State of New South Wales--The Aborigines--Cruelties practised upon
them--Attempts to civilize and convert them--They fail--Mr.
Marsden's Seventh Visit to New Zealand--His Daughter's
Journal--Affection of the Natives--Progress of the Mission--Danger
from European vices--Returns in H.M.S Rattlesnake to Sydney.
History affords but few examples of a change such as New South Wales had
undergone since Mr. Marsden landed from a convict ship in the penal
settlement of Botany Bay in the year 1794. The gold fields had not yet
disclosed their wealth, nor did he live to see the stupendous
consequences which resulted from their discovery in 1851, the rush of
European adventurers, and the sudden transformation of the dismal
solitudes of Bendigo and Ballarat into the abode of thousands of
restless, enterprising men, with all the attendant circumstances, both
good and evil, of civilized life. But Australia was already a vast
colony; in almost everything except the name, an empire, self-supporting,
and with regard to its internal affairs, self governed, though still
under the mild control, borne with loyalty and pride, of the English
sovereign. The state of society was completely changed. For many years,
the stream of emigration had carried to the fertile shores of Australia
not the refuse of our jails, but some of the choicest of our population;
the young, the intelligent, the enterprising, and the high principled,
who sought for a wider field of action, or disdained to live at home,
useless to society, and a burden to their relatives. Large towns such
as Sydney, Victoria, Geelong and Melbourne, with their spacious
harbours crowded with shipping, were already in existence, and English
settlers had covered with their flocks those inland plains which long
after Mr. Marsden's arrival still lay desolate and unexplored.
The religious condition of Australia was no less changed. All
denominations were now represented by a ministry, and accommodated in
places of worship not at all inferior to those at home. The Church of
England had erected Sydney into a bishopric, of which the pious and
energetic archdeacon Broughton was the first incumbent, and the number
of the colonial clergy had been greatly increased; under all these
influences the tone of social morality was improved, and real spiritual
religion won its triumphs in many hearts. Mr. Marsden was now released
from those official cares and duties as senior chaplain which once so
heavily pressed upon him. Beyond his own parish of Paramatta his
ministerial labours did not necessarily extend, and in his parish duties
he had the efficient aid of his son-in-law and other coadjutors.
[Illustration: PARAMATTA CHURCH.]
The one spot on which no cheering ray seemed to fall, the sterile field
which after years of laborious cultivation yielded no return, was the
native population, the aborigines of New South Wales.
We have mentioned some of the many futile attempts made for their
conversion; more might be added; for various missions were devised,--by
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, aided by
the colonial government; by the Wesleyan and the Church Missionary
Societies; and by the London Missionary Society; but none of these met
with much success, and we fear all have been in turn abandoned. The
mission of Mr. Threlkeld, on the margin of lake Macquarie deserves
especial notice. It was continued for upwards of fourteen years; during
the first six years at the charges of the London Missionary Society, but
owing to the heavy expense, and the slow progress of the mission, they
withdrew from it after an outlay of about three thousand pounds. Mr.
Threlkeld was reluctant to give up the mission, and pursued it for some
time from his own resources and those of his friends, with a small grant
of a hundred and fifty pounds a-year from the British government, who
also made over ten thousand acres of land to be held on trust on behalf
of the natives. Mr. Threlkeld seems to have been admirably fitted for
his work; he had been the fellow labourer of the martyr John Williams,
of Erromanga, and left the Tahitian mission in consequence of heavy
domestic afflictions. He had spent much time in acquiring a knowledge of
the language of the "blacks" or aborigines, of which he drew up a
grammar, besides translating some portions of Scripture, Watts's hymns,
and other suitable works. He had generally three or four tribes resident
around him upon the land granted for their use. Occasionally he employed
from twelve to sixty of them in burning off the timber and clearing the
land, an employment which they liked best. At this they would continue
for eight or ten days at a time, until some native custom, or the report
of the hostile intention of some neighbouring tribe, called them off,
perhaps never to return. Harmless as they seemed, their customs were
ferocious; the tribes were constantly at war, and upon human life they
set no value; they had no law against murder, and consequently no
punishment for it. A man may murder his wife, or child, or any other
relative with impunity; but if a person murder another who is no way
connected with him, the nearest of kin to the murdered person will
sometimes avenge his death; though this seldom happens unless the
delinquent and the sufferer are of different tribes. It is only as they
become acquainted with the customs of Europeans that human life is
regarded. In their native wilds they sport with the sufferings both of
man and beast.
