For some time after his return from Cook Strait, Rutherford's life
appears to have been unvaried by any incident of moment.
"At length," says he, "one day a messenger arrived from a neighbouring
village, with the news that all the chiefs for miles round were about to
set out, in three days, for a place called Kipara,[BY] near the source
of the river Thames, and distant about two hundred miles from our
village. The messenger brought also a request from the other chiefs to
Aimy to join them along with his warriors; and he replied that he would
meet them at Kipara at the time appointed. We understood that we were to
be opposed at Kipara by a number of chiefs from the Bay of Islands and
the river Thames, according to an appointment which had been made with
the chiefs in our neighbourhood.
"Accordingly, everything was got ready for our journey as quickly as
possible; and the women were immediately set to work to make a great
number of new baskets, in which to carry our provisions. It is the
custom for every person going on such an expedition to find his own arms
and ammunition, as also provisions, and slaves to carry them. On the
other hand, every family plunder for themselves, and give only what they
think proper to the chief. The slaves are not required to fight, though
they often run to the assistance of their masters while engaged.
"When the day was come for our departure, I started along with the rest,
being armed with my mery, a brace of pistols, and a double-barrelled
fowling-piece, and having also with me some powder and ball, and a great
quantity of duck-shot, which I took for the purpose of killing game on
our journey.
"I was accompanied by my wife Epecka, who carried three new mats to be a
bed for us, which had been made by Eshou during my absence at Taranake.
"The warriors and slaves, whom we took with us, amounted in all to about
five hundred; but the slaves, as they got rid of the provisions they
carried, were sent home again, as we had no further use for them. While
on our journey, if we came to a friendly village at night, we slept
there; but, if not, we encamped in the woods. When the provisions we had
brought with us were all consumed, we were compelled to plunder wherever
we could find anything. Our journey, being made during the rainy season,
was more than usually fatiguing. We were five weeks in reaching Kipara,
where we found about eleven hundred more natives encamped by the side of
a river. On our arrival, huts were immediately constructed for our
party, and one was allotted to me and my wife. We had also two female
slaves allowed us for the purpose of digging fern-root, gathering
cockles, and catching fish, which articles were our only provisions
while we remained here; unless now and then, when I went to the woods,
and shot a few wood-pigeons or a wild pig."
A party of New Zealanders thus wandering through their country, with all
the inconveniences attending the movement of large bodies of men, but
without the combinations of foresight which are necessary for the safety
of an army, or the management of supplies, must be occasionally exposed
to great privations.
Their island, however, it would seem from Rutherford's narrative,
abundantly supplied them with provisions, and their slaves were at hand
to perform the office of cooks. Their method of procuring fire for
culinary purposes and warmth is curious; and we may as well mention it
somewhat fully here, before we proceed to the more busy parts of
Rutherford's narrative.
When Nicholas was in New Zealand, he had an opportunity of seeing the
process usually resorted to. "The place where we landed," says he,
speaking of an excursion which he made with Marsden, and some of the
chiefs, to a place a short distance from the Missionary Settlement, "was
a small plantation of potatoes belonging to Shungie, and here our party
intended to prepare their refreshments, seating themselves, along the
ground for the purpose. Fire, however, was wanting; and to procure it,
Shungie took my fowling-piece, and, stopping up the touch-hole, he put a
small piece of linen into the pan, and endeavoured to excite a spark.
But this expedient proved unsuccessful, as the lock had got rusted and
would not go off; he then got some dry grass and a piece of rotten wood,
and turning a small stick rapidly between his hands, in the same manner
as we mill chocolate, the friction caused the touchwood, in which the
point of the stick was inserted, to take fire; while, wrapping it up in
the dry grass, and shaking it backward and forward, he very soon
produced a flame, which he communicated to some dry sticks, and other
fuel that our party had collected."
This was not, however, any sudden device of Shungie's, but merely the
contrivance in general use in such emergencies among his countrymen.
"We have mentioned two New Zealanders, who are at present in this
country, and have recently been exhibiting the dances and other customs
of their native land, in several of our provincial towns. Among other
things which they show is this method of kindling fire, and we extract
from the letter of a correspondent who saw them at Birmingham, the
following account of this part of their performance:--'A small board of
well-dried pine was laid upon the floor, and the younger New Zealander
took in his hand a wedge about nine inches long, and of the same
material; then rubbing with this upon the board, in a direction parallel
to the grain, he made a groove, about a quarter of an inch deep and six
or seven inches long. The friction, of course, produced a quantity of
what, had it been produced by another means, would have been called
sawdust; and this he collected at the end of the groove farthest from
that part of the board on which he was kneeling. He then continued his
operation; and in a short time the wood began to smoke, the sides of the
groove becoming completely charred. On this he stopped and gathered the
tinder over that part of the groove which appeared to be most strongly
heated. After a few moments, it became manifest that the sawdust or
tinder was ignited; and a gentle application of the breath now drew
forth a flame which rose to the height of several inches. This
experiment did not always succeed the first time; whenever it was
repeated, whether after failure or success, the operator took a new
wedge and formed a new groove, and it was stated that this was
absolutely necessary. The process was evidently one of very great
labour; at the conclusion of it, the operator was steaming with
perspiration, and his elder countryman stated that his own strength was
unequal to the feat.'"
