The Adventures Of Kimble Bent

The last quarter-century of Kimble Bent's life has not carried much adventure. Living amongst the Maoris, he acquired some reputation as a “medicine-man.” During his wild life in Maoridom he had become expert in the rude pharmacopœia of the bush, and learned to extract potent medicines from the plants of the forest. Native herbs and tree-bark and leaves, prepared in various ways, are exceedingly valuable remedies. The knowledge of these herbal remedies, gained from many a tohunga and wise woman of the bush tribes, the white man now turned to practical account. His fame as a doctor reached Parihaka, the village of Te Whiti, the Prophet of the Mountain. The prophet's people sent for the white medicine-man to come and heal the sick. He spent a week in Parihaka, and returned to his Taiporohenui hut with more money in his pocket than he had possessed since he left his old home-town of Eastport to see life in England. “And I was luckier than most pakeha doctors,” says the old man, “for none of my patients died!”...FROM THE BOOKS.

'The Adventures of Kimble Bent' is a historical account of Kimble Bent, a British Army soldier who lived with the New Zealand Maori people. Having deserted his Regiment in 1865, Kimble evaded his fellow British troops and Colonial irregulars who are hunting him for the reward on his head. He spent the next thirteen years on the run from his fellow whites and went to live with the Maori people who were under the famed Chief Titokowaru. Bent became fully integrated into Maori society and even took part in the famed Titokowaru's war. When at last he came out of his exile, he had almost forgotten how to speak in English. But this doesn't mean that he doesn't have a tale to tell. The book captures a series of interviews that the author James Cowan had with Kimble over a period of seven years since 1903. The author also incorporates other independent accounts of events at the time and gives a rich historical picture of the Maori people and their culture.

Excerpt from The Adventures of Kimble Bent: A Story of Wild Life in the New Zealand Bush This book is not a work of fiction. It is a plain narrative of real life in the New Zealand bush, a true story of adventure in a day not yet remote, when adventure in abundance was still to be had in the land of the Maori. Every name used is a real one, every character who appears in these pages had existence in those war days of forty years ago. Every incident described here is a faithful record of actual happenings; some of them may convince the reader that truth can be stranger than fiction. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.