At different periods, Mr. Threlkeld erected huts, but in these they
could not be induced to live, alleging the accumulation of vermin and
the fear of other natives coming in the night and spearing them without
a possibility of escape. On urging them to plant corn on a piece of
ground he had prepared for them, they replied it would be useless, as
the tribes from the neighbouring Sugar Loaf Mountain, although on
friendly terms, would come down and take it away when ripe. Mr.
Threlkeld attributed the failure of his mission partly to the want of
funds, but still more to the influx of European settlers. He deeply
deplored the want of legal protectors, both to prevent the ferocious
attacks of the blacks upon each other, and to protect them from the
white man's atrocities. "I am firmly of opinion," adds Mr. Threlkeld, in
the annual report of his mission for the year 1836, "that a Protector of
Aborigines will be fully employed in investigating cases of the cruelty
of European settlers, which are both numerous and shocking to humanity,
and in maintaining their civil rights."
He had but too much reason to express himself thus. The cases of
oppression which he himself describes, are most revolting. In one
instance, a stockman, or herdsman, boasted to his master of having
killed six or seven black men with his own hands, when in pursuit of
them with his companions; for they were hunted down in mere wantonness
and sport. He was merely dismissed from his employer's service. In
another, a party of stockmen went out, some depredation having been
committed by the blacks in spearing their cattle, took a black prisoner,
tied his arms, and then fastened him to the stirrup of a stockman on
horseback to drag him along. When the party arrived near their
respective stations they separated, leaving the stockman to conduct the
prisoner to his own hut. The black, when he found they were alone, was
reluctant to proceed, and struggled to get free, when the stockman took
his knife from his pocket, coolly stuck the black in the throat, and
left him for dead. The poor fellow crawled to the house of a gentleman
dwelling on the plains, told his tale, and died.
These are but specimens of cruelties, too numerous and too horrible to
relate. The blacks, of course, retaliated, and military parties were
sent out against them. On the 31st October, 1828, the executive council
of the colony declared in their minutes, "that the outrages of the
aboriginal natives amount to a complete declaration of hostilities
against the settlers generally," but they forgot to add that these
hostilities had been provoked in every instance by the wanton aggression
of the Europeans. Martial law was again proclaimed in October, 1830,
against the natives, and the governor at length determined to call upon
the inhabitants to take up arms, and join the troops in forming a
military cordon, by means of which he proposed to drive the aborigines
into Tasman's Peninsula. The inhabitants responded to the call, and an
armed force of between two and three thousand men were in the field from
the 4th October till the 26th November; but the attempt entirely
failed.
Mr. Marsden lived to see the beginnings of a better system, though from
his advanced age he was now no longer able to take an active part in the
formation of new institutions. Before his death, a society had been
formed in the colony for the protection of the aborigines, and
government had also appointed protectors to defend them against wanton
outrage. This was a great advance in a colony where, Lieutenant Sadleir
(who had the charge of the school at Paramatta for the aborigines) tells
us, that on his first tour up the country he saw the skull of a
celebrated native, in which was visible the hole where the ball had
penetrated the forehead, placed over a gentleman's bookcase in his
sitting-room; "a trophy," he says, "which he prized very much, of his
success in one of those exterminating excursions then sometimes
undertaken, when the natives were hunted down like beasts of prey to be
destroyed." But it was not till the year 1839 that an act was passed by
the legislative council giving extensive powers to certain
"commissioners of lands," who were also magistrates of the territory, to
put a stop to the atrocities so extensively committed beyond the
boundaries, both by the aborigines and the European settlers. The
governor drew attention to this act in a proclamation worthy of his high
office. "As human beings," he remarks, "partaking of our common nature,
as the aboriginal possessors of the soil from which the wealth of the
country has been principally derived, and as subjects of the queen,
whose authority extends over every part of New Holland, the natives of
the colony have an equal right with the people of European origin to the
protection and assistance of the law of England.
"His excellency thinks it right further to inform the public that each
succeeding despatch from the secretary of state marks in an increasing
degree the importance which her Majesty's government, and no less the
parliament and the people of Great Britain, attach to the just and
humane treatment of the aborigines of this country, and to declare most
earnestly and solemnly his deep conviction that there is no subject or
matter whatsoever in which the interests as well as the honour of the
colonists are more essentially concerned."
His excellency was soon called upon to bring his professions of
impartial justice to the test. A few weeks only after the date of the
proclamation, seven monsters in human shape, convicts who had been
assigned as stockmen to some of the settlers in the interior,
influenced, it would seem, by no other motive than a fiendish
determination to exterminate the unhappy natives, set out on horseback
in pursuit of their victims. One Charles Kilmaister was their leader.