[Illustration: _Tourist Dept. Photo._
Greenstone axes, with carved wooden handles, and ornamented with dogs'
hair and birds' feathers.]
This method of procuring fire has, in fact, been in use from the most
ancient times, and in all parts of the world. It was, as Lafitau
remarks, the very method which was prescribed for rekindling the
vestal fire at Rome, when it was accidentally extinguished. This writer
describes it as in use also among several tribes of the Indians of South
America. Among them, however, it is somewhat more artificially managed
than it appears to be among the New Zealanders, inasmuch as their
practice is first to make a hole in the wood with the tooth of the
acouti, and then to insert in this an instrument resembling a wimble, by
the rapid revolution of which the wood is set on fire.
The Baron Alexander de Humboldt gives a similar account of the manner in
which the operation appears to have been performed among the ancient
Mexicans, who adopted this method of rekindling their fires, on their
general extinction at the end of every cycle of fifty-two years.
In a letter which Humboldt has printed at the conclusion of his work,
from M. Visconti, it is remarked that we find mention made of this
contrivance both in Homer's "Hymn to Mercury," and in the "Argonautics"
of Apollonius Rhodius. The scholiast of the latter gives a description
of the process, which exactly answers to the Mexican delineation.
"On the opposite side of the river," Rutherford proceeds, "which was
about half a mile wide, and not more than four feet deep in any part,
about four hundred of the enemy were encamped, waiting for
reinforcements. Meanwhile messengers were continually passing from the
one party to the other, with messages concerning the war.
"One of them informed us that there was a white man in his party who had
heard of and wished to see me; and that the chiefs, who also wished to
see me, would give me permission to cross the river to meet him, and I
should return unmolested whenever I thought proper. With Aimy's consent,
therefore, I went across the river; but I was not permitted to go armed,
nor yet to take my wife with me. When I arrived on the opposite side,
several of the chiefs saluted me in the usual manner by touching my nose
with theirs; and I afterwards was seated in the midst of them by the
side of the white man, who told me his name was John Mawman, that he was
a native of Port Jackson, and that he had run away from the 'Tees' sloop
of war while she lay at this island. He had since joined the natives,
and was now living with a chief named Rawmatty;[BZ] whose daughter he
had married, and whose residence was at a place called Sukyanna,[CA] on
the west coast, within fifty miles of the Bay of Islands. He said that
he had been at the Bay of Islands a short time before, and had seen
several of the English missionaries. He also said that he had heard that
the natives had lately taken a vessel at a place called Wangalore,
which they had plundered and then turned adrift; but that the crew had
escaped in their boats and put to sea. This is the same place where the
crew of the ship 'Boyd' were murdered some years before.[CB]
"While I remained among these people, a slave was brought up before one
of the chiefs, who immediately arose from the ground, and struck him
with his mery and killed him. This mery was different from any of the
rest, being made of steel. The heart was taken out of the slave as soon
as he had fallen, and instantly devoured by the chief who slew him. I
then inquired who this chief was, and was informed that his name was
Shungie, one of the two chiefs who had been at England, and had been
presented to many of the nobility there, from whom he received many
valuable presents; among others, a double-barrelled gun and a suit of
armour, which he has since worn in many battles. His reason, they told
me, for killing the slave, who was one belonging to himself, was that he
had stolen the suit of armour, and was running away with it to the
enemy, when he was taken prisoner by a party stationed on the outskirts
of the encampment. This was the only act of theft which I ever saw
punished in New Zealand.
"Although Shungie has been two years among Europeans, I still consider
him to be one of the most ferocious cannibals in his native country. He
protects the missionaries who live on his ground entirely for the sake
of what he can get from them.
"I now returned to my own party. Early the next morning the enemy
retreated to a distance of about two miles from the river; upon
observing which our party immediately threw off their mats, and got
under arms. The two parties had altogether about two thousand muskets
among them, chiefly purchased from the English and American South Sea
ships which touch at the island. We now crossed the river; and, having
arrived on the opposite side, I took my station on a rising ground,
about a quarter of a mile distant from where our party halted, so that I
had a full view of the engagement.
"I was not myself required to fight, but I loaded my double-barrelled
gun, and, thus armed, remained at my post, my wife and the two slave
girls having seated themselves at my feet.
"The commander-in-chief of each party now stepped forward a few yards,
and, placing himself in front of his troops, commenced the war-song.
When this was ended both parties danced a war-dance, singing at the
same time as loud as they could, and brandishing their weapons in the
air.
"Having finished their dance, each party formed into a line two-deep,
the women and boys stationing themselves about ten yards to the rear.
