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Chapter XXII.

The next day Jack was up betimes, sitting just outside the pah upon an enormous fungus, which was quite substantial enough to bear his weight, and which formed a capital stool, sketching a piece of the bush which had captivated him on the preceding day.

As he sat drawing, Colonel Bradshaw came up behind him and looked over his shoulder.

“Have you ever thought of taking up painting as a profession?” he asked.

“Never, sir,” answered Jack.

“What are your intentions with regard to the future?”

Jack Stanley hesitated for a moment, then he said,

“Since my father's death, things have come to my knowledge which have driven away all idea of settling to work until I have done one thing: I cannot explain to you what. My ultimate intention is, I believe, to remain out here, and seek for some employment.”

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“Why should you do that, when the employment is ready to your hand? Every man should do what his Maker has fitted him for. You are intended for an artist, or I am much mistaken.”

“I have had but few opportunities of trying what I can do,” Jack answered. “During the time we have been in the bush, I have at times felt as if I could be and do something.”

“How old are you, Jack?” asked the Colonel.

“A little over seventeen, sir.”

“I should have taken you for two or three years older.”

“I wish I were,” said Jack.

“Never wish that, my boy,” answered Colonel Bradshaw. “At your age you have missed fewer opportunities than most of us; your life is all before you, to make it a glorious life in the service of the Master to whom you are sworn.”

“I shall never do that, sir,” said Jack, sadly.

“Why not?” answered his friend. “God has made you clever, upright, and honourable: do not dare to spoil by your folly what He has intended for His own service.”

Jack had never heard Colonel Bradshaw speak so seriously before; and for a few minutes he made no reply. Then, as the remembrance of the strong feeling of his life returned, he said,

“I might have been born for all that you say, sir; but my father's death and subsequent events, of which I cannot page 206 speak, have put a stop to anything of the sort. I had ambition once: I have none now.”

“That is a wrong way for a young fellow like you to talk,” said Colonel Bradshaw. “You ought to have, and must have, the ambition to be of some use in your generation—to leave footprints behind you. Remember, Jack, that if you do not serve God and benefit the world, you serve the devil and injure the world. There is no such thing as a blameless life when it is a life of idleness. People seem to think that it is quite optional to them whether they are good or wicked; but it seems to me that we men, who pride ourselves upon our honour, have no choice left us but to serve the Master to whom we have been sworn in our infancy: we are the greatest scoundrels if we do not; and that is a name which men do not like to acquire.”

“I never thought of it so seriously before, sir,” said Jack, who had laid down his brush, and was gazing into the forest.

“Then think of it seriously now, my boy,” said the Colonel, kindly: “the world is all before you. Don't throw away the opportunity of a good life and a happy one; for there is no such thing as happiness apart from God. But,” continued he, after a pause, “I should warn you, if you take to painting as a profession, against idleness. There is no employment in which people are more tempted to join with those who make no account of life. I suppose every calling has its peculiar temptation.”

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“And you really think I might succeed as an artist, sir?” asked Jack of Colonel Bradshaw.

“I am quite sure of it,” he answered. “No boy ought to have arrived at the age of seventeen without making up his mind as to what he intends to be. As you have passed over so much necessary time, I think you ought to decide at once as to your future.”

Henceforth Jack Stanley worked more assiduously than before at painting. Colonel Bradshaw's words had a great effect upon him, as far as painting went. For the rest he tried to forget what had been said, because it made him feel uncomfortable and did not suit him.

They were intending to move on the following day—much to the apparent regret of the Maoris. Jack Stanley was by this time great friends with everybody in the pah, with the exception of the old tohunga, or priest, who seemed to look upon him with suspicion. Now, Jack had done nothing to his knowledge to give offence to this individual; but, as he said, he seemed naturally antagonistic to the whole race of tohungas. He had had too forcible a lesson of late voluntarily again to offend the prejudices of the Maori religionists; and, with the recollection of the unfounded dislike the tohunga of the heathen pah had taken to him, and the direful consequences it had produced for himself, he had been very careful to conciliate the present old gentleman. With this view he offered to take the old man's likeness; but the tohunga started away at the bare proposal—evidently page 208 considering Jack's talent as a sort of witchcraft when he had been shown several likenesses in his sketch-book. The New Zealanders are very superstitious indeed about witchcraft, and even their conversion to Christianity does not seem to have disabused their minds of this folly; so this tohunga thought he was perhaps bewitched, and he kept aloof from the Pakeas, and sulked with them, and looked supremely hideous, as sulky people do in general. The little children of the settlement, who had been so ready to make friends with Jack Stanley, saw that the tohunga was angry, and were half afraid of showing that they liked the young Englishman, and thus incurring the anger of the priest, and perhaps his revenge; and they stood aloof, and looked askance at Jack when the old man was in sight, and whispered together.

“Why do they let him remain in the village at all?” asked Jack. “I wonder the native teacher does not get rid of him. I am sure he can exercise no good influence upon the people.”

“That is the very question I asked of the teacher,” replied Colonel Bradshaw, “and he answered that the tohunga had once been so awful and powerful a man in the pah that the Maoris even now could not divest themselves of their feeling towards him. They were not sure that he could not do them a mischief, if he chose.”

It was strange, as showing how superstition still held the people, notwithstanding that they were professed Christians, that most of the women still wore round their page 209 necks the jade charms which, in the days of their heathenism, had been looked upon as so important.