They were traced in their progress, inquiring after blacks, and at last
it appeared they arrived at a hut near the Orawaldo, commonly called the
Big River, beyond Liverpool Plains. Here they discovered a little tribe
of about thirty natives, men, women, and children, including babes at
their mothers' breasts, assembled in the bush, unsuspicious of danger,
and unconscious of offence. It was on Sunday. They immediately
approached their victims, who, terrified at their manner, ran into
Kilmaister's hut, crying for protection; but they appealed to hearts of
stone. The bandits having caught them as it were in a trap, dismounted
and followed them into the hut, and, despite of their entreaties, tied
them together with a rope. When all were thus secured, one end of the
rope was tied round the body of the foremost of the murderers, who,
having mounted his horse, led the way, dragging the terrified group
after him, while his infamous companions guarded them on all sides.
Onward they were dragged till a fitting place in the bush was reached,
when the work of slaughter commenced, and unresisting, these hapless
wretches, one after the other, were brutally butchered. Fathers, and
mothers, and children, fell before the previously sharpened swords of
their executioners, till all lay together a lifeless mass, clinging to
each other even in death, as with the throes of natural affection. But
one shot was fired, so that it was presumed one only perished by
fire-arms. The precise number thus immolated has not been accurately
ascertained, but it is computed not less than thirty lay stretched on
their own native soil. The demon butchers then placed the bodies in a
heap, kindled an immense fire over them, and so endeavoured to destroy
the evidence of their unheard-of brutality. The eye of providence,
however, was not to be thus blinded; and although for a time the
miscreants imagined they had effectually disguised their horrible work,
circumstances led to their apprehension. Birds of prey were seen
hovering about the spot where the unconsumed remains yet rotted on the
ground. Stockmen in search of their strayed cattle were attracted to the
place, supposing they should find their carcasses. In this way it was
that the ribs, jaw-bones, half-burned skulls, and other portions of
human skeletons were found, while symptoms of the conflagration in the
vicinity were likewise discovered. This led to inquiry, and ultimately
to the discovery of the horrible truth. The place was fifty miles from
the nearest police station. The whole of the villains were apprehended,
and their own admissions and conduct, both previous and subsequent to
the atrocious deed, added to a chain of circumstantial evidence, left no
doubt of their guilt. It chanced that the night previous to the murders
a heavy rain had fallen, and traces were thus discovered of horses feet,
as well as of the naked feet of the wretched natives, on the way to the
field of death. The chief witness, a respectable man, scarce dared,
however, to return to the district, so strong was the sympathy expressed
towards these miscreants, even by persons of influence, some of whom
were magistrates. All possible pains were taken to save them from
condign punishment; subscriptions were made for their defence, and
counsel retained, but in vain; their guilt was established beyond a
doubt, and Sir George Gipps, the governor, suffered the law to take its
righteous course.
Yet the progress of humanity and righteousness was very slow, and Mr.
Marsden did not live to see equal justice, not to speak of gospel truth
or English liberty, carried to the aborigines. In the very year of his
death, an effort was made by the attorney-general of the colony to pass
a bill to enable the courts of justice to receive the evidence of the
blacks, hitherto inadmissible. The chief justice of Australia gave his
sanction to the measure. In laying this bill before the council, as the
law officer of the crown, the attorney-general gave some painful
instances of its necessity. There was then, he said, lying in his office
a very remarkable case, in which there was no doubt a considerable
number of blacks had been shot, but in consequence of not being able to
take the evidence of the blacks who witnessed the transaction, it was
impossible to prosecute, although there was proof that certain parties
went into the bush in a certain direction with fire-arms, and that shots
were heard. The dead bodies of blacks were afterwards found there, the
skulls of some of them being marked with bullets. On the other hand five
blacks were convicted of a larceny, and could be convicted of no higher
offence, although those who heard the case must have been convinced that
they had murdered two white men; but, because the blacks, who knew how
the murder was committed, could not be heard as witnesses, it was
impossible to prosecute them for the murder. The bill only went so far
as to allow the blacks to be heard,--"to allow them to tell their own
story; the jury might believe them or not as their evidence was
corroborated circumstantially, or by other witnesses." Yet this simple
instalment of justice was denied, and the bill was rejected by the
legislative council. Such are some of the crimes through which even
England, just and generous England, has ascended her dazzling throne of
colonial empire. When we tear aside the veil of national pride, how
gloomy are the recesses of our colonial history; how large the amends
which Britain owes to every native population which God has intrusted to
her care!
