Page:Report from the Select Committee of the House of Lords, appointed to inquire into the present state of the Islands of New Zealand.pdf/19

Mr. J. Watkins.

authoritative Person they were desirous of trying whether he had any Power or not.

Was it supposed that the Aggressors were supported or encouraged by the Chiefs?

It was supposed that some one or other of the English Residents or Convicts led the Natives to this Aggression, but I believe that turned out afterwards not to be the Case; I believe that no European was concerned in that Affray. Titori, who I understood is since dead, was particularly anxious to find out the Aggressor; he was a great Friend to the Missionaries though he was not joined to them; his Tribe was esteemed to be a neutral Tribe, and the worst excepting that at the Waitangi, which was said to be the worst and most desperate of all there.

There was not at that Time, of course, in Mr. Busby or in any body else, any Authority that could punish this?

He could not punish any body. There was one Instance I remember of a Master of a Vessel sending his Casks up the River Cowa Cowa for Water, and they were taken from the Officer who was in charge of them and rolled up into the Bush; the Master went for them and could not get them restored. He immediately went to Mr. Busby, who accompanied him back again; they still were not restored. Mr. Busby returned to one of the Missionaries, I think Mr. Williams, and he got them restored immediately, all that were not broken up. The Missionaries have immense Influence among the Natives; they are respected there as much as any Gentlemen of Character are respected here, and a great deal more; indeed I may say they have unlimited Influence. They had Horses brought from Sydney, when the Natives saw that the Horses could not pass through the various Tracts from Piar to Wynatte they in consequence made little Bridges and Roads for their Accommodation: this was all done by the Natives exclusively for Use of Missionaries, and frequently have I seen the Natives perform Acts of Kindness towards them; one Man especially, who went out sometime before I went there with an Army to the East Cape. Having conquered their Opponents, one Woman had her Husband and Two Children killed. This Man dashed the Children's Brains against the Stones, and took the Woman captive, and afterwards took her to be his Wife; when I was in New Zealand she had several Children by him. She had Sinuses in the Breast, which originated in Scrofula; a Fistula had formed in consequence of the scrofulous Tumour being allowed to remain without proper Treatment. I operated upon her Breast; she bore it with great Fortitude, and when she found I was about leaving the Island she was very much grieved, in consequence of a Fear of not getting well without my staying. Her Husband, when I was there, was one of the best Men Mr. Henry Williams had. When any Canoe was broken off its Moorings he went after it and brought it back, even without being requested to do so: I think that is an Instance of the Influence of Missionaries upon the Native Mind. I went up to the Cowa Cowa River with one of the English Residents, who had to procure a Mast for our Vessel; I went botanizing at the same Time, availing myself of his Company to go into the Bush. When there the Natives cooked Potatoes for our Supper; we had cold Pork and Biscuits besides. They lit a Fire at the Door of the little Hut we had secured to ourselves at the Side of the Forest, and after that they went to Prayer of their own Accord: there was no one there to suggest it. The Englishman told me, “If you wait for a Moment you will see how they act;" they sang a Psalm translated into their Language; then they fell on their Knees, one going to Prayer as a Clergyman would here in the Church, and the others responding; and in the Morning again when I awoke, which was just with the Day-break, I heard a Bell ring; on inquiring the meaning of it they told me of a Church being in the Neighbourhood,—a little Place they appropriated to Divine Service as Church; this Bell was rung to call the Natives to Prayers. There was no Missionary there then; only the Missionaries were in the habit of visiting them occasionally.

Those Persons professed to be Christians?

Yes; the principal Chief of that Part was in the habit of having several Women as Wives, One principal Wife, and others as Concubines. By the