[Illustration: A New Zealand War Speech. (From a sketch by A. Earle.)]
A NARRATIVE
OF A
NINE MONTHS' RESIDENCE
IN
NEW ZEALAND
IN 1827
BY
AUGUSTUS EARLE
DRAUGHTSMAN TO HIS MAJESTY'S SURVEYING SHIP
"THE BEAGLE."
Whitecombe & Tombs Limited
Christchurch, Wellington, and Dunedin, N.Z.;
Melbourne and London
1909
INTRODUCTION.
The author of this account of New Zealand in the year 1827 was an artist
by profession. "A love of roving and adventure," he states, tempted him,
at an early age, to sea. In 1815 he procured a passage on board a
storeship bound for Sicily and Malta, where he had a brother stationed
who was a captain in the navy. He visited many parts of the
Mediterranean, accompanying Lord Exmouth's fleet in his brother's gunboat
on his Lordship's first expedition against the Barbary States. He
afterwards visited the ruins of Carthage and the remains of the ancient
city of Ptolomea, or Lepida, situated in ancient Libya. Returning to
Malta, he passed through Sicily, and ascended Mount Etna. In 1818 he left
England for the United States, and spent nearly two years in rambling
through that country. Thence he proceeded to Brazil and Chile, returning
to Rio de Janeiro, where he practised his art until the commencement of
1824. Having received letters of introduction to Lord Amherst, who had
left England to undertake the government of India, Mr. Earle left Rio for
the Cape of Good Hope, intending to take his passage thence to Calcutta.
On the voyage to the Cape the vessel by which he was a passenger touched
at Tristan d'Acunha, and was driven off that island in a gale while Mr.
Earle was ashore, leaving him stranded in that desolate land, where he
remained for six months, when he was rescued by a passing ship, the
"Admiral Cockburn," bound for Van Diemen's Land, whence he visited New
South Wales and New Zealand, returning again to Sydney. In pursuance of
his original resolution to visit India, he left Sydney in "The Rainbow,"
touching at the Caroline Islands, Manilla, and Singapore. After spending
some time in Madras, where he executed many original drawings, which were
afterwards copied and exhibited in a panorama, he set out for England by
a French vessel, which was compelled by stress of weather to put into
Mauritius, where she was condemned. Mr. Earle ultimately reached England
in a vessel named the "Resource," but, being still animated by the desire
for travel, he accepted the situation of draughtsman on His Majesty's
ship "Beagle," commanded by Captain Fitzroy, which in the year 1831 left
on a voyage of discovery that has been made famous by the observations of
Charles Darwin, who accompanied the expedition in the capacity of
naturalist.
The notes which furnished the materials for this book were made by Mr.
Earle during his first visit to New Zealand, in 1827. They are valuable
as setting forth the impressions formed by an educated man, who came into
the primitive community then existing at Hokianga and the Bay of Islands,
without being personally connected either with the trading community,
the missionaries, or the whalers. It should not be inferred from the
reflections Mr. Earle casts upon the missionaries that he was himself an
irreligious man, because the journal of his residence on Tristan d'Acunha
shows that, while living there, he read the whole service of the Church
of England to that little community every Sunday, and his diary in many
places exhibits a reverence for Divine things. It may, however, be said
in extenuation of the lack of hospitality on the part of the missionaries
of which he complains, that many of the early residents and European
visitors to New Zealand were of an undesirable class, and that they
exercised a demoralising influence upon the Maoris. It was not easy for
the missionaries to consort, upon terms of intimacy, with their
fellow-countrymen whose relations with the Natives were such as they must
strongly condemn. Earle's narrative is interesting because it conveys a
realistic description of the Maoris before their national customs and
habits had undergone any material change through association with white
settlers. In dealing with Maori names, Mr. Earle, having at that period
no standard of orthography to guide him, followed the example of Captain
Cook in spelling words phonetically. Except in the case of certain
well-known places the original spelling has been retained in the present
edition of his book.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
VOYAGE FROM SYDNEY
WRECKS AT HOKIANGA
CHAPTER II.
MAORI WELCOME
NATIVE CHARACTERISTICS
EUROPEANS AT HOKIANGA
CANNIBALISM
CHAPTER III.
A MAORI VILLAGE
THE TAPU ON CROPS
MAORI ART
CHAPTER IV.
HOKIANGA RIVER
MR. HOBBS' MISSION
THE TIMBER INDUSTRY
CHAPTER V.
AN OVERLAND JOURNEY
CHAPTER VI.
THE CHIEF PATUONE
CHAPTER VII.
A PICTURESQUE SCENE
CHAPTER VIII.
IN THE DENSE FOREST
CHAPTER IX.
THE KERIKERI MISSION
INHOSPITABLE RECEPTION
CHAPTER X.
THE BAY OF ISLANDS
CHAPTER XI.
MASSACRE OF THE BOYD
CHAPTER XII.
KORORAREKA
A MIXED COMMUNITY
SHULITEA (KING GEORGE)
CHAPTER XIII.