Mr. Marsden was now seventy-two years of age. On every side the friends
of his youth were falling, and he was bowed down with bodily
infirmities, the natural consequence of a life of toil. He often pointed
to an aged tree which grew in sight of his windows, as an emblem of
himself. It had once stood in the middle of a thick wood, surrounded on
all sides with fine timber; which the waste of years and the ruthless
axe had levelled; now it stood alone, exposed to every blast, its
branches broken off, its trunk decayed and its days numbered. Yet he
resolved to pay another, his seventh, and, as it proved, his last visit
to New Zealand. It was thought by his friends, that he would never live
to return. His age and infirmities seemed to unfit him for any great
exertion of either mind or body; but having formed the resolution,
nothing could now deter him, or divert him from it. He sailed on the 9th
February, 1837, in the Pyramus, accompanied by his youngest daughter,
and he seemed to be cheered by the reflection that if he should die upon
his voyage he should die in his harness and upon the battle field on
which God had chosen him to be a leader.
And yet his sturdy spirit scarcely bowed itself to such misgivings. As
on former visits, he had no sooner landed than his whole soul was
invigorated by scenes from which most others would have shrunk. He
landed on the southern side of the island, at the river Hokianga, and
remained amongst the Wesleyan missionaries for about a fortnight; after
which he crossed over to the Bay of Islands, carried all the way in a
litter by the natives. In this way he visited the whole of the
missionary stations in the neighbourhood of the Bay of Islands, as well
as Kaitaia, a station at the North Cape. On the arrival of H. M. S.
Rattlesnake, he accompanied Captain Hobson (afterwards governor of New
Zealand), to the river Thames, and the East Cape, returning at length to
Sydney in that ship, where he arrived on the 27th of July after an
absence of five months. When entering the heads of Port Jackson, one of
the officers of the ship observed, "I think Mr. M. you may look upon
this as your last visit to New Zealand;" upon which he replied, "No I
don't, for I intend to be off again in about six weeks, the people in
the colony are becoming too fine for me now. I am too old to preach
before them, but I can talk to the New Zealanders."
Of this, his last visit, we must give some account. Captain Livesay of
the Pyramus, in a valuable letter to Mr. Nicholas, has given some
interesting reminiscences of his passenger:--
"Devonport, November 29, 1837.
"MY DEAR SIR,-- ... I looked forward to meeting you with
inexpressible delight, to talk about our much esteemed friend Mr.
Marsden, and compare notes about New Zealand; but we are born to
disappointment, although I shall still look forward to have that
pleasure on my return to England.
"From the last account I had of Mr. Marsden, previous to my
quitting New Zealand, I was informed that the trip had done him
much good. When he left the ship, and indeed when I last saw him,
which was a month afterwards, he used to walk with a great stoop;
he was then able to walk upright, and take considerable exercise.
The dear old man! it used to do my heart good to see his pious
zeal in his Master's cause. Nothing ever seemed a trouble to him.
He was always calm and cheerful, even under intense bodily
suffering, which was the case sometimes from the gravel, which
caused him great distress. His daughter Martha was a very great
comfort to him; she was constantly with him, and very affectionate
in her attentions. I did hope my next voyage would have been to
New South Wales, that I might have the pleasure of seeing him once
more, should God have spared him so long; but that thought must
now be given up." ...
The remainder of the letter has reference to the state and prospects of
New Zealand. The sentiments are honourable to a British sailor. How
happy it would have been for the Maori race, had all English captains
who visited the Bay of Islands, been such men as Captain Livesay!
He says, "It affords me great satisfaction to find that a committee are
forming for the colonization of New Zealand, on the scale you intimate.
It is very much to be desired indeed; as the poor natives are becoming a
prey and a sacrifice to a set of dissolute wretches who do all in their
power to sink the savage into the perfect brute, or by design and craft
to cheat them out of all their possessions. Even those who call
themselves respectable, are amongst this number, and one or two, to my
certain knowledge, have purchased an immense extent of land for a mere
song, depriving the rising generation of all their claims. The New
Zealanders are upon the whole, a fine and intelligent race, capable of
much if well directed. They are accused of low cunning, and covetousness
in their dealings with the Europeans. Let the question be asked, who
taught them to be so? Why, the Europeans themselves. They are said to be
ferocious. I maintain that they are not half so much so as our own
ancestors in the barbarous times of Britain; and where Christianity has
been properly introduced, they are quite a different race of beings. Let
but the ill weeds that have taken root there be torn up, and the
wholesome plant of industry and sobriety, with the spirit of the gospel,
sown in its place, and all the savage will soon cease to be."
The "ill weeds" were springing up apace, and, as a consequence, the
missionary cause was once more in peril.
