MAORI.
It has been mentioned that the island of Australia was considered as an
archdeaconry of the see of Calcutta. This enormous island, first
discovered in 1607 by Luis de Torres, and inhabited only by the very
lowest race of savages, appeared to the Government of George III. a
convenient spot for forming a penal settlement; and in 1787 the first
convict ships carried out an instalment from the English jails to New
South Wales, where the city of Sydney was founded by Governor Phillip.
As usual in those days, the provision made for the moral or religious
training of this felon population was lamentably and even absurdly
deficient; for it seemed to be considered, that so long as the criminals
were safe out of England, it did not greatly matter to her what became of
them. But the power of grace is sure to work sooner or later wherever
the Christian name has been carried, and a holy man rose up, not only to
fight hard with the mass of corruption in Australia, but to carry on the
light to the more distant shores of the Southern Ocean.
This good man, Samuel Marsden, was the son of a small farmer at Farsley,
near Calverley, in Yorkshire, and was educated at the free Grammar School
at Hull by Dr. Joseph Milner, whose Church History used to be a standard
book in the early part of this century. He began his career as a
tradesman at Leeds, but his school influences had given him higher
aspirations; and a body termed the Elland Society, whose object was to
educate young men of small means and suitable character for the ministry,
and whose chief supporters were Wilberforce, Simeon, and Thornton,
selected him as one of their scholars, and placed him at St. John's
College, Cambridge. He had not even taken his degree when, to his
surprise, he was offered a chaplaincy in New South Wales! The post was
no doubt a difficult one to fill,--for who would willingly undertake to
be one of two clergymen sent to labour among an untamed multitude of
criminals?--and Mr. Wilberforce was, no doubt, glad to suggest a young
man so blameless and full of zeal, and of whom, from personal observation
at Cambridge, Mr. Simeon had so high an opinion.
Samuel Marsden wished to decline it at first; but finding that no one
else would come forward to undertake the charge, he accepted it; and in
the spring of 1793 he was ordained, and married, being then nearly twenty-
nine years of age. His wife, Elizabeth Tristan, was thoroughly worthy of
him, and ruled his house admirably, never calling him back from any duty,
but so managing that his open-handed charity never brought him into
difficulties. They were obliged to take their passage in a convict ship,
which was to sail from Hull. Marsden was engaged to preach in a church
near the harbour, and was just about to enter the pulpit when the signal-
gun was fired to summon the passengers on board. He took off his gown,
gave his arm to his bride at her pew door, and walked to the beach, the
whole congregation streaming out after them down to the boat, where the
young clergyman stood for a few moments ere pushing off, to give his
parting benedictions.
The ship went round to Portsmouth to receive her load of convicts; and
while she was lying there, Marsden visited the Isle of Wight, and one
Sunday preached in Brading Church. The effect of his sermon in touching
the heart of one young woman was long remembered, in consequence of a
memoir of her, entitled "The Dairyman's Daughter," which was drawn up
after her death by the clergyman of her parish, the Rev. Legh Richmond.
It was as trying a voyage as Henry Martyn's, except that even less was to
be expected from his shipmates. The captain was unwilling to allow
prayers to be read even on Sunday, saying he had never known a religious
sailor; and though, after a time, Mr. Marsden prevailed, he never felt
himself making much impression for good. One of his books on the voyage
was the Life of David Brainerd, that torch of missionaries, and who
proved the example which served to stir Mr. Marsden to look beyond his
own immediate field of labour, severe though that was, and unflinching as
was his toil.
His arrival at Paramatta, his new home, was in the March of 1794, when
the convict system had prevailed about seven years, and had been
sufficient to form a population disgraceful to human nature. None of
those endeavours to reclaim the prisoner which now prevail had then been
attempted, and jails were schools and hotbeds of crime, whence the
transported were sent forth to corrupt each other more and more on board
ship; and then, though employed on Government works or assigned to free
settlers as servants, so soon as they had worked out their time of
servitude they were let loose to live after their own will.
