A PAKEHA MAORI'S HOME.
"You see I'm an old man; I came here when I was very young, and have seen a great many changes. I was in Sydney, and heard New Zealand was a good place for trade, so I loaded some goods on a schooner that was coming this way, and in due time was landed in the country. At first I made my home with one of the whites, who had come here before me and got on friendly terms with the tribe where he lived; it didn't take long to do it, as the Maoris were very anxious to buy my goods."
Frank asked what goods they wanted most.
"Muskets and ammunition," was the reply, "and for these they paid fabulous prices in wild flax, which was the principal product worth shipping away. They were constantly at war, and the tribe that possessed the white man's weapons could destroy any tribe that was without them. This happened in many cases, and whole tribes who were without guns were destroyed by their more fortunate adversaries. They were literally eaten up, as the natives were cannibals in those times.
"To get muskets they impoverish themselves, neglecting their agriculture in order to gather flax to buy them with, and literally starving themselves. Many died of starvation in consequence, and in another way muskets proved the death of those who owned them. In the times of clubs and spears the Maoris had their pahs and villages on high hills, where the air was pure and the ground dry; when they got muskets they moved into the low ground, where they were carried off by the dampness and its consequent fevers. I have known whole villages and tribes killed in this way, so that not one man, woman, or child remained. The musket was as fatal to those who owned it as to those who did not; it was deadly either way.
VIEW OF A PART OF AUCKLAND AND ITS HARBOR.
"Now about some of the customs of the Maoris. They used to be tattooed very finely, and some of the fighting-men were beautiful to look at. The warriors used to bring back the heads of those they killed in battle, and some of the traders got to buying these heads provided they were finely tattooed. They gave a musket for a good head, and as soon as this was known some of the tribes began to make war on others just for the sake of getting tattooed heads to sell.