An English barque had lately been wrecked upon the coast, but
fortunately Mr. Guard the captain, his wife, two children, and the crew,
twenty-eight in all, escaped to land. At first, according to the
statement of the captain, the natives treated them with kindness, which
they soon exchanged, under what pretext, or in consequence of what
provocations on either side, it would be useless to ask, for open
hostilities. A quarrel was got up between two native tribes, and an
engagement followed, in which twelve Europeans, and about forty Maories
fell. Guard and his party were taken prisoners. It shows how great an
improvement had taken place amongst the natives, that they were not
massacred and devoured; but, on condition of returning with a cask of
powder as a ransom for himself and the rest, Guard and five of his men
were allowed to proceed, without further molestation, to Sydney; where
he laid the matter before Sir Richard Bourke the governor. Relying on
the accuracy of Guard's narrative, the governor, with the advice of the
executive council, requested Captain Lambert to proceed with H.M.S.
Alligator, which happened to be lying in Port Jackson, to obtain the
restoration of the British subjects, then in the hands of the New
Zealanders. He was instructed to abstain from any act of retaliation,
and to obtain the restoration of the captives by amicable means; and
Guard and his five men returned in the same ship.
Soon after the arrival of the party at New Zealand, Guard recognised the
chief who was now the proprietor of the shipwrecked woman and children;
and the unsuspicious native rubbed noses with him in token of amity, at
the same time expressing his readiness to give up his prisoners on
receiving the "payment" guaranteed to him. This, however was not the
way in which the affair was to be settled; Guard and his sailors seized
him as a prisoner, and dragged him into the whale boat in which the
party had gone ashore. The cruelty practised towards this unfortunate
man, and the fearful havoc committed by the English, we gladly pass
over. Such iniquitous transactions reflect but little credit on us as a
Christian or a civilized people; and they were, moreover, in direct
opposition to the benevolent instructions of Sir Richard Bourke. The
British subjects were restored; as indeed they might have been without
the loss of a single life, through the intervention of the missionaries,
and of the British resident at the Bay of Islands, and the expedition
having gained its object by force and stratagem, returned to Sydney with
the troops and the liberated captives.
This painful affair, as well as other acts of outrage, on the part of
the natives, which were its natural consequence, made a deep impression
at the time, and were a source of great uneasiness to Mr. Marsden. He
saw at once the danger to which they exposed the missionaries and their
cause, and felt, no doubt, a just reliance on himself. Unarmed and
unprotected, had he been upon the spot, he would have accomplished more
in his own person than all those warlike measures had effected, which
anew embittered the Maori race against the Europeans.
His record of his farewell visit was probably not kept with his former
accuracy; but the chasm is well supplied by the interesting journal of
his daughter, some extracts from which the reader will peruse with
pleasure. We have the whole scene placed before us by her graceful pen,
and we gain some glimpse into her father's character, which we should
certainly not have gathered from his own modest, self-forgetting,
memoranda.
"_February 12, Sunday._--Had service on deck. The Rev. Mr.
Wilkinson read prayers, and my father preached. The sailors were
very attentive; the service was truly interesting from its novelty
and the impressiveness of the scene; nothing around us but the
wide waste of waters.
"_13th._--At the suggestion of Captain L----, reading in the
evenings was introduced. We began the History of Columbus, by
Washington Irving, and the arrangement is that we are to read by
turns."
The weather proved boisterous, and it was not before the 21st they
made the land.
"_22nd._--Up early on deck to view the land, which presented a
very bold and romantic appearance.
"Not being able to obtain a pilot, the captain determined, lest he
should lose the tide, Hokianga being a bar harbour, to take the
vessel in himself. The dead lights were put in, and every
arrangement made as we approached the bar. Not a voice was heard
but that of the captain and the two men in the chains, heaving the
lead. Every sailor was at his station, and the anchors in
readiness to let go at a moment's warning. We sounded as shallow
as 'a quarter less four,' when the ladies became alarmed, though
we were obliged to keep our fears to ourselves, as the gentlemen
very politely left us. The wind being light, the fear was the
breakers would have overtaken the ship, thrown her upon her beam
ends, and rendered her unmanageable; but providence guided and
preserved us.
"I seldom remember a more beautiful scene; the moon is near its
full, and the banks of the river are very high, covered with the
most luxuriant foliage. We were so delighted with the scenery that
we would willingly have stayed up all night. As we proceeded up,
the mountains appeared to lessen into hills. Several native
hamlets, and two or three residences of Europeans, show that the
busy hand of man has been engaged in the work of redeeming the
wilderness from the wild dominion of nature. Anchored near the
Wesleyan mission station, where we were kindly welcomed by Mr. and
Mrs. Turner. The mission here has been established nearly nine
years; they have a neat chapel and one or two comfortable houses,
and are about to form an additional station. The missionaries
related several instances of the melancholy death of various New
Zealanders who have opposed the progress of the mission. One chief
became so incensed against the 'Atua,' for the death of his child,
that he formed a circle of gunpowder, placed himself in the
centre, and fired it. The explosion did not immediately destroy
him; he lingered a few weeks in dreadful agony, and then died.
