Peter Hemmingson - Cannibalism
Here are a few accounts of this revolting, subhuman practice, culturally institutionalised among pre-European Maori.
Hundreds more can be found if one goes looking.
Daniel Henry Sheridan, a member of a shore-based whaling party, describes the defence of the Nga-Motu Pa from 28 January to 23 February 1833, by its Maori occupants and a small number of European traders:
‘To the gun I was stationed at, they dragged a man slightly wounded in the leg, and tied him hand and foot until the battle was over. Then they loosed him and put some questions to him, which he could not answer, nor give them any satisfaction thereof, as he knew his doom.
‘They then took the fatal tomahawk and put it between his teeth, while another pierced his throat for a chief to drink his blood. Others at the same time were cutting his arms and legs off. They then cut off his head, quartered him and sent his heart to a chief, it being a delicious morsel and they being generally favoured with such rarities after an engagement.
“In the meantime, a fellow that had proved a traitor wished to come and see his wife and children. They seized him and served him in like manner.
“Oh, what a scene for a man of Christian feeling, to behold dead bodies strewed about the settlement in every direction, and hung up at every native’s door, their entrails taken out and thrown aside and the women preparing ovens to cook them!
“By great persuasion, we prevailed on the savages not to cook any inside the fence, or to come into our houses during the time they were regaling themselves on what they termed sumptuous food – far sweeter, they said, than pork.
“On our side, there were eight men killed, three children, and two women, during the siege. They got sixteen bodies, besides a great number that were half roasted, and dug several up out of the graves, half decayed, which they also ate.
“Another instance of their depravity was to make a musket ramrod red hot, enter it in the lower part of the victim’s belly [presumably via the anus] and let it run upwards, and then make a slight incision in a vein to let his blood run gradually, for them to drink...
“I must here conclude, being very scanty of paper; for which reason, columns of the disgraceful conduct of these cannibals remain unpenned.”
http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-McNOldW-t1-body-d1-d3.html?fbclid=IwAR3ozM3fLhRjWzdOBhCbJkhBLF4Z4RE01qJHm8h-c95hUGTDqe3vfqPyg5A
The account of another European who witnessed what happened after the defenders of Nga Motu Pa repelled their Tainui attackers:
“As usual on such occasions a scene of revolting cruelty and brutal lust followed, which the Europeans were powerless to prevent. Many prisoners but slightly disabled were put to death with dreadful torture, some being dragged and thrown alive on the large fires kindled by their enemies, with every mark of delight and sensuality.
“One of the victors made one of the enemy fast to a gun, having captured him while in the act of escaping from the pa after the battle; he unloosened the fastenings and demanding of the hapless being what the enemy intended doing next. He received no answer, as the prisoner knew his doom was fixed.
“A tomahawk was held forcibly between his teeth and an incision pierced in his throat, from which this vampire slowly drank the blood. His body was then quartered and the heart sent as a present to an elderly chief as a delicious morsel.
“The appearance now presented by the pa was a sickening ordeal for the Englishmen. Human bodies cut in pieces and hanging opposite every house within the pa were disgusting to behold. Dogs feeding on the refuse, together with the sanguinary appearance of these extensive shambles, prevented the traders from pursuing their usual work for some time.”
http://jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/Volume_19_1910/Volume_19%2C_No._1/History_and_traditions_of_the_Taranaki_coast._Chapter_XVIII%2C_The_defence_of_Otaka_or_Nga-motu%2C_p_25-38/p1