A CANNIBAL FEAST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18664, 21 March 1924, Page 10

A CANNIBAL FEAST.

INTERESTING OLD LETTER.

NEW ZEALAND IN 1839.

When the' Prime Minister was in England recently, he was given a letter, dated September 7, 1839, written by Frederick Dickinson from the Bay of Islands to his uncle in England, In the letter the "writer describes how he left Sydney for the purpose of trading in New Zealand, going to the Bay of Islands with that object in view. He found, however, that a ship had . been there before him and had taken practically the whole of the produce available, so he went down the coast to the Bay of Plenty. ■

While there he saw a cannibal feast. The Ngapuhis had come down and attacked the natives of the Bay of Plenty. Both sides were armed with muskets, and did not come to close quarters, the Ngapuhis retreating after having lost 73 killed and 31 prisoners. The writer says: '• There was another brig and a ship lying in the bay, so we all agreed to go on shore; and of all the horrible sights I ever witnessed this was the most horrible. They were baking 10 of .their enemies for a feast, and one of the old chiefs, going up to a prisoner, actually plucked out his eyes, while he was alive and ate them! You will wondei how we dared go among them. In fact, I did not like it, for there had been a ship's crew murdered about four months before; but as this tribe was friendly to the white men, we ventured, the captain and some of the passengers taking presents of powder' and, ball, and a lew muskets, which pleased the savages verymuch all shouting, 'Caby, cany, pu* (kapai, kapai—very good, very good, the gun). They gave us to understand, after a short stay, that we had better be going, as they did not lUte u s to see them at their victims. So we took the hint, and went on board." Describing the natives of the country, the writer says: "The New Zealanaers are a fine, powerfully-made race of men, and some of the women are very pretty. I think in the course of a short time that New Zealand will be a very flourishing colony. It is a fine corn country, and is likely to become the granary of New Holland." % Mr. Massey has forwarded the letter to the librarian, Mr. Johannes C Andersen, to be placed in the New Zealand collection in the Alexander Turnbull Library.