"_Saturday._--The natives are coming in great numbers to attend
divine worship. Mr. Turner preached, and afterwards my father
addressed them. They listened with earnest attention, and were
much pleased. Many of the old chiefs were delighted to see my
father, and offered to build him a house, if he would remain. One
said, 'Stay with us and learn our language, and then you will
become our father and our friend, and we will build you a house.'
'No,' replied another, 'we cannot build a house good enough, but
we will hire Europeans to do it for us.'
"The whole congregation joined in the responses and singing, and
though they have not the most pleasing voices, yet it was
delightful to hear them sing one of the hymns commencing 'From
Egypt lately come.'"
The journey across from Hokianga to the Waimaté, as described by Miss
Martha Marsden, shows, in the absence of railroads and steam carriages,
an agreeable if not expeditious mode of conveyance. "Took leave of Mrs.
Turner; and, mounted in a chair on the shoulders of two New Zealanders,
I headed the procession. My father, Mr. Wilkinson, and the two children,
were carried in 'kaw-shores,' or native biers, on which they carry their
sick. We entered a forest of five miles, then stopped to dine. The
natives soon cooked their potatoes, corn, etc., in their ovens, which
they scoop in the sand, and after heating a number of stones, the
potatoes are put in, covered with grass and leaves, and a quantity of
water poured upon them; they were exquisitely steamed. As I approached
one of the groups sitting at dinner, I was much affected by seeing one
of them get up and ask a blessing over the basket of potatoes.
"Five miles from Waimaté I left my chair, mounted on horseback, and
reached Waimaté for breakfast. Old Nini accompanied us the whole way,
and told my father if he attempted to ride he would leave him. The
natives carried him the whole way with the greatest cheerfulness, and
brought him through the most difficult places with the greatest ease.
The distance they carried him was about twenty miles."
The state of all the missions with regard to their spiritual work was
now full of hope. Of the Wesleyan mission Mr. Marsden himself reports,
"I found that many were inquiring after the Saviour, and that a large
number attended public worship. The prospect of success to the Church
of England Mission is very great. Since my arrival at the missionary
station I have not heard one oath spoken by European or native; the
schools and church are well attended, and the greatest order is observed
among all classes. I met with many wherever I went, who were anxious
after the knowledge of God. Wherever I went I found some who could read
and write. They are all fond of reading, and there are many who never
had an opportunity of attending the schools who, nevertheless, can read.
They teach one another in all parts of the country, from the North to
the East Cape."
The native tribes were still at war with each other, and with the
European settlers--the miserable effect of Captain Guard's rash conduct.
From the missionary station at Pahia Mr. Marsden's daughter counted one
morning twenty-one canoes passing up the bay. A battle followed, which
she witnessed at a distance, and the Europeans all around fled to the
missionary station. In the engagement three chiefs fell; a second fight
occurred soon afterwards. "We have heard firing all day," she writes;
"many have been killed; we saw the canoes pass down the river containing
the bodies of the slain." Mr. Marsden himself was absent on a visit to
the southward, or his presence might possibly have prevented these
scenes of blood.
Wherever the venerable man appeared, he was received by the converted
natives with Christian salutations and tears of joy; the heathen
population welcomed him with the firing of muskets and their rude war
dances. Wherever he went, he was greeted with acclamations as the friend
and father of the New Zealanders. One chieftain sat down upon the ground
before him gazing upon him in silence, without moving a limb or
uttering a single word for several hours. He was gently reproved by Mr.
Williams for what seemed a rudeness. "Let me alone," said he, "let me
take a last look; I shall never see him again." "One principal chief,"
writes Mr. Marsden, "who had embraced the gospel and been baptized,
accompanied us all the way. We had to travel about forty miles, by land
and water. He told me he was so unhappy at Hokianga that he could not
get to converse with me from the crowds that attended, and that he had
come to Waimaté to speak with me. I found him to be a very intelligent
man, and anxious to know the way to heaven." While at Kaitai he held a
constant levée, sitting in an arm-chair, in an open field, before the
mission house; it was attended by upwards of a thousand Maories, who
poured in from every quarter; many coming a distance of twenty or thirty
miles, contented to sit down and gaze on his venerable features; and so
they continued to come and go till his departure. With his
characteristic kindness and good nature he presented each with a pipe
and fig of tobacco; and when he was to embark at last, they carried him
to the ship, a distance of six miles.
