Page:Some Account of New Zealand.pdf/56

Rh evidently to be a secondary consideration. Their situation for some time was extremely perilous, and that of the natives on board the ship truly pitiable, till they found that the boat arrived in time to rescue the women and children from a watery grave; then their distress gave way to the most tumultuous joy: and when the poor half-drowned shivering females and their children were brought on board, the congratulations on their escape, and their kind and soothing attentions, were such as would by no means have disgraced the moral character of the most refined European; those who had remained on board immediately stripping themselves of their mats to cover their friends or relatives, who had a much greater occasion for them.

It was upon this occurrence only that the natives received any strong liquor; I prevailed upon them to take a little wine, which their confidence in me induced them to receive as a medicine to prevent the effects of cold; shewing, however, the greatest Rh