OBSERVATIONS ON THE SOCIAL CONDITIONS OF THE MAORIS.
Feeling that I was not likely now to be called upon to act offensively, I
considered myself at liberty to make numerous excursions round our
fortress, not only to admire this fertile and beautiful country, but to
visit some of my old friends. I was very much astonished and shocked at
seeing several very beautiful young women, whom I left only a few months
back in perfect health and strength, now reduced to mere "living
skeletons," and also to hear of the death of others by consumption. This
disease seems to be the scourge of the young; and when they are once
seized with its symptoms, they are very speedily brought to the grave.
The natives say, "It is Atua, the Great Spirit, coming into them, and
eating up their inside; for the patient can feel those parts gradually go
away, and then they become weaker and weaker till no more is left; after
which the Spirit sends them to the happy island." They never attempt any
means of curing or of alleviating the pains caused by this cruel
complaint; and all those under its influence are tabooed. I procured from
the brig all my remaining stores of tapioca, sago, arrowroot, and sugar,
and distributed them in the best way I could amongst my sick friends.
They were anxious for wine; but that portion of my sea-stock, as well as
spirits, had been long since expended.
It seems unaccountable that the natives of an atmosphere so dry as this
is--a country in which there are no marshy bogs, and where, though there
is an abundance of water, it is generally seen in clear and sparkling
rills rushing down from the mountains into the rivers--should be subject
to so fatal a disease as galloping consumption. The only cause to which I
can attribute such an affliction is, their indifference to lying out all
night exposed to every change of weather--to cold and rain--which, in
young and tender constitutions, must produce the most pernicious
consequences. If some few are rendered hardy and robust by this process,
many, no doubt, are killed by it. I endeavoured to impress on the minds
of all my female friends the great danger of thus exposing themselves to
cold; but they only laughed at my precautions, and said, "If Atua wished
it, so it must be; they could not strive with the Great Spirit."
I have heard so much said about the great impropriety of the white
settlers admitting the native females into their society, so much of the
scandalous conduct of captains of ships suffering their men to have
sweethearts during their stay in port, and so much urged in justification
of the indignation shown by the missionaries when this subject is touched
on by them, that I feel it necessary to state one decided benefit which
has resulted from that intercourse, and which, in my opinion, far more
than counterbalances the evil against which there has been raised so loud
an outcry.
Before our intercourse took place with the New Zealanders, a universal
and unnatural custom existed amongst them, which was that of destroying
most of their female children in infancy, their excuse being that they
were quite as much trouble to rear, and consumed just as much food, as a
male child, and yet, when grown up, they were not fit to go to war as
their boys were. The strength and pride of a chief then consisted in the
number of his sons; while the few females who had been suffered to live
were invariably looked down upon by all with the utmost contempt. They
led a life of misery and degradation. The difference now is most
remarkable. The natives, seeing with what admiration strangers beheld
their fine young women, and what handsome presents were made to them, by
which their families were benefited, feeling also that their influence
was so powerful over the white men, have been latterly as anxious to
cherish and protect their infant girls as they were formerly cruelly bent
on destroying them. Therefore, if one sin has been, to a certain degree,
encouraged, a much greater one has been annihilated. Infanticide, the
former curse of this country, and the cause of its scanty population, a
crime every way calculated to make men bloody-minded and ferocious, and
to stifle every benevolent and tender feeling, has totally disappeared
wherever an intercourse has taken place between the natives and the crews
of European vessels.
The New Zealand method of "courtship and matrimony" is a most
extraordinary one; so much so, that an observer could never imagine any
affection existed between the parties. A man sees a woman whom he fancies
he should like for a wife; he asks the consent of her father, or, if an
orphan, of her nearest relation, which, if he obtains, he carries his
"intended" off by force, she resisting with all her strength; and, as the
New Zealand girls are generally pretty robust, sometimes a dreadful
struggle takes place; both are soon stripped to the skin, and it is
sometimes the work of hours to remove the fair prize a hundred yards. If
she breaks away, she instantly flies from her antagonist, and he has his
labour to commence again. We may suppose that if the lady feels any wish
to be united to her would-be spouse, she will not make too violent an
opposition; but it sometimes happens that she secures her retreat into
her father's house, and the lover loses all chance of ever obtaining her;
whereas, if he can manage to carry her in triumph into his own, she
immediately, becomes his wife. The women have a decided aversion to
marriage, which can scarcely be wondered at, when we consider how they
are circumstanced. While they remain single, they enjoy all the
privileges of the other sex; they may rove where they please, and bestow
their favours on whom they choose, and are entirely beyond control or
restraint; but when married their freedom is at an end; they become mere
slaves, and sink gradually into domestic drudges to those who have the
power of life and death over them; and whether their conduct be criminal
or exemplary, they are equally likely to receive a blow, in a moment of
passion, of sufficient force to end life and slavery together! There are
many exceptions to this frightful picture; and I saw several old couples,
who had been united in youth, who had always lived in happiness together,
and whose kind and friendly manner towards each other set an example well
worthy of imitation in many English families.