BURNED OUT OF HOUSE AND HOME.
We now called a council of war of all the Europeans settled here; and it
was unanimously resolved that we should protect and defend our houses and
property, and fortify our position in the best way we could. Captain Duke
had in his possession four twelve-pounders, and these we brought in front
of the enclosure in which our huts were situated, and were all entirely
employed in loading them with round and grape shot, and had made them all
ready for action, when, to our consternation and dismay, we found we had
a new and totally unexpected enemy to contend with. By some accident one
of our houses was in flames. Our situation was now perilous in the
extreme. The buildings, the work of English carpenters, were constructed
of dry rushes and well-seasoned wood, and this was one of a very
respectable size, and we had hoped, in a very few days, would be finished
fit for our removing into.
For some seconds we stood in mute amazement, not knowing to which point
to direct our energies. As the cry of "fire" was raised, groups of
natives came rushing from all directions upon our devoted settlement,
stripping off their clothes, and yelling in the most discordant pitch of
voice. I entered the house, and brought out one of my trunks, but on
attempting to return a second time I found it filled with naked savages,
tearing everything to pieces, and carrying away whatever they could lay
their hands upon. The fierce raging of the flames, the heat from the
fire, the yells of the men, and the shrill cries of the women, formed,
altogether, a horrible combination; added to all this was the
mortification of seeing all our property carried off in different
directions, without the least possibility of our preventing it. The tribe
of the Ngapuhis (who, when the fire began, were at the other end of the
beach) left their operations in that quarter and poured down upon us to
share in the general plunder. Never shall I forget the countenance of the
chief, as he rushed forward at the head of his destroying crew! He was
called "The Giant," and he was well worthy of the name, being the tallest
and largest man I had ever seen; he had an immense bushy black beard, and
grinned exultingly when he saw the work of destruction proceeding with
such rapidity, and kept shouting loudly to his party to excite them to
carry off all they could.
A cask containing seventy gallons of rum now caught fire and blew up with
a terrible explosion; and, the wind freshening considerably, huge volumes
of smoke and flame burst out in every direction. Two of our houses were
so completely enveloped that we had given up all hopes of saving them.
The third, which was a beautifully carved tapued one, some little
distance from the others, and which we had converted into a store and
magazine, was now the only object of our solicitude and terror. For,
besides the valuable property of various kinds which were deposited
within it, it contained several barrels of gunpowder! It was in vain we
attempted to warn the frantic natives to retire from the vicinity of this
danger. At length we persuaded about a dozen of the most rational to
listen while we explained to them the cause of our alarm; and they
immediately ascended to the roof, where, with the utmost intrepidity and
coolness, they kept pouring water over the thatch, thus lessening the
probability of an immediate explosion. About this time we noticed the
reappearance of King George, which circumstance rekindled our hopes. He
was armed with a thick stick, which he laid heavily on the backs of such
of his subjects as were running away with our property, thus forcing them
to relinquish their prizes, and to lay them down before his own mansion,
where all was safe. By this means a great deal was recollected. The fire
was now nearly extinguished; but our two really tolerably good houses
were reduced to a heap of smoking ruins, and the greater part of what
belonged to us was taken away by the Ngapuhis.
This calamity had made us acquainted with another of their barbarous
customs, which is, whenever a misfortune happens to a community, or an
individual, every person, even the friends of his own tribe, fall upon
and strip him of all he has remaining. As an unfortunate fish, when
struck by a harpoon, is instantly surrounded and devoured by his
companions, so in New Zealand, when a chief is killed, his former friends
plunder his widow and children; and they, in revenge, ill-use and even
murder their slaves--thus one misfortune gives birth to various
cruelties. During the fire, our allies proved themselves the most adroit
and active thieves imaginable, though previously to that event we had
never lost an article, although everything we possessed was open to them.
When we questioned them about our property, they frankly told us where it
was; and, after some difficulty in settling the amount of its ransom, we
got most of our things back again, with the exception of such as had been
carried off by the Ngapuhis.
Upon the cruelty of this custom I shall make no comments. Probably I
should have remained in ignorance of this savage law, had I not had the
misfortune to become its victim.
By redeeming from the natives what they had purloined from the fire, we
had restored to us some of our boxes, desks, and clothes; but all our
little comforts towards housekeeping were irretrievably lost. When the
fire was over we received a visit from one of the missionaries, who made
us a cold offer of assistance. We accepted a little tea, sugar and some
few articles of crockery from them; but, although they knew we stood
there houseless, amongst a horde of savages, they never offered us the
shelter of their roofs. I am very sure that had the calamity befallen
them, we should immediately have offered our huts, and shared with them
everything we possessed. Here was an opportunity of practically showing
the "pagans" (as they termed the New Zealanders) the great Christian
doctrine of "doing to others as we would they should do unto us." I must
acknowledge I was sometimes mortified at being obliged to sleep (three of
us huddled up close together) in a small New Zealand hut, filled with
filth and vermin of all kinds, while at only two miles' distance from us
stood a neat village, abounding in every comfort that a bountiful British
public could provide; and we, members of that community, and, indeed,
partly contributors to the funds for its support.
The high state of excitement into which the savages had been thrown by
the late conflagration gradually subsided, and as we had escaped the
dreaded calamity of our magazine blowing up, we began to look with
calmness on our desolate condition, and draw comfort from thinking how
much worse we might have been circumstanced than we then were. I hope our
distress may prove a benefit to future sojourners in this country, by
showing them the great importance of forming a proper magazine for
powder. The agonies I suffered in contemplating the destruction which six
barrels of powder, each of an hundredweight, would cause amongst a mob of
several hundred naked savages, it is impossible to imagine!
King George, as well as all his people, were most anxious to build us a
new habitation entirely themselves. They requested us to give them the
dimensions of the various dwellings, and said we should have no further
trouble about them. A party accordingly proceeded to the bush to collect
materials. They first formed the skeleton of a cottage containing three
rooms, with slight sticks, firmly tied together with strips of flax.
While this was in progress, another party was collecting rushes (which
grow plentifully in the neighbourhood, called Ra-poo). These they spread
in the sun for twenty-four hours, when they considered them sufficiently
dry. They then thatched every part of the house, which for neatness and
strength was equal to anything I had ever seen. The doors and windows we
employed our carpenter to make, these being luxuries quite beyond the
comprehension of the natives. We were thus tolerably well lodged again;
and our time passed on tranquilly, almost every day developing some fresh
trait of character amongst these children of nature.