1840 he visited Sweden, where, in spite of the old national jealousies, he was received with the highest honours. At Lund he was invited to a public dinner, and was serenaded by the students of the college, who were proud of being the first to pay him such a mark of public honour.

On his return to Denmark, he published his "Picture Book without Pictures," a series of poetical imaginings, which met with great and deserved success. In the close of the same year he set out on a tour through Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor, and has given a vivid transcript of the impressions he received in his visit to these classic lands in his "Poet's Bazaar," published in 1841.

Since that time he has published several tales and dramatic pieces, and is said to meditate a collection of the National Traditions of Denmark. He enjoys the personal friendship of his own sovereign, and of several German princes; his countrymen are proud of his fame, and the youth of Denmark regard him with intense affection. In England his "Improvisatore," and his "O.T., or Life in Denmark," have taken a high rank among standard fictions, and the author is known to be as much gratified by his British reputation as by the more solid proofs of approbation he has received in his own land.

ADVENTURES IN NEW ZEALAND IN 1845.

Bay of Islands, New Zealand, August 6th, 1845.

As I have no doubt the proceedings in this part of the globe will much interest all parties in England, and more especially those connected with the press, I will endeavour to give you all the particulars. We remained at Auckland two days, during which time I went on shore with the officers of the 99th (who, by the by, were a most pleasant set of fellows), to see all that I could. Auckland is quite an infant colony, and, with the exception of the church, entirely built of wood, painted white, forming a very beautiful contrast to the brilliant verdure of the surrounding country. Everything appeared perfectly tranquil; and the natives of both sexes, and of all ages, were lounging about, with an air of great independence. The greater portion of them had their own costume, consisting solely of a large mat made of flax, and feathers stuck in their hair; some few had blankets. They were all tattooed more or less; some very beautifully. The men are really a very fine specimen of the genus homo. The women, though infinitely superior to those of New South Wales, are, nevertheless, very inferior to the men. They are a very intelligent people, and very friendly and kind-hearted, notwithstanding they have many barbarous customs, and carry on their wars in a most sanguinary manner, sparing neither man, woman, nor child, and frequently even eating the chiefs of the tribe against whom they are fighting. They are particularly fond of, and kind to their children; they never think of striking them, more especially the boys, whom they indulge in every possible way, to make them bold, as they say, and become good warriors; and they are inspired fr their very infancy with a deadly hatred towards opposite tribes.

We left Auckland with a fair wind, and steered our course to Cararacki, the scene of the previous outrages. We found the ship, Staines Castle, at anchor, with two companies of the 58th regiment; also the Government brig, Victoria, H.M.S. Hazard, and the Velocity schooner, at anchor, awaiting our arrival. I went on shore at this place, desirous of ascertaining the devastation committed by the hostile natives. The place was completely sacked; the greatest portion of the houses either burnt or pulled down. The only building which appeared to have escaped the fury of the natives was the Catholic church, which, like all the other buildings, is built of wood. This circumstance appears rather suspicious, especially as the priest is a Frenchman, and has been strongly suspected of intriguing with the natives; and this suspicion was increased by his remaining there unmolested when the place was abandoned.

The position of the town is quite military, and might have been, with common caution, defended by very few soldiers against a very superior number. The town is situated in a valley close to the sea-side, and surrounded by hills, on the two highest of which is a block-house, the flagstaff being on the highest. Had these positions been properly defended, the town would never have been taken; and it is for the neglect of this important duty that Lieutenants Barclay and Campbell were placed under arrest, and brought to a court-martial.

The natives displayed great generalship in the mode of their attack on the place. They were in ambush the whole of the night in some brushwood, on the slope of the very hill on which the block-house was built. At break of day they sent a party to the left to open a fire, to divert the attention of the troops from the block-house. This movement had the desired effect; the greater portion of the soldiers rushed from the position towards the firing. The consequence was, those natives that were hid under the hill rushed on the block-house, killed the four soldiers who refused to surrender, and immediately took possession of it. No effort was made to retake it, consequently the natives soon had possession of the whole place, which was now abandoned to its fate.

Colonel Despard having minutely surveyed the place, and finding it completely abandoned by the natives, the portion of the 96th regiment. which had been staying here for some time was ordered to embark on board the Staines Castle, and the whole of the ships were directed to sail at daylight the following morning to the Kitty Kitty River, to disembark the troops as near as possible to the enemy's pah, which was situated in a strong position, fifteen miles from the head, or source, of the above river. A pah is a native fortification, formed of trees cut down, and formed into a square, the spaces filled up with flax-leaf, bound with koraddi. The trees are generally two or three rows deep, with ditches between each. Their huts, of flax, are inside the square, which is perfectly bullet-proof.

