en. But, for reasons which will presently
appear, they have hardly any importance for the history of the Church.
One Rembrandtesque passage may be quoted in which Marsden narrates his
visit to the _pa_ of Pataua, near Whangarei. This _pa_ was built high
above the sea, upon rocks which had "the appearance of an old abbey in
ruins.... I was conducted up the narrow pass [writes Marsden] which I
could not ascend without assistance, the path was so steep and narrow.
When I had reached the top, I found a number of men, women, and
children sitting round their fires roasting snappers, crawfish, and
fern root. It was now quite dark. The roaring of the sea at the foot
of the _pa_, as the waves rolled into the deep caverns beneath the
high precipice upon which we stood, whose top and sides were covered
with huts, and the groups of natives conversing round their fires, all
tended to excite new and strange ideas for reflection."

[3] I have ventured to substitute this term for the "Mercury Bay" of
the original. It is clear that Marsden thought himself much further
north than he really was. Dr. Hocken proposes to read "Towranga,"
which, of course, means the same as my own emendation.

[Illustration: VIEW OF PAIHIA.]

Marsden's labours were indeed so great and so many-sided as to compel
the most sincere admiration. At one time he seems wholly given up to
trade, and on his first visit the Maoris were astonished to see him busy
with the aristocratic Nicholas in salting barrels of fish for export to
Sydney. At another time he is the adventurous explorer bearing
cheerfully the extremes of hot and cold, of wet and dry. Yet again he is
the sagacious counsellor and the resolute leader of men; and with it all
he is the warm-hearted Christian who can stay in the midst of his
labours to indite a letter to England, full of spiritual force and
sweetness. Wherever he passes he finds his God a very present help; he
lies down at night in the wet grass with feelings of adoring wonder at
the mysteries of redemption, and before his closing eyes there rises the
vision of the Cross of Jesus.

At his departure in December, Marsden left behind him a peaceful
community and an apparently prosperous mission. Butler had during the
year put into the ground the first plough ever used in New Zealand. The
Maoris were quiet, and the missionaries went to their beds at night
without any sense of insecurity. Four of the newly visit