Such as had any capacity for steady industry soon made their fortunes on
the parcels of land allotted to them by Government, to which they added
by purchase; and these persons, by the influence of wealth and property,
rose into colonial rank and authority, though without any such real
training in the sense of uprightness or morality as could fit them for
the posts they occupied. The least tainted by crime were the Irish, who
had been deported by wholesale after the rebellion, some without even a
form of trial, but these were idle and prone to violence; while of the
regular convicts there was a large proportion addicted to every brutality
that vice could conceive, and their numbers were continually being
recruited by fresh shiploads after the assizes at home. The only attempt
at securing order and tolerable safety was by visiting every offence,
even the slightest, of which a convict was accused in a court of justice,
with the most unrelenting severity; and this, of course, had the effect
of further brutalizing these felon people, making them reckless of the
deeds they committed, and often driving them to become
bush-rangers--outlawed wild men of the woods--a terror to the colony. A
powerful military force was kept up to repress these wretched beings by
physical force, but of moral training there was only what was afforded by
the openings for industry in a new country, and religious teaching was
represented by--two chaplains, for convicts, soldiers, settlers, and all!
No wonder that the senior soon broke down under the hopeless toil of such
a position, and left the junior to struggle with it alone. And nobly he
did struggle! Wilberforce had made a wise choice of a man in the prime
of youth, whose bullet-headed portrait speaks of the most dogged
determination, with nerves, health, and weight enough to contend for a
whole lifetime with the horrible depravity around him--the only
clergyman, and with three settlements far apart dependent on his
ministry. And in the outset he was severely tried by domestic sorrows;
for his eldest son, at two years old, was thrown out of his mother's arms
by a jolt to the carriage over the rough road, and killed on the spot;
and a younger child, who was shortly after left at home from dread of a
similar accident, was allowed by its attendant to stray into the kitchen,
where it fell backwards into a pan of boiling water and was fatally
scalded.
The father bore these calamities as one who had steadfast faith and
resignation--"one who felt much and said little." The demands on his
time, indeed, left him no leisure for giving way to grief. Spiritual
matters were not all that came upon him. In the utter lack of
conscientious men to perform the functions of the magistracy, he was at
once appointed to the bench; nor, indeed, was there the same feeling in
England then as now against the combination of the clergyman and justice
of the peace. The most exemplary parish priests viewed it as a duty to
administer justice in their villages; and the first, and till quite
recently the sole manual of prayers to be used with prisoners, was the
production of one of these clerical magistrates. A Yorkshire farmer's
son could not be expected to know much about law, but good sense,
uprightness, perception of justice, and intense determination, he had, as
well as Christian humanity; and in these he was superior to any of his
colleagues on the Paramatta bench, whom he was continually striving to
raise to some comprehension of the commonest rules of justice, mercy, and
decency; and in this, after a long course of years, he in some measure
succeeded; but not till after his strong hand, impartial justice, and
hatred of vice, had made him enemies among all parties; and it is only
too probable that his secular authority, though always nobly wielded,
impeded rather than otherwise his pastoral influence.
His farming education served him well when he received a grant of land,
and of thirteen convicts to bring it into order. It was part of his
payment, almost indispensable for procuring to his family the necessaries
of life, and it gave him, besides, the means of imparting instruction in
honest labour. His property became the model farm of New South Wales,
and the profits afforded him the means of establishing the schools,
benevolent institutions, and missions, for which there were few, if any
purses to draw upon. He won himself respect on all sides, especially
from the Governor of the colony, Captain King, a hasty, violent, but good-
hearted man, with whom more than once he had misunderstandings, but such
as were made up again. On one of these occasions, the chaplain's advice
was asked by the Governor, and promised on condition that he might speak
as to a private individual. So, when they met, Mr. Marsden locked the
door, and, in plain and forcible terms, gave _Captain_ King a
thoroughgoing remonstrance on the faults of _Governor_ King, which was
taken in perfect good part.
