Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/221

Rh ammunition and supplies with their enemies in order that they can fight on equal terms."

"Did the Maoris do that?" Fred asked in astonishment.

"Certainly they did, on several occasions that are known to the white residents. While they were at war with the English they used to send notice whenever they were about to make an attack, and they thought we did not treat them fairly in not doing the same. After the last war one of our officers asked a Maori chief why it was that when he had command of a certain road he did not attack the ammunition and provision trains. 'Why, you fool!' answered the Maori, much astonished, 'if we had stolen your powder and food, how could you have fought?'

"Once when one chief insulted another, the latter remarked that if chief number one had not known his own superiority in arms and ammunition, he would not have dared to behave in such a manner. Thereupon chief number one divided his fighting material into two equal parts, and sent one part to his enemy with an invitation to war.

"Sometimes two villages would get up a little war, and after fighting each other all day, the inhabitants would come out of their forts towards evening and talk over the day's sport in the most friendly way. The next morning they would begin again, and keep it up during the daytime, to meet in the evening for a social conference. An old missionary used to tell how, in one of these local wars, he had known the defenders of a fort to send out to their assailants that they were short of provisions, and the latter would immediately send in a supply of food. The same missionary said he had performed divine service one Sunday between two hostile forts, the inhabitants of which came out to worship, meet in the most perfect amity, and return, to resume fighting on Monday morning.

"It is estimated," said the gentleman, "that between the years 1820 and 1840 more than thirty thousand Maoris perished in these inter-tribal wars. Many perished in the wars with the English, and many others have died in consequence of their contact with civilization, as in the islands of the Pacific, some from intemperance, and others from smallpox, measles, and kindred diseases, which were brought here by the whites. At present wars among them have ceased, cannibalism is unknown, fully one-half of the adults can read and write, and two-thirds of them belong to the churches."