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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
Wffli 0 arura 9 ' h&y& and rivers , small craft ; Sandy Bay ; Kmmleslyj or Smith Bay , doubtful ; Port Pegasus ; and others between Stewart ' s aiid South Island . Of many of these the particulars are not fully known ; and little is known of the western coast of South Island .
In sum , similar in position and natural features , about eqtial in extent , with a finer climate , New Zealand seems intended by Nature to he the Great Britain of the Southern
hemisphere . There is only one thing which has deterred more regular settlers from so tempting a country , and that is—cannibalism . From the character
given of the natives , the respectable farmer or the worthy merchant have believed , that , if they ventured to New Zealand , a country where they 66 serve their cousin-Germans
up m dishes , he might appear at the table of some great chief , a melancholy play upon MarvelPs joke . " And sit , not as a guest , but as a meat . " It may be shown , however , that the ferocity of the New Zealander is little more than a
bug-bear , so far as the European is concerned . The origin of the revolting custom of cannibalism is involved in the greatest obscurity . It appears to nave prevailed in
Untitled Article
the earliest stages of society , in most parts of the world ; and there are traces of the practice throughout Polynesia . Even the mild inhabitants of Tahiti offered human sacrifice ,
and some parts of the rite on such occasions seemed the relics of a formal cannibalism . A fertile soil , by softening the manners , as well as by supplying abundance of more legitimate food , probably destroyed the custom . More near the
Southern extremity of Asia , from which it seems impossible to doubt that the Polynesians derive their origin , and those customs which are not purely local , * a similar ferocity prevails . The Dyak , the inhabitant of Borneo , is obliged to
possess a human head before he can be considered qualified for marriage . f This fierce nation shows the same capacity for improvement that is observable in the Polynesians generally , but particularly in the New Zealander . Before we come to conclusions unfavourable to such a capacity ,
* See Dr Lang ' s very able and interesting treatise on the Language and Migrations of the Polynesian Nation , "' + ' See The Eastern Seas , or Voyages and Adventures in the Indian Archipelago , in ' i 392-3 &-i& 4 , &c ., by George Windsor Earl , M . R . A . S . 8 vo . pp . 461 , Allen and ? Co . We are glad to have an opportunity of testifying to the pleasure and profit , we have derived from the perusal of this work . Mr Earl was personally engaged in the busy traffic of the Archipelago , and at one time commanded a v «* sel manned by natives , himself the only European on board . His writing is cliaracterized by a thorough familiarity with the scenes he describes , by an agreeable vivacity and graphic power , and by a humane and liberal insight into human nature in its most varied aspects . This volume is a valuable addition to our scanty knowledge of those seas * ' ¦
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a&B The Vohnkatioh of New Zealand .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 1, 1837, page 346, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1837/page/50/
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