The notes which furnished the materials for this book were made by Mr. Earle during his first visit to New Zealand, in 1827. They are valuable as setting forth the impressions formed by an educated man, who came into the primitive community then existing at Hokianga and the Bay of Islands, without being personally connected either with the trading community, the missionaries, or the whalers. It should not be inferred from the reflections Mr. Earle casts upon the missionaries that he was himself an irreligious man, because the journal of his residence on Tristan d'Acunha shows that, while living there, he read the whole service of the Church of England to that little community every Sunday, and his diary in many places exhibits a reverence for Divine things. It may, however, be said in extenuation of the lack of hospitality on the part of the missionaries of which he complains, that many of the early residents and European visitors to New Zealand were of an undesirable class, and that they exercised a demoralising influence upon the Maoris. It was not easy for the missionaries to consort, upon terms of intimacy, with their fellow-countrymen whose relations with the Natives were such as they must strongly condemn. Earle's narrative is interesting because it conveys a realistic description of the Maoris before their national customs and habits had undergone any material change through association with white settlers. In dealing with Maori names, Mr. Earle, having at that period no standard of orthography to guide him, followed the example of Captain Cook in spelling words phonetically. Except in the case of certain well-known places the original spelling has been retained in the present edition of his book. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. VOYAGE FROM SYDNEY WRECKS AT HOKIANGA CHAPTER II. MAORI WELCOME NATIVE CHARACTERISTICS EUROPEANS AT HOKIANGA CANNIBALISM CHAPTER III. A MAORI VILLAGE THE TAPU ON CROPS MAORI ART CHAPTER IV. HOKIANGA RIVER MR. HOBBS' MISSION THE TIMBER INDUSTRY CHAPTER V. AN OVERLAND JOURNEY CHAPTER VI. THE CHIEF PATUONE CHAPTER VII. A PICTURESQUE SCENE CHAPTER VIII. IN THE DENSE FOREST CHAPTER IX. THE KERIKERI MISSION INHOSPITABLE RECEPTION CHAPTER X. THE BAY OF ISLANDS CHAPTER XI. MASSACRE OF THE BOYD CHAPTER XII. KORORAREKA A MIXED COMMUNITY SHULITEA (KING GEORGE) CHAPTER XIII. MAORI CONSERVATISM CHAPTER XIV. A MISSION SETTLEMENT THE MECHANIC MISSIONARY CHAPTER XV. VISIT FROM HONGI HONGI'S COAT OF MAIL CHAPTER XVI. INTERVIEW WITH HONGI CHAPTER XVII. A MAORI WELCOME CHAPTER XVIII. INLAND EXCURSIONS CHAPTER XIX. MAORI WOMEN'S CAMP CHAPTER XX. LOADING SPARS, HOKIANGA CHAPTER XXI. DEATH OF A CHIEF TRADING WITH MAORIS CHAPTER XXII. BRUTAL MURDER OF A WIFE CHAPTER XXIII. ANOTHER JOURNEY INTERIOR OF THE COUNTRY CHAPTER XXIV. A WAR PARTY CHAPTER XXV. HOSTILE DISPLAY THE LAW OF MURU CHAPTER XXVI. A SEDUCTION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES CHAPTER XXVII. LAW OF RETALIATION