Also from the Diary of M. Gaimard

On the 17th of March, we climbed up to the pa of the Toui tribe. This stronghold, which had just been abandoned, stands on the top of a very high rock. It is quite inaccessible from the sea, and on the land side it can only be reached by a very narrow exposed path. A deep ditch and a double line of high palisades of great strength and placed close together which defend the entrance, must have made the fort really impregnable before the introduction of firearms. The houses built within it are very low and very numerous. In time of war they would hold great quantities of arms and provisions such as were required to withstand those long memorable sieges that, according to Zealand folklore, took place and became the occasion of so many glorious deeds, which one can easily believe when one knows the physical strength and the extraordinary valour of these brave islanders. But splendid deeds are not enough for a race to gain the renown that it deserves; there must also be the historian to save their story from oblivion.

While we were in the Bay of Islands most of the warriors had gone on a military expedition; we were told that they were to attack the inhabitants of Shouraki. No doubt it was this force, consisting of some forty war canoes each carrying from twenty to forty men, that we had seen on the 4th of March, when we were off Cape Kokako (Cook's Cape Brett). To make slaves of all the prisoners and to eat all the foes killed in the fight; such is the twofold object of these expeditions, which are frequent and eagerly desired. A Zealander, belonging to the tribe in whose midst the missionaries live, was put to death a few days before our arrival simply because he expressed disapproval of this latest war.

This is not the place in which to speak of the language of the inhabitants of New Zealand; but one cannot resist one remark about the Bay of Islands, viz:—that in counting, the Zealanders reckon by elevens instead of by tens.