Nevertheless, the whole construction of Society was so atrocious, that
nothing could effect any improvement but interference from higher
authority. The Court of Judicature in New South Wales was the most
shamelessly corrupt and abandoned in existence, and a rebellious spirit
broke out which imperilled the military authority of the Governor. Mr.
Marsden saw no hope, except in laying a full statement in person before
the home Government; and therefore, at the end of fourteen years, when
Governor King was about to return home, he resolved to go himself, and
make a strong personal representation to Government. The two families
sailed in the same ship, the _Buffalo_, which proved to be leaky; and,
when a heavy gale was expected, it was proposed that the passengers
should quit her, and take refuge in a stronger vessel; but Mrs. King was
too unwell to be moved, and Mrs. Marsden would not leave her, so that the
proposal was abandoned, and most providentially, for the ship that had
been thought secure was lost in the night and never seen more!
The voyage was a slow one; and the first thing Mr. Marsden heard on
arriving was, that the insurrection he had expected had actually broken
out. This rendered Lord Castlereagh, then Colonial Secretary, the more
anxious to obtain the advice of a sensible, clear-headed man like Samuel
Marsden, and he was encouraged to explain his views. First, he was
anxious for whatever would tend to reform the convicts; and having
observed that the most respectable of these were such as had married, or
whose wives had come out to them, he begged that, for the future, the
families of the married men might be sent out with them. This was
refused; but his representation that the convicts ought to be instructed
in trades was attended to, when he showed that, by this means, the whole
expense of their clothing might be saved. He had discerned the wonderful
capacities of Australia for sheep farming, and having brought home some
wool, and found it much approved by the manufacturers, he thereupon
ventured to petition the King for a couple of merino {f:221} sheep from
the royal farm at Windsor, to improve the breed. The request was after
"Farmer George's" own heart; he gave five, and thus Mr. Marsden did the
work of agricultural improvement of the Benedictines of old. He also
obtained that three more clergymen and three schoolmasters should be sent
out; and he strove hard for other institutions, chiefly for the
reformation of the female convicts, which he could not at the time get
carried out. He likewise conducted an immense correspondence on behalf
of persons who had not found any other means of communicating with their
homes; and, at the same time, he became personally acquainted with
Wilberforce, and many others of the supporters of the cause of religion.
Above all, it was in this visit to England that Mr. Marsden laid the
foundations of the missions to New Zealand, and prepared to become the
apostle of the Maori race. These great islands of New Zealand had been
discovered and named by Tasman in 1642, and first visited by Captain Cook
in 1769. He found them inhabited by a brave, high-spirited, and quick-
witted set of natives, with as large a proportion of the fine qualities
sometimes found in a wild race as ever savages possessed, but their
tribes continually at war, and the custom of cannibalism prevailing: he
had been on friendly terms with them, and presented them with pigs,
fowls, and potatoes--no small boon in a land where there was no quadruped
bigger than a rat, and very few esculent vegetables. From this time,
whalers occasionally stopped to take in water, &c., and kept up a sort of
intercourse with the Maori, sometimes amiable, and resulting in the
natives taking voyages on board the vessels, but sometimes quarrelsome,
and characterized by mutual outrages, when, if a white man were made
prisoner, he was sure to be killed and eaten, to serve as a sort of
triumphal and sacrificial banquet.
Nevertheless, it was plain that these Maories were of a much higher type
of humanity than the Australian natives, whom Mr. Marsden had found so
far entirely unteachable and untameable, but for whom he was trying to
establish some plan of training and protection. Such a spirit of
curiosity and enterprise possessed some of the New Zealand chieftains,
that they would come on visits to Australia, and on these occasions Mr.
Marsden always gave them a welcome at his parsonage at Paramatta. At one
time there were thirty staying there, over whom he had great influence.
Once, when he was absent from home, the nephew of one of the chiefs died,
and his uncle immediately prepared to sacrifice a slave; nor could Mrs.
Marsden prevent it, otherwise than by hiding the intended victim till her
husband came home, who made the chief understand that it was not to be
done, though the man continued to lament that his nephew was deprived of
his proper attendant in the other world, and seemed afraid to return
home, lest the father of the youth should reproach him with the omission.