Before leaving New Zealand, he wrote to the Church Missionary Society an
account which glows with pious exultation, describing the success with
which the Head of the church had at length been pleased to bless the
labours of his faithful servants. Since his arrival, he says, he had
visited many of the stations within the compass of a hundred miles. It
was his intention to have visited all of them, from the North to the
East Cape; but from the disturbed state of the country "it was not
considered prudent for him to go to the south," where he still
contemplated further efforts "when the country should be more settled in
its political affairs." He had "observed a wonderful change: those
portions of the sacred Scriptures which had been printed have had a most
astonishing effect; they are read by the natives in every place where I
have been; the natives teach one another, and find great pleasure in the
word of God, and carry that sacred treasure with them wherever they go.
Great numbers have been baptized, both chiefs and their people." He had
met with some very pious chiefs, who had refused to share in the present
war, and avowed their resolution to fight no more. One of them, at his
own cost, had built a chapel, or place of public worship, which was
visited by the missionaries; in this he himself taught a school,
assisted by his son. "Waimaté, once the most warlike district in the
island, is now," he says, "the most orderly and moral place I was ever
in. My own mind has been exceedingly gratified by what I have seen and
heard." Old age, it seems, is not always querulous; its retrospects are
not always in favour of the past; the aged Christian walks with a more
elastic step as he sees the fruit of his labour, and anticipates his own
great reward. "Mine eyes," he concludes, "are dim with age like Isaac's;
it is with some difficulty I can see to write."
Nor had the weakness and credulity of advancing years led him to take
for granted, as in second childhood old age is wont to do, the truth of
first impressions, or the accuracy of every man's reports. He still gave
to every subject connected with missions the closest attention,
penetrated beneath the surface, and formed his own conclusions. While in
New Zealand, for instance, he addresses the following queries to Mr.
Matthews, one of the missionaries, on the subject of education:--
"April, 1837.
"... I will thank you to return me what number of native young
men there are employed from your station on the sabbath in
visiting the natives, I mean the numbers who occasionally visit
their countrymen and instruct them. What schools there are at the
station, and who are the teachers? Have you an infant school, or a
school for men and boys? a school for women? What do they learn?
Do they learn to read and write? Do they understand figures? Have
they renounced generally their former superstitions? At what
period of the day do they attend school? Have they any meeting in
the week-days for prayer and religious instruction? Do they appear
to have any views of the Lord Jesus Christ as a Saviour? Any
information you can give me, along with your brethren, will be
very acceptable to the lovers of the gospel in New South Wales."
"SAMUEL MARSDEN."
On one point only he met with no success. He had not yet quite abandoned
the pleasing dream of a Maori nation, united under one chief; a
Christian people, governed by a code of native law. Tahiti naturally
encouraged these bright visions, and seemed to show how easily they
might be realized. There, for ten years past, under king Pomare, the
wondrous spectacle had been presented to the world of a whole people,
under the guidance of their king, rejecting idolatry, and with it all
the base usages of savage life, and working out their own national
regeneration; framing a Tahitian code of law on the sound principles of
Christian jurisprudence, and cordially adopting it. Why should not a
similar state of things be brought about in New Zealand? The
instrumental agency in both islands was the same; namely, that of
Christian missionaries, chiefly, if not entirely, English Christians,
who carried with them, it might be supposed, to both islands the same
reverence for order, and with it the same love of liberty. Were the
Maories an inferior race, compared with the aborigines of the Tahitian
group? On the contrary, the difference was rather in favour of the
Maori; he was the more athletic, and consequently the more vigorous in
his mental development; indeed, upon the whole, he stands unapproached
by any other tribe of man uncivilized and in a state of nature; unless
we go back to the heroic ages and find his equal amongst ancient Greeks
at the dawning of their somewhat fabulous history.
Yet the project failed; and Mr. Marsden was now obliged mournfully to
admit that New Zealand's only hope lay in her annexation to the British
crown. The two causes of the failure of these otherwise reasonable
expectations are to be found, no doubt, first, in the circumstances of
the Maori tribes, and secondly, in the pernicious effects produced by
European traders and settlers.
