"Dromedary," was sometimes admitted, during the passage, into the cabin,
and asked by the officers to take a glass of wine, when he always tasted
it, with perfect politeness, though his countenance strongly indicated
how much he disliked it. George of Wangaroa, the chief who headed the
attack on the "Boyd," was the only New Zealander that Cruise met with
who could be induced to taste grog without reluctance; and he really
liked it, though a very small quantity made him drunk, in which state he
was quite outrageous. His natural habits had been vitiated by having
served for some time in an English ship.

It is probable, however, that the sobriety of this people has been
hitherto principally preserved by their ignorance of the mode of
manufacturing any intoxicating beverage. Even the females, it would
appear, have some of them of late years learned the habit of drinking
grog from the English sailors; and Captain Dillon gives an account of a
priestess, who visited him on board the "Besearch," and who, having
among several other somewhat indecorous requests, demanded a tumbler of
rum, quaffed off the whole at a draught as soon as it was set before
her.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote K: Probably Rangatai, although no chief of that name is
known.]

[Footnote L: The Rev. Samuel Marsden, who was appointed chaplain to the
convict settlement of New South Wales in 1793, and who held the first
divine service in New Zealand, on Christmas Day, 1814.]

[Footnote M: Koro-koro.]