Mr. Marsden made known all that he had been able to gather of the
promising nature of the field of labour in New Zealand, and sought aid
from the Church Missionary Society, since the Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel was then unable to reach beyond the colonies. The almost
universal indifference of the upper classes to missionary labour was
terribly crippling in the matter of means; and perhaps the fact was that
the underbred class of agents of the Societies stirred up by the example
of Marshman and Carey, together with the vulgarly-sensational appeals
against which Ward's good taste so strongly protested, greatly tended to
make them incredulous. It was not till the statements of scholars and
gentlemen, like Henry Martyn and Bishop Heber, became generally known,
that the work was looked on without sarcasm, provoked by vulgarity, even
where there was great devotion.
No clergyman could be found to undertake the mission to New Zealand; but
William Hall and John King, two laymen, undertook to act as pioneers,
with instructions to establish family worship, converse on religion with
the natives, and instruct their children; trying, at the same time, to
show the benefits of civilization, but to take care it was not confounded
with Christianity.
These two good men, who were presently followed by Thomas Kendall, sailed
in the same ship with Mr. Marsden, when, in August 1809, he paid his last
farewell to his native land, and sailed in the _Ann_ for New South Wales.
Strange to say, this very ship contained a Maori, on his return home! He
was a young chief named Duaterra, who had, in a spirit of adventure,
embarked on board a whaler named the _Argo_, and worked as a sailor for
six months, till the captain, having no further occasion for his
services, put him ashore at Port Jackson, without payment or friends.
However, he embarked in another whaler, and worked his way home, but soon
was on board of a third English ship, the _Santa Anna_, in search of seal-
skins, and having conceived a great desire to see the country whence
these vessels came forth, and to know its chief, he engaged to come to
England in it, the captain and sailors not scrupling to promise him an
introduction to King George. When the _Santa Anna_ reached England, the
crew had grown tired of him, used him roughly and harshly, and tried to
put him off his pertinacious recollection of the promise of seeing the
king, by telling him that King George's house could not be found; while
he was worked beyond his strength, and scarcely ever suffered to go on
shore. When, in fifteen days, the cargo was all discharged, the captain
put him on board the _Ann_, to be taken back to Australia, and when he
asked for his wages, to provide some clothing, told him that the owner of
the ship would give him two muskets when he should reach Port Jackson.
The poor fellow was little likely to reach it, for lung disease, the
great foe of the Maori, had set in; and he was in a pitiable condition
when Mr. Marsden, by chance, remarked his brown face on the forecastle,
and inquired into his history, which was confirmed by the master of the
_Ann_, and was really only a specimen of a sailor's vague promises, and
incapacity to understand that a dark skin ought to be treated with the
same justice as a white one. Duaterra was a man of much intelligence,
and even under these most unfavourable circumstances had been greatly
impressed with the civilization of England, and was so desirous of
improvement that, on arriving at Port Jackson, Mr. Marsden took him to
his farm, where he applied eagerly to the learning of husbandry.
Duaterra was not the only Maori ill-treated by British sailors. Another
chief having been used in like manner, or worse, on board the _Boyd_,
bided his time till the ship was in the Bay of Islands, and then brought
his tribe, armed with clubs and hatchets, to revenge his sufferings. They
overpowered the crew, slaughtered and feasted upon them, burning the
ship, and only retaining as captives two women and a boy. Nevertheless,
Hall and King were ready to take the missionaries to this dangerous spot,
but Mr. Marsden thought it best to give time for the passions thus
excited to cool down.
