Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 2.djvu/135

] after them proved fruitless, it is most likely that those who escaped the assault of the New Zealanders perished in their attempt to reach New South Wales, or were murdered by the savages that inhabit Pitt Island.

As Captain Cécille's observations and description of Chatham Island and its anchorages may prove useful to our whalers or other vessels that may have occasion to touch there, I have given them in the Appendix to this volume, being the best information we at present possess.

The people with whom the French had been engaged, were not the aborigines of the island, but part of a large number of New Zealanders who had been taken to the island in an English vessel, the Lord Rodney, amounting to between four and five hundred, whom the inhabitants of the island, of about an equal number, allowed quietly to settle there. A scarcity of provisions soon followed their arrival, when the New Zealanders fell upon the aborigines, and killed above two hundred for food: the rest they reduced to slavery.

The present population consists chiefly of inhabitants of East Cape and Port Nicholson, and a few turbulent natives of Teranaki. They arrived at Chatham Island, under the command of Hépatou. Since his death, in 1836, they divided into two tribes: the one staid at Wangaroa, under Emnaré, the other established itself at Wai Tangui, with Eitouna, as its chief. Chatham Island is called