Although the days were full of excitement and novelty, yet the evenings were always most enjoyable, when together the Europeans sat, comparing notes of the events of the day, and laughing over all the amusing little incidents they had met with. On the evening after the conversation I have spoken of, as Jack Stanley lay upon the floor of the cook-house, close by Colonel Bradshaw, he said,

“Do you know, I am wonderfully ignorant of the past history of New Zealand? Everything here is so entirely new to me that I cannot help wishing that I knew a little more about the country. You are not very sleepy, I am sure, sir, to-night. Would you mind telling me about it?”

“Telling you all I know I certainly have no objection to,” said Colonel Bradshaw, “and I cannot afford to be sleepy to-night, for I am keeping myself awake for a special purpose.”

“For what, sir?” asked Hope Bernard.

“Well, the chief has told me that he can guide us tonight to where we may perhaps catch an apteryx.”

“What is that?” asked Jack.

“You will see when we catch him,” said the Colonel, laughing. “I have never been able to meet with one yet, though I have been a great many years in the country, and they are becoming more scarce every year; so I am rather anxious to get hold of this one that the chief speaks of.”

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“Very well, sir; we will keep awake, and it will be a capital opportunity for you to tell us a story,” answered Jack.

“All right, Jack. I suppose you know how, to begin with, that New Zealand was discovered, or is supposed to have been discovered, by a Dutchman, named Abel Jansen Tasman? You know that a part of the New World is called Tasmania, named after this man?”

“I know there is a Tasmania, but I did not know why it was so called. I am wofully ignorant,” said Jack again.

“Well, Tasman merely saw the land whilst on an exploring expedition,” answered the Colonel; “that was in the year 1642, during the reign of our Charles the First. He can hardly be said to have really discovered New Zealand. It was on the 6th of October, in the year 1769, that Captain Cook re-discovered it effectually, for until then it was but a name.”

“And left his usual marks of pigs and potatoes,” observed Jack.

“Exactly, Master Impudence, and very good marks for a man to leave behind him. Potatoes have been of the greatest service to the Maoris. They are as much their staple means of living as they are that of the Irish. Captain Cook was a downright practical man, and a man of common sense, which is much better than a man of mere sentiment. You know the story of the two Scotchmen?”

“No; I do not know to what you refer.”

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“A Scotchman was the first to bring over to Australia a hive of bees. They have taken so kindly to the country that they have become a very profitable source of gain, as bees do generally. He was the common sense man. Another of his countrymen, from the sentimental wish to gaze upon something which would remind him of his own country, brought over the seed of the thistle, which, taking to the soil as kindly as the bees did to the climate, has become a positive nuisance, and spreads over acres of land, which might otherwise have been profitable.”

“What a fool he must have been!” said Bernard.

“Perhaps, on the contrary, he thought himself a poet,” replied Colonel Bradshaw. “But, happily for posterity, Captain Cook was of the common sense class, and acted with forethought. At the same time that one island was discovered by an Englishman, the other was seen by a Frenchman; then, as usual, the two nations running neck-and-neck together. However, the unhappy Frenchman, after making friends with the natives, was all at once eaten up by them. I suppose they got too fond of him.”

“I shall certainly keep them at arm's length, if that is the way they testify their affection to their friends,” said Jack. “I sometimes think that chief yonder licks his lips when he looks at me.”

“Some of the Englishmen were also eaten at this time; but this state of things did not continue for long. By frequent intercourse with the Europeans, the Maoris got to seeing them without attempting to eat them.”

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“Perhaps they did not like the taste of them, sir,” interrupted Jack. “Englishmen may not agree with everybody.”

“Anyhow, they left off eating them, Master Jack, and in 1814 Christianity was introduced into the country by the missionaries; and I trust that cannibalism was put an end to for ever. Shortly after this, people came to settle here, and a Government was instituted. There is rather a significant story told of this time. The native chiefs asked the British Government for a national flag. It was granted, and, upon being hoisted, was saluted with twenty-one guns by one of the English ships; whereupon, unable to support the honour of its independence, it disappeared, and has never been heard of or seen since. From that time New Zealand has had a British Government, and has been acknowledged as an English Dependancy.”

“But do you think the Maoris liked being taken possession of?” asked Jack.

“Perhaps they were not asked,” answered Colonel Bradshaw. “They have been treated as ignorant children, who must be taught to behave themselves; but I think now they begin to appreciate the advantages of civilization.”

Just then the chief entered the cook-house, and asked the Europeans if they were ready to go with him. Jack and Bernard did not know whether they were going in search of a beast, or a bird, or a fish; but they were page 213 ready to go in pursuit of anything; so they were quickly on their feet, and had seized their guns.

“We shall not want these; no need of guns,” said Colonel Bradshaw. “We are not going to attack an offensive creature. I expect our prey will be innocent enough.”

The young men looked at him for explanation, but he did not give any: only laughed; and Jack Stanley said,

“I believe it is some disgusting ourang-utang that we are going after.”

“I think a disgusting ourang-utang would hardly consent to be taken quietly; but come along,” said the Colonel, “let us go in pursuit of our quarry.”

“You must tell us when we see it, sir,” said Bernard, “or we shall not know it.”

But, unfortunately for my story, the quarry was not to be found that night. I think the Maori chief had reckoned without his host, and the apteryx was not to be found in the place where he was expected to be; and Bernard and Stanley went once more to rest as ignorant with respect to the apteryx as they had risen in the morning.