Meantime Governor Macquarie had come out to take charge of New South
Wales. He was a man of great determination and despotic will, and
carried out many regulations that were of exceeding benefit to the
colony, but he did not know the limits of his authority, dealt with the
chaplains as with subordinate officials, and sometimes met with staunch
opposition from the sturdy Yorkshireman, his senior chaplain, so that
they were in a state of almost constant feud throughout his government,
although at the end of his career he bore the strongest testimony to the
merits of the only man who durst resist him. The old game of Ambrose and
Theodosius, Hildebrand and Henry, Becket and Plantagenet, has to be
played over and over again, wherever the State refuses to understand that
spiritual matters lie beyond its grasp; and when Governor Macquarie
prescribed the doctrines to be preached and the hymns to be used in the
churches, and commanded the most unsuitable secular notices to be
promulgated by the clergy, if Mr. Marsden had not resisted the Church
would have been absolutely degraded. When convicts of wealth and
station, but still leading most vicious lives, were raised to the
magistrates' bench, Mr. Marsden could not but refuse to associate or act
with them, and even tendered his resignation of the magistracy, but
Macquarie would not accept it. How uncompromising these sermons were is
evidenced by an anecdote of a man, who, being stung to the quick, fancied
that the words had been individually aimed at him, and determined to be
revenged. Accordingly, as soon as he saw the chaplain riding near a
piece of water he jumped in, and when Mr. Marsden at once sprung after
him, did his utmost to drown his intended deliverer; but after a violent
struggle the Yorkshire muscles prevailed, and the man was dragged out, so
startled by the shock that he confessed his intention, and, under the
counsel he had so fiercely spurned at first, became truly penitent, and
warmly attached to Mr. Marsden, whose service he ultimately entered.
The square short face and sturdy form of Samuel Marsden show the force,
vigour, and determination of his nature, which told on beast as well as
man. On the road between Sydney and Paramatta, he used to let the reins
lie loose on the splash-board of his gig and read, saying that "the horse
that could not keep itself up was not worth driving," and though one of
the pair he usually drove was unmanageable in other hands, nothing ever
went amiss with it when it went out with its master. Such a spirit of
determination produced an impress even on those who opposed him most, and
many works were carried out in the teeth of the difficulties thrown in
their way; such as the erection of schools, of a factory for the
reception of the female convicts, and of a sort of model farm, where it
was intended to collect, tame, and civilize the aborigines. This was at
first planned between the governor and chaplain, but when it was ready
Marsden was under Colonel Macquarie's displeasure, and was therefore
excluded from all share in the management, though the site was actually
in his own parish of Paramatta. The experiment was a failure, probably
not on this account, but from the restless character of the blacks, whose
intellect was too small, and their wants too few, to feel any comfort a
compensation for their freedom and wandering life. Mr. Marsden and the
other chaplains repeatedly tried bringing up children,--some too young to
retain any memory of their native habits, but they always relapsed into
savage life on the first opportunity, and though here and there
individuals may have better come up to the hopes of their devoted
friends, yet as a race they seem too little above the animal to be
susceptible of being raised.
Governor Macquarie was an iron-handed man, who could not brook
opposition, or endure any scheme that did not originate with himself. So
when Mr. Marsden laid before him a project for diminishing the appalling
misery and vice in which the utter neglect of Government left the female
convicts, he acknowledged the letter, but did not act upon it. After
waiting eighteen months for him to take some measure, the chaplain sent a
statement of the condition of these poor creatures to the Colonial
Office; it was laid before Parliament, and Lord Bathurst, the Colonial
Secretary, sent a letter of inquiry to the Governor. Macquarie's fury
was intense on finding that the chaplain had dared to look above and
beyond him; and he gave a willing encouragement to whatever resisted the
attempts of Marsden at establishing some sense of religion and morality.
After refusing to accept his resignation of his post as a magistrate, he
dismissed him ignominiously, and all the underlings of Government knew
that any attack from them would be regarded with favour. A vile and
slanderous letter, full of infamous libels, not only against Samuel
Marsden, as a man and a Christian priest, but against the missionaries,
and signed "Philo-free," appeared in the _Sydney Herald_, the Government
paper, and was traced to Macquarie's own secretary! The libel was such
that Mr. Marsden felt it due to his cause to bring an action against the
publisher, and in spite of the prejudice against him, after a trial of
three days, he gained a complete victory and damages of 200 pounds; but
the newspaper published such a false and scandalous report of the trial
that he was obliged a second time to prosecute, and again obtained a
verdict in his favour.
