Page:Some Account of New Zealand.pdf/29

 CHAP. III.

capital of this part of the country, which is situated partly on the main land, and partly on a small island, is called Tippoonah, and consists in the whole of about an hundred dwellings. On the main the dwellings of the natives are surrounded each by a little patch of cultivated ground; but the island is appropriated to the residence of a chieftain and his court, where no cultivation is carried on. This island is so exceedingly abrupt in its ascent, and consequently so easily defended against an enemy, that it is frequently the refuge of the natives in