The ship, British Sovereign, was the first to weigh anchor; and it was scarcely daylight when she had all her sails set, and walked away with a fine breeze. The other vessels followed at some distance. I was, as were all the officers also, in my berth, half asleep, half awake, when suddenly we were fully awoke by the vessel giving a tremendous bump, then another-and another. Cabin doors flew open; out rushed all, some with one leg in their trowsers, others with both legs out. A rush was made on deck; there the scene was still worse. The vessel had struck on the Brampton reef; she was rolling and bumping tre

mendously. The decks were crowded with troops and sailors. The sails were flapping about in all directions. Nothing could be done. The other vessels were out of sight, from the thickness of the weather. We only had three boats; and one of these was stove. There was not the slightest chance of getting the vessel off, as the wind was freshening, and blowing right on the reef. We had no big gun on deck to make signal. Muskets were fired, and the ensign pulled up and down. She was now breaking up fast. The rudder parted; the quarter-deck was forced up into pieces with terrific crashes; the windlass gone. At length the Hazard's boats arrived, and those of the other vessels. A general rush was about to be made to them by the troops, which would have caused great loss of life, had it not been prevented. At length, with great difficulty, and great coolness, all the troops were got off. The next thing to think of was to save what we could before she went down. I went down to get a few trifles I had in the cabin. My trunk was in the hold; but there was no getting at that. The cabin was in confusion; wine-bottles and brandy kicking about; sailors grabbing everything they could lay their hands on. Things were thrown one after the other into the boats. The chronometers were saved, and sent on board the Hazard. I lost many things, as did also several others. When all hopes of saving the vessel had ceased, the wind suddenly chopped round; we now let go everything, and she went screaming off the reef, a sad spectacle. A few hours previous everything on board appeared comfortable, but now everything looked wretched, as also everybody; the pumps were kept constantly going until she was hove down in the mud, at a place called Wapoo. As there appeared to be no chance of anything like comfort, I determined to leave her for the time, and accompany the troops on their expedition against Hone Heki. The whole of the officers, as well as the Colonel indeed, particularly requested me to accompany them; I therefore gladly accepted the offer, though there was great risk attending it. I took nothing with me but a blanket and a double-barrelled piece, lent to me by Captain Snodgrass, of the 96th regiment. The first night we stopped at a small missionary station, occupied by a Mr. Kemp, a missionary; that night I slept in a boat, with my blanket over me. We staid two days at this place to get the big guns, such as they were, put in order, as they intended to try the effect of these on Mr. Heki's pah, as Colonel Hulm failed in taking it before.

I had not much opinion of them myself, as I thought them too small, and not properly mounted. The guns were all manned by volunteers, under the command of Lieutenant Willmott, son of the Governor of Van Diemen's Land. At length, all being in readiness, we advanced; we had ten miles to go that day, through scrubb and mud, to a place called Wymatta, and, short as the distance was, it occupied sixteen hours, and then was only accomplished with great difficulty. Sometimes a cart would break down with all the stores in it; another time a gun would get upset; then there were streams to pass, holes, and a deep wood at one part to go through. Towards night it came on to rain very heavily; we were only four miles from Wymatta, and we might be six hours before we would reach it, as we were then at a dead halt. Another waggon, drawn by eight bullocks, having broken down, I determined to chance the ducks and push on, as I was drenched; I therefore went ahead, got

into Wymatta five hours before the advanced guard, and found myself in comfortable quarters.

The next day I paid for my night's entertainment, and then took up my quarters with Lieutenant Phillpotts, of H.M. ship Hazard. We used to mess one day with the 99th, and another with the 58th. We had a very merry time of it at Wymatta. We staid there nearly a weekmuch longer than we expected to remain. During our stay I went up with some natives to Tometi Walker's pah, to bleed a chief, who was badly wounded. The ball had entered by the side of the right eye, forcing it completely out, and went out by the left; which eye it also deprived of sight. The pah was about four miles from Wymatta, and only two from Hone Heki's.

I was very much delighted with the country about Wymatta,-all thick woodland, beautifully undulating. On my return I met or rather fell in with about three hundred natives, all armed with different weapons, but the greater portion with double-barrelled guns, many with long tomahawks, spears, &c. Some had old-fashioned swords, some soldiers' caps belonging to those that had been killed in the previous skirmish; a great many had feathers stuck in their heads. They were a savage-looking set, being nearly naked, with the exception of a mat or blanket. The greater portion of these people were Heki's men, and though they knew I was with the troops who were now about to attack them, they never offered to molest me. One old chief, indeed, told me, with a grin, to get off the horse, which demand I was about to comply with, when the guide I had with me said something to him, (I supposed, explained the errand I had been on,) when he made signs for me to continue my journey, which, I assure you, I was too glad to do, nor indeed did I feel myself secure until I was within our own lines again.