The officers of the 46th Regiment, on leaving the colony, presented him
with a testimonial, and an address most gratifying, amid the general
obloquy, and showing a feeling most honourable to themselves. Every one
who cared for the cause of virtue at home, especially Wilberforce,
Simeon, and Mrs. Fry, wrote encouraging letters to him; and Lord
Bathurst, on receiving a despatch from Macquarie, full of charges against
the chaplain as man, magistrate, and minister, sent out a commission of
inquiry, which, coming with fresh eyes from England, was horrified at the
abuses to which the Australian world was accustomed, found every word of
Mr. Marsden's perfectly justified, and at last extracted the following
confession from Colonel Macquarie: "The Governor admits that Mr.
Marsden's manner to him has been constantly civil and accommodating, and
that nothing in his manner could provoke the Governor's warmth. The
Governor admits his qualifications, his activity, and his unremitting
vigilance as a magistrate, and in society his cheerful disposition and
readiness to please." The report of this commission resulted, among
other more important consequences, in the unsolicited grant of 400 pounds
a year additional stipend to Mr. Marsden, "in consideration of his long,
laborious, and praiseworthy exertions in behalf of religion and
morality." This was only fitting compensation on the part of Government,
for the accusation of avarice had brought to light how many schools and
asylums, the proper work of the Government, had been built, and were
being maintained, out of the proceeds of the farm which had prospered so
excellently.
As long as Macquarie continued in office, Mr. Marsden was out of favour,
but Sir Thomas Brisbane, who came out in 1821, was friendly with him, and
knew his value, insisting on his returning to the bench of magistrates.
He did all he could to avoid it, till the judges and almost every one in
the colony so urged him to accept that he yielded; but in 1824 a case
occurred in which a rich and insolent culprit was severely punished by
the Paramatta bench, and contrived to raise such an outrageous storm that
Sir Thomas Brisbane, who, if better disposed, was more timid than his
predecessor, dismissed the whole five magistrates. The offender's wish
had been merely to overthrow Mr. Marsden, but this was found impossible.
The whole fury of the colony again rose against this fearless man, and
accusations absolutely absurd were trumped up. One was that he allowed
his windmill to work on Sunday! The fact turned out to be, when
investigated, that somebody had once seen the sails turning on a Sunday,
some time before Mr. Marsden had purchased the land on which the mill
stood. A real act of persecution affected him more seriously, as it was
the ruin of another person in whom he was interested. There was an old
regulation forbidding the hiring out of convicts who were assigned to
residents as domestic servants, but this had been virtually repealed by
another under Macquarie, permitting such hiring out on the owners
complying with certain rules. These had been duly attended to by Mr.
Marsden in the case of one James Ring, a plumber and glazier, who, as a
reward for good conduct, was allowed to go out to work in Paramatta for
his own profit. Being ill-used and beaten by another servant, he
summoned the man before the bench of magistrates, but these, who had been
put in when Mr. Marsden and his colleagues were dismissed, immediately
committed Ring to jail for being at large. His master went to demand his
release, showing that the rules had been observed, but the magistrates
replied by levying a fine of two-and-sixpence for every day that Ring had
been at work, and as Marsden did not offer to pay, they sent a convict
constable to his house to seize property to that amount, while poor Ring
himself was sent to work in irons with the penal gang; though at that
very moment one of the magistrates had a servant, a tailor, at work in
Mr. Marsden's house; and another person had two hired convicts of another
of these justices employed at his home. In fact, it was the only
sentence of the kind ever inflicted, yet Sir Thomas Brisbane was afraid
to interfere; whereupon Mr. Marsden caused his case to be tried before
the Supreme Court, and so completely proved it, that restitution of the
illegal fine was commanded, though the spirit of persecution was still
shown in the absurdly small sum of damages allotted to him. What was
worse was that he could not procure the release of Ring, for while he was
sending an appeal to England the unhappy man lost patience, ran away from
the gang where he was working in irons on the roads, and escaped to New
Zealand, but was never heard of more. Had he but borne with his misery a
little longer he would have been restored to his kind master, for a
commission came out which a second time resulted in the complete triumph
of Mr. Marsden, and the entire discomfiture of his persecutors.
