine Months' Residence in New Zealand in 1827: Together with a Journal of a Residence in Tristan D'Acunha, an Island Situated Between South America and the Cape of Good HopeLongman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green & Longman, 1832 - Earle, Augustus, 1793-1838 --travel --new Zealand - 371 pages |
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amongst Angha animals anxious appearance armed arrived Atoi Bay of Islands beach beautiful boat brig brought canoes Cape Captain Duke cargo carried ceremony chief companions Cook covered creatures crew danger death delighted dogs dreadful enemy English Europeans Falmouth Bay feel felt fire formed friends gave Glass harbour head heard imagined informed inhabitants instantly journey killed Kiney King George Ko-ro-ra-di-ka land look ment miles missionaries Mooetara morning murder musket natives nearly never night party passed poor Port Jackson portmanteau possessed potatoes present proved racter received red ochre remain residence revenge river round sail savage scene schooner seemed seen settlement settlers ship shore Shulitea Shunghie sight situation slaves sloop soon South Wales spot Sydney tabooed thing took tribe Tristan d'Acunha Van Diemen's Land vessel village warriors weather whalers whole wind witness Zealand
Popular passages
Page 322 - ... while one was making merry at the expense of another, down sunk the laugher himself. A death-like stillness prevailed in these high regions, and, to my ear, our voices had a strange, unnatural echo, and I fancied our forms appeared gigantic, whilst the air was piercing cold. The prospect was altogether very sublime, and filled the mind with awe! On the one side, the boundless horizon, heaped up with clouds of silvery brightness, contrasted with some of darker hue, enveloping us in their vapour,...
Page 319 - I am so many thousands of miles from every human haunt, and separated from all my friends and family, who are in total ignorance of where I am, or what has become of me. But I force myself to struggle against dismal thoughts, unwilling that my comrades (who do every thing in their power to console me) should suspect how much I suffer; so I take my seat by the fire, shut out the night, pile on a cheerful log, and tell my tale in turn. I must confess that, amongst my companions, I never see a sad or...
Page 6 - ... and muscular, and their limbs as sinewy as though they had been occupied all their lives in laborious employments. Their colour is lighter than that of the American Indian, their features small and regular, their hair is in a profusion of beautiful curls: whereas that of the Indian is strait and lank.
Page 136 - professor' was merely a kooky or slave, but by skill and industry he raised himself to an equality with the greatest men of his country; and as every chief who employed him always made him some handsome present, he soon became a man of wealth, and was constantly surrounded by such important personages as Pungho Pungho, Ruky Ruky, Kivy Kivy, Aranghy Tooker,1 &c.
Page 136 - Aranghie, and, appreciating the artist's work so highly, he skinned the chieftain's thighs, and covered his cartouch box with it. I was astonished to see with what boldness and precision Aranghie drew his designs upon the skin, and what beautiful ornaments he produced; no rule and compasses could be more exact than the lines and circles he formed. So unrivalled is he in his profession, that a highly-finished face of a chief from the hands of this artist, is as greatly prized in New Zealand as a head...
Page 113 - They had no revenge to gratify; no plea they could make of their passions having been roused by battle, nor the excuse that they eat their enemies to perfect their triumph. This was an action of unjustifiable cannibalism. Atoi, the chief, who had given orders for this cruel feast, had only the night before sold us four pigs for a few pounds of powder; so he had not even the excuse of want of food. After Captain Duke and myself had consulted with each other, we walked into the village, determined...
Page 24 - In it are practised nearly all the mechanical trades; and these present to the busy enquiring mind of a New Zealander a practical encyclopaedia of knowledge. When he sees the combined exertions of the smith and carpenter create so huge a fabric as a ship, his mind is filled with wonder and delight ; and when he witnesses the moulding of iron at the anvil, it excites his astonishment and emulation. The people of the dockyard informed me, that although it was constantly crowded with natives, scarcely...
Page 240 - ... as anxious to cherish and protect their infant girls as they were formerly cruelly bent on destroying them. Therefore, if one sin has been, to a certain degree, encouraged, a much greater one has been annihilated. Infanticide, the former curse of this country, and the cause of its scanty population, a crime every way calculated to make men bloody-minded and ferocious, and to stifle every benevolent and tender feeling, has totally disappeared wherever an intercourse has taken place between the...
Page 116 - I 3 now near it: a hot fetid steam kept occasionally bursting from the smothered mass; and the same dog we had seen with the head, now crept from beneath the bushes, and sneaked towards the village: to add to the gloominess of the whole, a large hawk rose heavily from the very spot where the poor victim had been cut in pieces. My friend and I sat gazing on this melancholy place; it was...
Page 323 - ... glances of the landscape ; and, on the other hand, the sterile and cindery peak, with its venerable head, partly capped with clouds, partly revealing great patches of red cinders, or lava, intermingled with the black rock, produced a most extraordinary and dismal effect. It seemed as though it were still actually burning, to heighten the sublimity of the scene. The huge albatross appeared here to dread no interloper or enemy ; for their young were on the ground completely uncovered, and the old...