the saintly preachers of a doctrine they refused to practise, "that sinners could not expect to participate in the good things of this earth, which were reserved solely for the elect." This timely supply from the christian son of Neptune was of real service to us, considering that all my officers except one were sick and off duty, and the hospital list included an aggregate of twenty-two persons.

I inquired of Captain Duke if he entertained no apprehension for his personal safety whilst residing among the islanders, with so much property as he possessed. He replied that he did not now, but that on his first arrival, being very ill, and obliged to remain on shore for a few months to recover his health, he was then under some fear, and therefore applied by letter to the Missionaries for an asylum. They in reply excused themselves by saying he lived an immoral life, cohabiting with one of the native females. Now at New Zealand this sort of intercourse is not only lawful, but considered by their friends as highly honourable, and tantamount to marriage with us. In fact, these children of nature adhere to her primitive rules, which did not prescribe those ceremonies and rites since introduced. In a country that requires the performance of them, it is perfectly right and politic that they should be complied with; but it is unnecessary and absurd to insist on

them among people, who consider the mutual consent of parties as sufficiently valid and binding.

Had Captain Duke applied to the Missionaries to be united to king George's daughter according to the christian rites of matrimony, he would have been denied; as they had explicitly declared, on two former applications of a similar nature, that they would not sanction by their consent any union of the kind between Europeans and unchristian females. The cases were those of two sawyers in their employ, who cohabited with native women, at which they were offended, and exhorted them frequently to dissolve the connection. This the men refused to do, and expressed their willingness to be lawfully married to the objects of their affection; but the Missionaries, notwithstanding their abhorrence of concubinage, positively refused thus to remedy the evil. They severely rebuked the Rev. Mr. Kendal for marrying a Mr. Tapsel, an officer of a South-sea whaler, to one of these women. This seems to spring from the doctrine, that marriage is a religious sacrament and not a civil contract.

6th. To my surprise we had only one canoe alongside soon after daylight, whereas on former voyages I had generally about twenty or thirty each day. On inquiring into the cause, I learnt that this being the season for planting a species of potatoe called the comulla, all the natives

residing about the bay were absent at their plantations in the interior.

The doctor recommended that the sick should be landed, if a proper place for their reception could be procured. Though ill, I went on shore for that purpose, and met with a man named Johnson, who resided here with his wife, a New Zealand woman, and two children. He informed me that he had completed a house for his own use, with the exception of doors and hinges, which I might take possession of, if I thought proper to fit up the doors and windows. I viewed the house, and finding that it would answer, engaged it.

Upon my return on board, the Marquis of Wyemattee, king Charley, Ellis Moyhanger, and Phelim O'Rourke, requested permission to quit the expedition, as I was going shortly to the white men's country, where their services would be no longer required. I of course complied; and am happy to bear testimony to their good behaviour and utility while on board, being continually on the alert, and watchful to guard us against surprise from other islanders.

At parting, I rewarded their services to the full extent of their wishes. The Marquis and Phelim O'Rourke were ill of the disease prevailing among the crew, and in a very weak condition. The Tucopian and Tongataboo interpreters were much affected at losing their

New Zealand shipmates, and inquired when they should be relanded in their native islands. I told them that when the sick officers and seamen recovered, our ship would sail with them. They replied, "The sick will die, and no person be left to conduct the ship to our country; we shall then be left here, and if the New Zealanders do not eat us, we shall at least be compelled to remain in a land where there are no cocoa-nuts, yams, bananas, or sugar-canes." I desired them not to be down-hearted, assuring them that if I lived they should be conducted in safety to their respective homes, and if I died the ship would still be under orders to take them there. Some of them wept, saying if I died they should never get back, as the officers on board had never seen their country, and did not, like me, know the way thither.

I conversed with some of the officers on board to-day as to getting one of the whalers that might touch here to take the interpreters on board for a trifling sum, and land them as they passed their respective islands on the way to the fishery. To this arrangement the interpreters objected, saying that if they went in any other ship than the Research, the crews, being strangers to them, would not treat them well, and that perhaps the officers might put them ashore on some strange island, from whence they would have no opportunity of getting away.

The Church of England Missionaries settled here had a small schooner at anchor in the bay, built out of the wreck of the Brampton, which was lost here in 1823. It therefore occurred to me that if I could procure her to proceed with the interpreters, it would save a considerable expense to the Bengal Government, and enable me to reach Calcutta three months sooner than if I were obliged to sail in the Research with them, after myself and crew should be sufficiently recovered to allow of our resuming the voyage. I communicated this idea to Captain Duke, adding that I intended to write to the head of the mission on the subject; but he told me I should not succeed, assigning as a reason, that formerly the schooner had to pay port charges, on entering Port Jackson from New Zealand, on which a complaint was made by the Directors of the Church Missionary Society to the Secretary for the Colonies in London, who sent out orders to New South Wales, prohibiting such exaction for the future upon the missionary schooner Herald, so long as she was engaged in carrying supplies for the mission; but that this prohibition was not to extend to her when she entered the mercantile service, in which event no distinction whatever was to be made between her and other vessels.

As Captain Duke formed his opinion on no other ground, I gave little weight to it, and