We have gone through the history of his home troubles before entering on
the part that concerned his missionary labours. It is a painful picture,
but the staunch firmness that never failed to "boldly rebuke vice," is
too essential a part of the picture to be passed over. The Apostle of
New Zealand was the Baptist of the Herods of Australia. We return to the
year 1816, when, after some months' training in agriculture at Mr.
Marsden's farm, Duaterra had sailed for his home, but only again to
suffer from the perfidy of the master of the ship. The ordinary English
mind seemed incapable of perceiving that any faith need be kept with a
dark-coloured man, and Duaterra was defrauded of his share of the oil
procured from the whales he had helped to catch, carried past his own
shores, only two miles from the _pah_ where the master had engaged to
land him, and turned adrift in the then uninhabited Norfolk Island, where
a whaler picked him up almost starved, and brought him back to Australia.
However, Mr. Marsden found another ship, which did fulfil its
engagements, and Duaterra was at last set ashore in the Bay of Islands,
close to the northern point of New Zealand, with a supply of wheat which
Mr. Marsden had given him.
Two years had passed, and Mr. Marsden had been trying to procure from the
Society at home a mission ship to carry teachers to the islands, visit
them, and supply their wants there, but he had not as yet succeeded, and
he therefore decided on purchasing a small one from Australia at his own
expense. This was the _Active_, the first of the mission vessels that
now bear the Cross in several quarters of the globe. In her Hall and
King sailed, and Mr. Marsden would have accompanied them but for the
express prohibition of Governor Macquarie, who, little as he loved his
senior chaplain, did not choose to lose him on what he regarded as a
scheme of almost fanatic folly. The two teachers were not to settle on
shore, nor even to sleep there, but they were to visit Duaterra,
reconnoitre the ground, and see whether it would be possible to settle
there as they had at first proposed.
To their delight, Duaterra came eagerly to meet them, very anxious for
their assistance with his corn. He had shown it to his tribe, telling
them that hence came the bread and biscuit they had eaten in English
ships, and great had been their disappointment when neither the ear nor
the root of the wheat proved at all like these articles. However, he had
been successful in his farmer operations, but was entirely puzzled by
those of the miller, only knowing that the grain ought to be ground, and
unable to contrive it, though he had borrowed a coffee-mill from a
trading vessel. When the new comers produced a hand-mill he was
delighted. His kindred, to whom he had been a laughing-stock for
averring that biscuit had any connection with his new grass, crowded
round incredulously to watch the mill, showed unbounded amazement as the
white flour streamed forth, and when a cake was hastily made and baked in
a frying-pan they leapt about shouting and dancing for joy. Duaterra,
his uncle Hunghi, a very powerful chief, and five more, accepted an
invitation to come and confer with Mr. Marsden, and the _Active_ brought
them back to New South Wales. They were very anxious for the benefits
which they hoped to derive from intercourse with the whites, and readily
undertook to secure Hall and King from all danger. Even Governor
Macquarie was so far satisfied that he consented to let Mr. Marsden go
out and arrange the new settlement, to which he presented two cows and a
bull. These, with three horses, and some sheep and poultry, were
embarked on board the _Active_, with a motley collection of passengers,
the eight Maories, the three missionaries with their wives and children,
a sawyer, a smith, Mr. Marsden, and another gentleman named John Lydiard
Nicholas, the master of the vessel, his wife, son, and crew, which
included two Tahitians, and lastly a runaway convict who had secreted
himself on board. Their arrival might have been rendered dangerous by
the conduct of a whaling crew at Wangaroa, in the northern island of New
Zealand, who, by way of retaliation for the massacre of the _Boyd's_ ship-
company, had murdered a chief named Tippahee with all his family, without
waiting to find out whether he had been concerned in the slaughter.
