inate
and useless.

I once saw a sturdy blacksmith in the prime of life, sitting in the midst
of a group of savages, attempting to expound to them the mysteries of our
holy redemption--perplexing his own brains, as well as those of his
auditors, with the most incomprehensible and absurd opinions. How much
better would he have been employed in teaching them how to weld a piece
of iron, or to make a nail!

What causes much disapprobation here, is the contemptuous manner in which
they treat their own countrymen, as they receive most of them on the
outside of their stockade fence.

On our return from Marsden Vale, our savage friends laughed heartily at
us. They had warned us of the reception we should meet with; and their
delight at seeing us again formed a strange contrast to that of their
Christian teachers, whose inhospitable dwellings we determined never to
reenter.

CHAPTER XV.

A VISIT FROM HONGI.

A few days after my visit to the missionaries, while we were busily
employed in constructing our huts, assisted by about fifty natives, on a
sudden a great commotion took place amongst them. Each left his work and
ran to his hut, and immediately returned armed with both musket and
cartouch box: apparently all the arms in the village were mustered, and
all seemed ready for immediate use. On inquiring into the cause of all
these war-like preparations, I was informed that Hongi and his chief men
were crossing the bay in several large war canoes; and though he was
considered as a friend and ally, yet, as he was a man of such desperate
ambition, and consummate cunning, it was considered necessary to receive
him under arms, which he might take either as a compliment, or as a proof
of how well they were aware of the guest they were receiving.

This man, Hongi, was a most extraordinary character, and a person I had
long had a great curiosity to see, his daring and savage deeds having
often been the subject of conversation in New South Wales. In his own
country he was looked upon as invulnerable and invincible. In the year
1821 he had visited England, during which he had been honoured by having
a personal interview with George the Fourth, and had received from His
Majesty several valuable presents; amongst others, were a superb suit of
chain armour, and a splendid double-barrelled gun. From possessing these
arms, so far superior to any of his neighbours, he looked upon himself
as impossible to be conquered, and comm