When I arrived at Wymatta again, all expressed surprise that I should have ventured so far beyond the lines, and that I was not either butchered or taken prisoner. The rain still continued to fall very heavy, and detained the troops from advancing; but it was determined they should move forward the following morning, let the weather be as it might. At daylight, therefore, the following morning, the troops were all under arms, and in about an hour afterwards they were on the march to Heki's pah, which was only six miles off, but in consequence of the difficult approach to it, it took the whole day to accomplish.

After a tedious day's march, but without meeting with any opposition from the enemy, (which rather surprized us all, as we fully expected to have had a brush with them,) we arrived in front of Heki's pah, and took up a position in a shallow valley, in order not to be too much exposed to the fire from the pah, which would have been the case had we taken a higher one. On our right was a high hill covered with wood; it commanded a full view of the pah, and parties on it could fire into it, as it was within half-musket shot. Accordingly a body of friendly natives, with about thirty soldiers, were stationed on this hill, so as to flank our position, and prevent Heki's men from taking it, which, however, they did. The tents were pitched in a circle, fires lighted, and pickets stationed all round to prevent any surprise by the enemy, which was fully expected.

The guns, after a great deal of labour and trouble, were placed in battery; they were under the command of Lieut. Willmott, aide-decamp to Sir Willmot, Governor of Van Diemen's Land. Captain

Marlow, of the Engineers, superintended the forming of the batteries; both these officers had very hard work of it, which was very much augmented by the want of proper materials and persons to carry on the work. As soon as they were ready, the whole of them were fired at once against the pah, with little or no effect, though it was reported it killed a woman and a pig; the noise they made was enough to do this. Three of the guns capsized as soon as they were fired, for the want of recoil. The volley was answered from the pah with "O you humbugs!" in good English. Thus ended the operations on our side for the night. Not a shot was fired from the pah, but they kept up speeching and ringing a bell the whole night: this bell they brought from Cararacki. The Colonel's interpreter was told to listen to the nature of the speeches, for we could hear them as plainly as if they were in the camp; they have tremendous voices. The interpreter, Mr. Clark, son of a missionary, said the chiefs were telling their men to be brave and fight to the last. They had a war-dance and song also that night. I have seen both these performances, and they are really most fiendish, especially the songs; I think they are even worse than those of New South Wales. It is needless to recount the occurrences that took place every day, as they were generally much the same, consisting of firing on both sides, and partial sorties on the part of the natives. They fired occasionally two big guns they had, but they did little mischief, as they could not elevate or depress them. I must not omit to mention that our big guns had very little effect on the pah; a breach seemed out of the question, and it would have been perfect madness to attempt to storm before one was made. We had now been a week in front of the pah, constantly firing on it with big guns with very little effect; we had already lost twenty-one men killed and wounded by skirmishes, without having gained any advantage. The troops were suffering dreadfully from the rain and severe duty. In this state of affairs Col. Despard was rather at a loss how to act: at one time he made up his mind to take it by escalade, (a mad scheme ;) the scaling-ladders were made, and the storming-party told off; the morning on which it was to take place turned out dreadfully rainy, so the project was abandoned for the time. It was next proposed to sap it, but this was found impracticable. Lieut. Phillpotts, son of the Bishop of Exeter, a gallant young fellow, (though many had tried to make him out the reverse,) volunteered to fasten a bag of powder to the pah and so blow it open: this was also abandoned.

It was now proposed to send down to the Hazard for one of her guns, a thirty-two-pounder, to try if that would make a breach. The Commissary, Mr. Turner, was accordingly despatched for it. It would scarcely be believed, however, that before Colonel Despard's order for the gun had time to reach its destination, he wanted to attack the pah by assault, and was only dissuaded from it by some of the officers, who very justly thought it was better to wait for the big gun now it was sent for. The next day the Commissary arrived with the news that the gun had reached Wymatta he ordered the Commissary to write a letter to countermand it. The letter was written and about to be sent, when he changed his mind again, and let it come on. Every one was now looking out anxiously for the arrival of the gun. I went on the hill overlooking the pah, which commanded also an extensive view of the country, and about noon w it wending its way, slowly drawn by eight bullocks, one of which

d a ball through the neck as soon as it came within reach of the