Earle's relatively short account of his life in northern New Zealand during the first years of colonisation offers fascinating insights into the psyche of his contemporaries - both Maori and European.
The Maori emerge as being savage, cannibalistic and at times irrational, but it is also clear that Earle admires their quick wits and desire to improve their knowledge.
The Europeans (and especially the Christian missionaries) emerge as being self-serving and somewhat less honourable than the natives who are their supposed inferiors.
Earle's description of the political struggles within and between Maori tribes demonstrates how the culture of utu (loosely translatable as "revenge") dominated the pre-European Maori mindset. Numerous intrigues, bluffs and alliances occur during the nine months he lived with a north-western tribe.
I read the whole thing start to finish without stopping, but I am keenly interested in this period in my country's history as I am writing a novel based on events that occurred nearby. The book would be less interesting to a non-historian, or to someone from outside New Zealand.
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