stand so near together, that, instead of valleys, there are only fissures between them. From the latitude 44° 20' to the latitude of 42° 8', these mountains lie further inland, and the sea-coast consists of woody hills and valleys, of various height and extent, and has much appearance of fertility. Many of the valleys form plains of considerable extent, wholly covered with wood, but it is very probable that the ground in many places is swampy, and interspersed with pools of water. From lat. 42° 8' to 41° 30', the land is not distinguished by anything remarkable; it rises into hills directly from the sea, and is covered with wood; but the weather being foggy while we were on this part of the coast, we could see very little inland, except now and then the summits of the mountains, towering above the cloudy mists that obscured them below, which confirmed my opinion that a chain of mountains extended from one end of the island to the other.”

These notices, defective as they are, embrace the whole information hitherto collected of the Southern Island and Stewart's Island.

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SECTION III.

EXISTING STATE OF BRITISH COLONIZATION IN NEW ZEALAND.

1. Evidence of the Rev. William Yate, Church Missionary; Fraud practised against a Chief, at Bay of Islands; War occasioned by a British Captain, terminated by the Church Missionaries; Effects of Settlement of escaped Convicts; Twenty-five young Natives kidnapped from their homes, by a British Captain, and delivered up to their Enemies, but saved by the Church Missionaries; Runaway Convicts and Rovers in Bay of Islands; their Conduct; Corrosive Sublimate given to Natives, by a British Captain, to destroy their Enemies; frequent Murders of Natives, by British.2. Evidence of Thomas Trapp, Esq.; Crimes introduced by British.-3. Letter of the Rev. Mr. Marsden; British take part in Native Wars.-4. Letter from Sydney Herald, 20th March, 1837; State of Crime in Bay of Islands.5. Extract from Sydney Herald; Murder of a Native by a Sailor.-6. Letter of the Rev. William White, Wesleyan Missionary, to the Rev. Samuel Hinds, D.D., 11th Sept., 1837; Treachery and Murder, by an English Captain, of several Natives; Murder of a Native Slave by an English Captain; Murder of a Lascar by an Englishman; Employment, by an Englishman, in a fit of Jealousy, of a Native to commit a Murder; Attempt to impose on Natives, by threatening them with the British Government; by fabricating False Papers; Attempt to engage them in wilful and vindictive Fire-raising; Shooting at Natives; Three instances of Murder of Englishmen by their own countrymen ; One of Wounding with deadly intent; and one of wilful

Fire-raising, with an intent to destroy Life; the Perpetrators of the last Outrage ordered by an Assembly of Chiefs to quit the Island.-7. Extract from Library of Entertaining Knowledge; Cruelties to Natives; above a Hundred Murders in Two or Three Years.

THE existing state of British intercourse with New Zealand has been stated in general terms in preceding chapters. It discloses new and appalling facts in the dark history of human depravity. Britain is charged "with the guilt and disgrace of having occasioned and tolerated such atrocities." The truth of this degrading charge it is necessary to scrutinize. It is a painful and revolting duty, but it is a necessary one; and its performance is cheered and relieved by the conviction, that such a state of matters will cease to be tolerated by Britain, as soon as its hateful existence ceases to be unknown.

The details of this branch of the subject shall be confined strictly to quotations from the evidence upon which it rests. It is difficult, in any other way, to give the precise import and bearings of evidence. The first to be noticed, is that of the Rev. William Yate, Church Missionary, who was examined in 1836, before the Aborigines Committee of the House of Commons. He was resident at the Bay of Islands, from 1827 to 1834; and discloses the occurrences which fell under his personal obser-. vation, during that time. It is, however, necessary to keep in view, that although the superintendence of the other missions led him to occasional excursions, his principal residence was at the Bay of