Presents
Were Valued Only As They Could Be Converted Into Arms;
Of The Arts, Those Alone Interested Him Which Were Connected
With The Manufacture Of Arms.
When at Sydney, Shongi,
by a strange coincidence, met the hostile chief of the Thames
River at the house of Mr. Marsden:
Their conduct was civil
to each other; but Shongi told him that when again in New
Zealand he would never cease to carry war into his country.
The challenge was accepted; and Shongi on his return fulfilled
the threat to the utmost letter. The tribe on the
Thames River was utterly overthrown, and the chief to
whom the challenge had been given was himself killed.
Shongi, although harbouring such deep feelings of hatred
and revenge, is described as having been a good-natured
person.
In the evening I went with Captain Fitz Roy and Mr.
Baker, one of the missionaries, to pay a visit to Kororadika:
we wandered about the village, and saw and conversed with
many of the people, both men, women, and children. Looking
at the New Zealander, one naturally compares him with
the Tahitian; both belonging to the same family of mankind.
The comparison, however, tells heavily against the New
Zealander. He may, perhaps be superior in energy, but
in every other respect his character is of a much lower
order. One glance at their respective expressions, brings
conviction to the mind that one is a savage, the other a
civilized man. It would be vain to seek in the whole of
New Zealand a person with the face and mien of the old
Tahitian chief Utamme.
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