The plea herewith set forth, by the writer of this little work, for submitting such to the currently literary-overdosed public, is this: that for several years past he has considered that something was needed to commemorate the rough old times which our sealers and whalers had in New Zealand, prior to anything at all approaching settlement had taken place. Indeed, were no literary effort towards that end made by someone who had had acquaintance with the latest of the survivors of these harbingers of civilization, evidently very soon now, through the total lapse of contemporaneous testimony, every detail of their interestingly realistic life would be confiscated to oblivion. Such would be a pity, as there is no phase of activity can be said to be altogether uninstructive, either as good to adopt, or as evil to eschew. Pray, let not the great blemish in our national character, in this particular instance, be perpetrated, of looking superciliously upon age!—for in that descending stage of life's round was the remnant of these mariners in question when, by successive immigrants, they became first known. Candidly, no one can state that, despite the rather uncouth mannerism of those old tars, that, generally, there were not, underlying the rugged surface, evidence of an upright and manly principle which, on extended intimacy, begat respect, if not a something almost akin to admiration. Well, forsooth! it should have been, for the honor, as well as, likewise, for the subsequent serenity of New Zealand, had that those transacting business afterwards with the Maori, treated them as honestly and as single-mindedly as, evidently, did those much less pretentious associates. The old Natives, even to this present day, are not unfrequently heard to make avowal, that their first dealings with the Pakehas have, with them, ever since remained to be regarded as a long way the most satisfactory, adding in their now corrupt vernacular—“Te wailler, him say, him too this; then him too it—him say he no too this, then him no too it. Hah! no humbug wit te wailler!”

No doubt but that there are many obliquely-sighted moralists, with no catholicity of view whatever, who may feel indisposed to accord the smallest modicum of credit to a class that which, by the most of them, lapses touching on canons of ethics were taken. To wit: such as carousing freely, or yielding, without the application page break of a sturdy moral brake, to illicit sexual relations. But this much needs to be considered: that in that day and generation, the first of these infractions decidedly was conventional; and the second, one in which a ruling principle is somewhat involved, such as with impunity will not tolerate any attribute to be set aside. Ah! hard enough to state, nevertheless, harder to gainsay, is, that misdemeanours there are not a few more heinous, perhaps, than those customarily selected for special condemnation which, when not brought to light, embolden the contravenes thereof to arrogate themselves as exemplars of purity!

In a word, those old rollicking, seafaring blades served a necessary end. Without much doubt at all about it, they supplied a large share of that which was essential towards paving the way for the practical settlement of New Zealand by their fellow-countrymen. Thereupon, should what this brochure contains go any way in the direction of helping to bear those manful old salts in kind remembrance, its purpose will have been realised.

Sonnet on Mount Egmont.—a Reminiscence.
Vision of loveliness, fair Egmont, thou:
Thy form displays such rarity of grace,
That, ever hailed with welcome, is thy face.
In every phase thy beauty strikes, somehow.
I love to view thy hoary, tap'ring brow
Peeping above grey vapours girt embrace,
Or, in thy nudity, from crown to base;
In noon's clear calm, when springlets scarcely bow—
But, once, 'twas 'neath the chaste moon's silvern light
That, with thy stately air I most was charm'd.
On foggy bank, two lover's had a seat,
And in thy presence interchanged their plight.
Ah! not for long though went that bond unharmed—
On one, drops soon, the sickle of fell Fate!