Now of these Pakeha Maoris, one has left a book. He omitted his name
from the book of _Old New Zealand_, and never mentioned dates, but
tradition says he was Mr. F. C. Maning, and that he lived as a Maori
and trader for forty years, from 1823 to 1863 when the work was
published.
In the days when Mr. Maning reached the North Island a trader was
valued at twenty times his weight in muskets, equivalent say, to the
sum total of the British National Debt. Runaway sailors however, were
quite cheap. “Two men of this description were hospitably entertained
one night by a chief, a very particular friend of mine, who, to pay
himself for his trouble and outlay, ate one of them next morning.”
Maning came ashore on the back of a warrior by the name of Melons, who
capsized in an ebb tide running like a sluice, at which the white man,
displeased, held the native’s head under water by way of punishment.
When they got ashore Melons wanted to get even, so challenged the
Pakeha to a wrestling match. Both were in the pink of condition, the
Maori, twenty-five years of age, and a heavy-weight, the other a boy
full of animal spirits and tough as leather. After the battle Melons
sat up rather dazed, offered his hand, and venting his entire stock of
English, said “How do you do?”
But then came a powerful chief, by name Relation-eater. “Pretty work
this,” he began, “_good_ work. I won’t stand this not at all! not at
all! not at all!” (The last sentence took three jumps, a step and a
turn round, to keep correct time.) “Who killed the Pakeha? It was
Melons. You are a nice man, killing _my_ Pakeha ... we shall be called
the ‘Pakeha killkillers’; I shall be sick with shame; the Pakeha will
run away; what if you had killed him dead, or broken his bones”....
(Here poor Melones burst out crying like an infant). “Where is the hat?
Where the shoes? The Pakeha is robbed! he is murdered!” Here a wild
howl from Melons.
The local trader took Mr. Maning to live with him, but it was
known to the tribes that the newcomer really and truly belonged to
Relation-eater. Not long had he been settled when there occurred a
meeting between his tribe and another, a game of bluff, when the
warriors of both sides danced the splendid Haka, most blood-curdling,
hair-lifting of all ceremonials. Afterward old Relation-eater singled
out the horrible savage who had begun the war-dance, and these two
tender-hearted individuals for a full half-hour, seated on the ground
hanging on each other’s necks, gave vent to a chorus of skilfully
modulated howling. “So there was peace,” and during the ceremonies
Maning came upon a circle of what seemed to be Maori chiefs, until
drawing near he found that their nodding heads had nobody underneath.
Raw heads had been stuck on slender rods, with cross sticks to carry
the robes, “Looking at the ’eds, sir?” asked an English sailor. “’Eds
was _werry_ scarce--they had to tattoo a slave a bit ago, and the
villain ran away, tattooin’ and all!”
“What!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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