MAORI CONSERVATISM
CHAPTER XIV.
A MISSION SETTLEMENT
THE MECHANIC MISSIONARY
CHAPTER XV.
VISIT FROM HONGI
HONGI'S COAT OF MAIL
CHAPTER XVI.
INTERVIEW WITH HONGI
CHAPTER XVII.
A MAORI WELCOME
CHAPTER XVIII.
INLAND EXCURSIONS
CHAPTER XIX.
MAORI WOMEN'S CAMP
CHAPTER XX.
LOADING SPARS, HOKIANGA
CHAPTER XXI.
DEATH OF A CHIEF
TRADING WITH MAORIS
CHAPTER XXII.
BRUTAL MURDER OF A WIFE
CHAPTER XXIII.
ANOTHER JOURNEY
INTERIOR OF THE COUNTRY
CHAPTER XXIV.
A WAR PARTY
CHAPTER XXV.
HOSTILE DISPLAY
THE LAW OF MURU
CHAPTER XXVI.
A SEDUCTION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
CHAPTER XXVII.
LAW OF RETALIATION
CHAPTER XXVIII.
A WAR EXPEDITION
CANNIBALISM
CHAPTER XXIX.
MAORI SLAVERY
CHAPTER XXX.
PIRACY BY CONVICTS
CHAPTER XXXI.
N.Z. CLIMATE
THE STARVATION CURE
CHAPTER XXXII.
THE ART OF TATTOOING
CHAPTER XXXIII.
TRIBAL GOVERNMENT
MAORI BELIEFS
THE CUSTOM OF TAPU
SUNDAY OBSERVANCE
MASSACRE OF FRENCH NAVIGATOR MARION AND PARTY
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE MAORIS' VIEW OF CHRISTIANITY
CHAPTER XXXV.
HONGI'S THREATS
PREPARING FOR WAR
CHAPTER XXXVI.
ARRIVAL OF A WARSHIP
CHAPTER XXXVII.
WHALERS AND MISSIONARIES
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
THREATENED WAR
CHAPTER XXXIX.
CONSTRUCTION OF A PA
CHAPTER XL.
A SHAM FIGHT
CHAPTER XLI.
AN EXCITING INCIDENT
VISIT OF A GREAT TOHUNGA
CHAPTER XLII.
VICTORIOUS WARRIORS
TREATMENT OF PRISONERS
BAKED HEADS
CHAPTER XLIII.
VISITS OF WHALERS
CHAPTER XLIV.
SOUTH SEA ISLANDERS
CHAPTER XLV.
DEATH OF HONGI
CHAPTER XLVI.
A TRIBAL CONFLICT
SHULITEA (KING GEORGE) KILLED
CHAPTER XLVII.
EXCITEMENT AT KORORAREKA
CHAPTER XLVIII.
EARLE'S FAREWELL
MISSIONARIES ALARMED
CHAPTER XLIX.
JOURNEY TO HOKIANGA
CHAPTER L.
EUROPEAN DEFENCES
MR. HOBBS' MESSAGE OF PEACE
CHAPTER LI.
MAORI SOCIAL CUSTOMS
EUROPEAN LIAISONS WITH MAORIS
MAORI MARRIAGES
CHAPTER LII.
A MAORI TANGI
CHAPTER LIII.
MAORI CHARACTERISTICS
ORIGIN OF OUTRAGES
FAMILY AFFECTION
CHAPTER LIV.
TRADE OF HOKIANGA
CHAPTER LV.
A CREW MASSACRED
CHAPTER LVI.
FAREWELL TO NEW ZEALAND
MAORIS IN SYDNEY
APPENDIX I.
MASSACRE OF FURNEAUX'S BOAT'S CREW
CANNIBALISM
APPENDIX II.
A TRIBAL FIGHT
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
A Maori War Speech (Frontispiece)
Patuone, a Hokianga Chief
Mission Station, Kerikeri
Scene of Boyd Massacre
Maori War Expedition
Maori Method of Tattooing
Specimens of Tattooing
Whalers at Bay of Islands
CHAPTER I.
VOYAGE FROM SYDNEY.
Having made up my mind to visit the island of New Zealand, and having
persuaded my friend Mr. Shand to accompany me, we made an arrangement for
the passage with Captain Kent, of the brig Governor Macquarie, and,
bidding adieu to our friends at Sydney, in a few hours (on October 20th,
1827) we were wafted into the great Pacific Ocean.
There were several other passengers on board, who were proceeding to New
Zealand to form a Wesleyan missionary establishment at Hokianga. Amongst
these were a Mr. and Mrs. Hobbs, who were most enthusiastic in the cause.
They had formerly belonged to the same mission at Whangaroa, when a war
which took place amongst the natives totally destroyed their
establishment; and, after enduring great varieties of suffering, they
escaped, but lost everything they possessed, except the clothes they had
on. We had a very fine wind for nine days, and on the 29th we saw a
gannet, a sure sign we were within a hundred miles of land, for these
birds are never seen at a greater distance from it. True to our
anticipations, towards the afternoon the water became discoloured, and at
midnight we saw the land.
