position until her tears ran over every part of it. She then laid it down, and with a bit of sharp shell disfigured her person in so shocking a manner, that in a few minutes not a vestige of her former beauty remained. She first began by cutting her arms, then her breasts, and latterly her face. Every incision was so deep as to cause a gush of blood; but she seemed quite insensible to pain, and formed the operation with heroic resolution.

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He whose cruelty had caused this frightful exhibition, was evidently amused at the horror with which we viewed it; and, laying hold of the head by the hair, which was long and black, offered to sell it to us for an axe, turned it in various ways to show it off to the best advantage, and when no purchaser was to be found, replaced it in the basket from whence he had taken it. The features were as perfect as when in life, and though the daughter was quite grown up, the head of her father appeared to be that of a youthful and handsome man.

A few yards from this scene of distress was a prisoner whom the lot of partition had separated from his captive family. He pressed the nose of an infant child to his own, while his wives, who sat around and joined in his lamentations, performed with a shell the same operations upon their persons, which has just been described in the case of the young female. The slaves are condemned by their masters to hard labour; they are fed like the rest of the family, not having, of course, the privilege of eating with those that are free; and they hold their lives upon a most precarious tenure. [See Note 5.] When a member of the chief's family dies, à certain number of the slaves, proportioned to the rank of the person, are sacrificed to appease the spirit of the deceased. A woman was pointed out to us who had been twice selected for execution; but having obtained private information of the doom that awaited her, by concealing herself in the woods until the funeral ceremonies were over, she had hitherto escaped.

The manner of inflicting death is perhaps one of the most humane customs of the country. The existence of the sufferer is terminated by a blow on the head, struck with a stone club, called a mearée. The executioner, who is selected by the tribe, cannot decline his office; and the unsuspecting victim falls without previous intimation of his intended fate.

When we were getting into our boat, we met Shungie's mother on a lonely part of the beach; she was very old, and her hair was perfectly white. In consequence of the departure of her son she was tabbooed; and as, among other restrictions of this superstition, the persons under its influence are forbidden to touch food with their hands, a woman sat beside her with a basket of potatoes, and put them into her mouth as she required them.

We found Tooi's elder brother Krokro on board, and waiting for Mr. Marsden, who was one of our party. Krokro was an elderly man, and far from prepossessing in his

appearance. He sat in the cabin until a late hour; and upon our expressing a wish to see the body of his friend, which he had brought from the North Cape, he promised to show it to us, and proposed that we should visit his residence the next day.

March 3d, Friday. Fine, thermometer 68°. In the morning some of the gentlemen accompanied Krokro to his pah or fort, where he then resided, and which was about a mile from the ship.

The pahs are situated on high, steep, and generally conical hills, ascended by a narrow winding pathway, so rugged that the European climbs it with personal danger; while the New Zealander, from custom and being barefooted [see Note 6.], seems to experience neither inconvenience nor difficulty. As near the top of the pah as possible, is the public storehouse; the huts of the people are scattered on the declivity; and to augment the natural strength of the place, it is fortified by one

or more ditches and lines of palisades firmly fixed in the ground.

These New Zealand forts have been described with accuracy by Captain Cook: no tribe is without one; and, though in times of peace the people generally prefer scattering themselves over the low grounds and close to the sea-side, at the moment of alarm they retire to the pah, as the place of safety and concentration.

During the time the gentlemen were rowing to the shore, Krokro pointed out the place where Captain Cook had been attacked by the natives; and gave a minute detail of the massacre of part of the crew of Marion's ship. He said that the natives, exasperated against the French captain for having burned two of their villages, determined on revenge; and, concealing every hostile disposition towards him and his people, pointed out a place to haul the seine, and offered to assist the sailors in doing so. The arrangement of the plot accorded with the treachery of the proffered