"The two bodies then advanced to within about a hundred yards of each
other, when they fired off their muskets. Few of them put the musket to
the shoulder while firing it, but merely held it at the charge. They
only fired once; and then, throwing their muskets behind them, where
they were picked up by the women and boys, drew their merys and
tomahawks out of their belts, when, the war-song being screamed by the
whole of them together in a manner most dismal to be heard, the two
parties rushed into close combat.
"They now took hold of the hair of each other's heads with their left
hands, using the right to cut off the head. Meantime the women and boys
followed close behind them, uttering the most shocking cries I ever
heard. These last received the heads of the slain from those engaged in
the battle as soon as they were cut off, after which the men went in
among the enemy for the dead bodies; but many of them received bodies
that did not belong to the heads they had cut off.
"The engagement had not lasted many minutes, when the enemy began to
retreat, and were pursued by our party through the woods. Some of them,
in their flight, crossed the hill on which I stood; and one threw a
short jagged spear at me as he passed, which stuck in the inside of my
left thigh. It was afterwards cut out by two women with an oyster-shell.
The operation left a wound as large as a common-sized tea-cup; and after
it had been performed I was carried across the river on a woman's back
to my hut, where my wife applied some green herbs to the wound, which
immediately stopped the bleeding, and also made the pain much less
severe.
"In a short time our party returned victorious, bringing along with them
many prisoners. Persons taken in battle, whether chiefs or not, become
slaves to those who take them. One of our chiefs had been shot by
Shungie, and the body was brought back, and laid upon some mats before
the huts. Twenty heads, also, were placed upon long spears, which were
stuck up around our huts; and nearly twice as many bodies were put to
the fires, to be cooked in the accustomed way.
"Our party continued dancing and singing all night; and the next morning
they had a grand feast on the dead bodies and fern-roots, in honour of
the victory they had gained. The name of the chief whose body lay in
front of our huts was Ewanna. He was one of those who were at the taking
of our vessel. His body was now cut into several pieces, which, being
packed into baskets, covered with black mats, were put into one of the
canoes, to be taken along with us down the river. There were, besides
Ewanna, five other chiefs killed on our side, whose names were Nainy,
Ewarree, Tometooi, Ewarrehum, and Erow.[CC] On the other side, three
chiefs were killed, namely, Charly, Shungie's eldest son, and two sons
of Mootyi,[CD] a great chief of Sukyanna. Their heads were brought home
by our people as trophies of war, and cured in the usual manner.
"We now left Kipara in a number of canoes, and proceeded down the river
to a place called Shaurakke,[CE] where the mother of one of the chiefs
who was killed resided.
"When we arrived in sight of this place, the canoes all closed together,
and joined in singing a funeral song.
"By this time, several of the hills before us were crowded with women
and children, who, having their faces painted with ochre, and their
heads adorned with white feathers, were waving their mats, and calling
out to us 'ara mi, ara mi,' the usual welcome home.
"When the funeral song was ended, we disembarked from our canoes, which
we hauled up from the river, and our party then performed a dance,
entirely naked; after which they were met by another party of warriors,
from behind the hill, with whom they engaged in a sham fight, which
lasted about twenty minutes. Both parties then seated themselves around
the house belonging to the chief of the village, in front of which the
baskets containing the dead body were at the same time placed. They were
then all opened, and the head, being taken out and decorated with
feathers, was placed on the top of one of the baskets; while the rest of
the heads that had been taken at the battle were stuck on long spears,
in various parts of the village. Meanwhile, the mother of the slain
chief stood on the roof of the house, dressed in a feathered cloak and
turban, continually turning herself round, wringing her hands, and
crying for the loss of her son.
"The dead body having been in a few days buried with the usual
ceremonies, we all prepared to return to our own village. Shaurakke is
one of the most delightful spots in New Zealand, and has more cultivated
land about it than I saw anywhere else. While I was here, I saw a
slave-woman eat part of her own child, which had been killed by the
chief, her master. I have known several instances of New Zealand women
eating their children as soon as they were born."
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote BY: Kaipara.]
[Footnote BZ: Raumati.]
[Footnote CA: Another rendition of Hokianga.]
[Footnote CB: Mr. Craik adds a note stating that the place which
Rutherford here calls Wangalore is Wangaroa. (The proper spelling is
Whangaroa.) The ship, he says, was the "Mercury," of London, South Sea
whaler, which put in at Wangaroa on March 5th, 1825, and was plundered
of the greater part of her cargo by the natives. She was also so much
disabled by the attack made upon her that, after a vain attempt to carry
her round to the Bay of Islands, it was found necessary to abandon her,
when she drove to sea, and asserted that no cause of offence whatever
was given to the natives by the captain or crew of the "Mercury," while
the conduct of the former was in all respects treacherous, unfeeling,
and provoking.]
[Footnote CC: All the names are spelt wrongly.]
[Footnote CD: Probably Matui or Matohi.]
[Footnote CE: Evidently Hauraki, which, however, is on the east coast,
while Knipara is on the west.]