This interesting island, of which we now got sight, was first discovered
by that eminent and enterprising Dutch navigator, Tasman, subsequently to
the discovery of Van Diemen's Land. His voyage from Batavia in 1642,
undertaken by order of the then Governor-General of Dutch India, Anthony
Van Diemen, was one of the most important and successful ever undertaken,
for it was during this voyage that New Holland was discovered, of which
Van Diemen's Land was then supposed to form a part, the extensive island
of New Zealand being supposed to form another portion.[1]
The slight intercourse of the discoverers with the natives had so
calamitous a termination, and the exaggerated accounts it was then a kind
of fashion to give of savages, stigmatised the New Zealanders with such a
character for treachery and cruelty, that their island was not visited
again for upwards of a century, when the immortal Cook drew aside the
veil of error and obscurity from this unexplored land, and rescued the
character of its inhabitants from the ignominy which its original
discoverers, the Dutch, had thrown upon them. This immense tract of land
was imagined by Tasman to form but one island, and he most unaptly gave
it the name of New Zealand, from its great resemblance (as was stated) to
his own country.[2]
In 1770 Cook discovered a strait of easy access and safe navigation,
cutting the island nearly in half, thus making two islands of what had
before been imagined but one. This strait bears his name, and is often
traversed by vessels from New South Wales returning home by way of Cape
Horn.
In 1827 His Majesty's ship Warsprite passed through this strait in
company with the Volage, twenty-eight guns, being the first English line
of battleship which had ever made the attempt. A few years since, Captain
Stewart, commanding a colonial vessel out of Port Jackson, discovered
another strait, which cut off the extreme southern point, making it a
separate island that bears his name, and now almost every year our
sealers and whalers are making additional and useful discoveries along
its coasts.
These islands lie between lat. 34° and 48°S. and long. 166° and 180°E.
The opening of the land to which we were now opposite, and which was our
destined port, the accurate eye of Cook had observed, but did not attempt
the entrance; and it is only about ten years since, when the two store
ships, the Dromedary and Coromandel, loaded with spars on the coast, that
a small vessel attending on those ships first crossed the bar; but
although they took soundings and laid down buoys, the commanders of the
large vessels were afraid of attempting the entrance, which proved their
good sense, for their great draught of water would have rendered the
undertaking more hazardous than the risk was worth. Yet during my
residence in this country two large vessels crossed the bar, and
recrossed it heavily laden, without the slightest accident--one the
Harmony, of London, 400 tons burden; the other the Elizabeth, of Sydney,
of nearly equal tonnage--but in proof that it is not always safe, a few
months after this, two schooners of extremely light draught were lost,
though they were both commanded by men who perfectly well knew the
channels through the bar. It was a singular circumstance that both
vessels had been built in New Zealand; one, the Herald, a small and
beautiful craft, built by and belonging to the Church missionaries, the
crew of which escaped, but the disastrous circumstances attending the
wreck of the other, called the Enterprise, I shall relate in their proper
place.
The morning of the 30th was foggy and unfavourable, but it suddenly
cleared up, and exhibited the entrance of Hokianga right before us, and a
light breeze came to our aid to carry us in. The entrance to this river
is very remarkable, and can never be mistaken by mariners. On the north
side, for many miles, are hills of sand, white, bleak, and barren, ending
abruptly at the entrance of the river, which is about a quarter of a mile
across. Where the south head rises abrupt, craggy, and black, the land
all round is covered with verdure; thus, at the first glimpse of these
heads from the sea, one is white, the other black.
The only difficulty attending the entrance (and, indeed, the only thing
which prevents Hokianga from being one of the finest harbours in the
world) is the bar. This lies two miles from the mouth of the river, its
head enveloped in breakers and foam, bidding defiance and threatening
destruction to all large ships which may attempt the passage. However,
we fortunately slipped over its sandy sides, undamaged, in three-fathom
water.
After crossing the bar, no other obstacle lay in our way, and, floating
gradually into a beautiful river, we soon lost sight of the sea, and were
sailing up a spacious sheet of water, which became considerably wider
after entering it; while majestic hills rose on each side, covered with
verdure to their very summits. Looking up the river, we beheld various
headlands stretching into the water, and gradually contracting in width,
till they became fainter and fainter in the distance, and all was lost in
the azure of the horizon. The excitement occasioned by contemplating
these beautiful scenes was soon interrupted by the hurried approach of
canoes, and the extraordinary noises made by the natives who were in
them.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: The Dutch and Spanish had discovered N.E. Australia as early
as 1606, and the Dutch had on several occasions visited the N.W. and
South coasts of the Continent before the date of Tasman's voyage.]
[Footnote 2: The name given by Tasman was Staten Landt. The name New
Zealand was bestowed in 1643 by the States-General of the United
Provinces.]