Tahiti was happy in possessing one sovereign. New Zealand was
unfortunate in its multitude of petty chieftains. When the heart of king
Pomare was gained, the confidence of a loyal and devoted people was at
once won over. There was no rival to foment rebellion, or to seize the
occasion of a religious festival, when he and his people were unarmed,
to make inroads on his territory. With the assistance of his council,
and under the advice of the faithful missonaries, a code of law was
easily prepared, suited for all his subjects, and adapted to every part
of his little kingdom. In New Zealand, on the contrary, the chiefs,
each of whom claimed to be perfectly independent of the rest, were
constantly at enmity with each other. The violent passions of civil war
never slept--hatred, revenge, and jealousy. The missionaries, if
cherished by Shunghie, were hated or feared by Shunghie's opponent.
Their direct influence in the politics of the Maories was therefore, of
necessity, slight. But the chief hindrance arose from the mutual
animosities of the chiefs, and the want of confidence in each other
which universally prevailed, both among chiefs and people.
And it must be confessed with sorrow, that the evil example of the
Europeans provoked the natives to fresh crimes, and indisposed them to
all the restraints of civil government. The Polynesian Islands had, up
to this period, known neither commerce nor colonization. Except a chance
visit from a man-of-war, a European ship was scarcely ever seen; or the
few which came and went were connected with the missions, and were
manned by decent if not religious crews. The polluting influence of a
debauched and drunken body of seamen, rolling in constant succession to
its shores, had not yet tainted the moral atmosphere of Tahiti and its
neighbouring group. And colonization had not even been attempted; the
natives were left in full possession of their soil, no man making them
afraid. In New Zealand all this was reversed. Wicked seamen infected
even savages with new vices; and lawless settlers set an example of
injustice, shocking even to New Zealanders. For these evils it was
evident there was but one remedy, the strong hand of British rule. Take
the following sketch from the pen of Mr. Marsden. After describing the
happy state of the Christian settlement at Waimaté, he goes on to say:
"On the opposite side of the harbour, a number of Europeans have settled
along with the natives. Several keep public-houses, and encourage every
kind of crime. Here drunkenness, adultery, murder, etc. are committed.
There are no laws, judges, nor magistrates; so that Satan maintains his
dominion without molestation. Some civilized government must take New
Zealand under its protection, or the most dreadful evils will be
committed by runaway convicts, sailors and publicans. There are no laws
here to punish crimes. When I return to New South Wales, I purpose to
lay the state of New Zealand before the colonial government, to see if
anything can be done to remedy these public evils." "I hope in time," he
says again, in a letter, dated May 16th, 1837, from Pahaia, to the Rev.
James Matthews, "the chiefs will get a governor. I shall inform the
Europeans in authority how much they are distressed in New Zealand for
want of a governor with power to punish crime. The Bay of Islands is now
in a dreadful state.... It is my intention to return to New South Wales
by the first opportunity."
That opportunity soon appeared, and the venerable founder of its
missions, the advocate of its native population, the friend of all that
concerned its present or spiritual welfare, took his last leave of the
shores of New Zealand. Preparations were made for his reception on board
H. M. S. Rattlesnake. The signal gun was fired, and all the friends from
Waimaté and Keri-Keri arrived to accompany their revered father to the
beach, "Where," says one of them who was present, "like Paul at Miletus,
we parted with many benedictions: sorrowing most of all that we should
see his face again no more. Many could not bid him adieu. The parting
was with many tears."
His happy temperament always diffused pleasure and conciliated
friendship. On board the Rattlesnake he was welcomed with warm,
affectionate, respect. Captain Hobson, who was afterwards for a time
governor of New Zealand, knew his worth, and felt honoured by his
company; and Mr. Marsden fully appreciated the high character and
courtesy of the commander, whose widow retains a handsome piece of plate
presented to her husband by his grateful passenger, as a memorial of the
happiness he enjoyed on this his last voyage homewards.
The chaplain of the Rattlesnake noted down an affecting conversation
with the aged minister upon his voyage, which we are permitted to
insert:--
"We enjoyed a most lovely evening. I had a long conversation with Mr.
Marsden on deck. He spoke of almost all his old friends having preceded
him to the eternal world; Romaine, Newton, the Milners, Scott, Atkinson,
Robinson, Buchanan, Mason Good, Thomason, Rowland Hill, Legh Richmond,
Simeon, and others. He then alluded in a very touching manner to his
late wife; they had passed, he observed, more than forty years of their
pilgrimage through this wilderness in company, and he felt their
separation the more severely as the months rolled on. I remarked that
their separation would be but for a short period longer. 'God grant it,'
was his reply; then lifting his eyes towards the moon, which was
peacefully shedding her beams on the sails of our gallant bark, he
exclaimed with intense feeling.
'Prepare me, Lord, for thy right hand,
Then come the joyful day.'"