the following day, in honour of the chief's return home.

"We slept that night in the chief's house; but the next morning a number
of the natives were set to work to build one for ourselves, of the same
form with that in which the chief lived, and nearly of the same size.

"In the course of this day, many other chiefs arrived at the village,
accompanied by their families and slaves, to welcome Aimy home, which
they did in the usual manner. Some of them brought with them a quantity
of water-melons, which they gave to me and my comrade. At last they all
seated themselves upon the ground to have their feast; several large
pigs, together with some scores of baskets of potatoes, tara, and
water-melons, having first been brought forward by Aimy's people. The
pigs, after being drowned in the river and dressed, had been laid to
roast beside the potatoes. When these were eaten, the fire that had
been made the night before was opened, and the body of the slave girl
taken out of it, which they next proceeded to feast upon in the eagerest
manner. We were not asked to partake of it, for Aimy knew that we had
refused to eat human flesh before. After the feast was over, the
fragments were collected, and carried home by the slaves of the
different chiefs, according to the custom which is always observed on
such occasions in New Zealand."

The house that had been ordered to be built for Rutherford and his
companion was ready in about a week; and, having taken up their abode in
it, they were permitted to live, as far as circumstances would allow,
according to their own customs. As it was in this village that
Rutherford continued to reside during the remainder of the time he spent
in New Zealand, we may consider him as now fairly domesticated among his
new associates, and may therefore conveniently take the present
opportunity of completing our general picture of the country and its
inhabitants, by adverting to a few matters which have not yet found a
place in our narrative.

No doubt whatever can exist as to the relationship of the New Zealanders
to the numerous other tribes of the same complexion, by whom nearly all
the islands of the South Sea are peopled, and who, in physical
conformation, language, religion, institutions, and habits, evidently
constitute only one great family.

Recent investigations, likewise, must be considered to have
sufficiently proved that the wave of population, which has spread itself
over so large a por