DECEMBER 24, 1835.
In the morning prayers were read in the native tongue to the whole
family. After breakfast I rambled about the gardens and farm. This
was a market-day, when the natives of the surrounding hamlets bring
their potatoes, Indian corn, or pigs, to exchange for blankets,
tobacco, and sometimes, through the persuasions of the
missionaries, for soap. Mr. Davies's eldest son, who manages a farm
of his own, is the man of business in the market. The children of
the missionaries, who came while young to the island, understand
the language better than their parents, and can get anything more
readily done by the natives.
A little before noon Messrs. Williams and Davies walked with me to
part of a neighbouring forest, to show me the famous kauri pine. I
measured one of these noble trees, and found it thirty-one feet in
circumference above the roots. There was another close by, which I
did not see, thirty-three feet; and I heard of one no less than
forty feet. These trees are remarkable for their smooth cylindrical
boles, which run up to a height of sixty, and even ninety feet,
with a nearly equal diameter, and without a single branch. The
crown of branches at the summit is out of all proportion small to
the trunk; and the leaves are likewise small compared with the
branches.
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