Nevertheless, these brave men were ready to dare to the utmost, and the
fame of Mr. Marsden, "the friend of the Maori," had preceded him, and the
_Active_ was welcomed with presents of fish and visits from the natives.
They found that Tippahee's people at Wangaroa had accused the tribe of
the Bay of Islands of leading the English to murder their chief, that
there was in consequence a deadly feud, and that several desperate
battles had been fought. Marsden knew that if he came as the friend of
Duaterra and his tribe alone, party spirit would entirely alienate the
rest of the islanders, and he therefore determined at once to prove that
he came not as the ally of one party, but as the friend of both. He
therefore determined to prove to the Wangaroans his confidence in them by
not only landing among them unarmed, but actually spending the night
among them. His friend Mr. Nicholas accompanied him in this, one of the
most intrepid actions ever performed, when it is remembered that this
tribe consisted of the cannibals who had eaten his own countrymen, and
had of late been freshly provoked. The two gentlemen supped in Hunghi's
hut on potatoes and fish, and then quietly walked over to the hostile
camp, where they met with a friendly welcome. One of the natives who had
sailed in an English vessel was able to interpret, and with his
assistance Mr. Marsden explained the purpose of the missionaries, and the
desirableness of peace. Maories appreciate being spoken to at length and
with due respect, and they listened politely, making speeches in their
own fashion in return, until towards eleven, when most had gone to rest.
The two Englishmen wrapped themselves in their great coats and lay down,
the interpreter bidding them lie near him. It was a clear night,
countless stars shining above, the sea in front smooth, all around a
forest of spears stuck upright in the earth, and on the ground the
multitude of human beings in their scanty loose garb of tapa cloth lying
fast asleep, while the man who had come as an apostle to them spent the
night in thought and prayer. Such a scene can never be forgotten!
In the morning the ship's boat came to fetch him off, and he took the
chiefs back with him to the ship to receive presents and be introduced to
those who were to live among them. There was also a formal
reconciliation with Duaterra and his tribe, and the wondering Maories
took their travelled brother into high estimation when they really beheld
the animals they had imagined to be mere creations of his fancy, and were
specially amazed at the sight of Mr. Marsden mounted on horseback.
Duaterra, meantime, of his own accord, was making preparations for the
first Sunday service held in New Zealand. It was likewise the Christmas
Day of 1815, and Mr. Marsden felt it a most appropriate moment for his
first proclamation of the good tidings of great joy among this most
distant of the nations. Duaterra's ideas of a church consisted in
enclosing about half an acre of land with a fence, and erecting in the
midst a reading-desk three feet, and a pulpit six feet high, both made
out of canoes, covered with either black native cloth or some canvas he
had brought from Port Jackson, and ranging near them some bottoms of old
canoes, as seats for the English part of the congregation, and on the
hill above he hoisted, of his own accord, the British flag.
On the Sunday morning Duaterra, his uncle, and Koro Koro, another chief
who had been in Australia, all appeared in regimentals given them by
Governor Macquarie, swords by their sides, and switches in their hands,
and all their men drawn up behind them. When the English had entered,
the chiefs arranged their tribes, and Mr. Marsden began by singing the
Old Hundredth Psalm, the first note of praise to the Creator that ever
rung from the bays and rocks of New Zealand. Then he went through the
Christmas Day service, his twenty-two English joining in it, and Koro
Koro making signs with his switch to the natives when to stand and when
to sit. Mr. Marsden ended with a sermon on the Angelic greeting, and
when the natives complained that they could not understand, Duaterra
promised to explain afterwards, and this he performed--it may be feared,
after a fashion of his own, for as yet he was very ignorant, although
very acute.
Mr. Marsden's principle was not that of Eliot, to begin with the faith,
then come to civilization. He thought that the benefits of civilization
would lead to the acceptance of the faith; and, besides, he had only
laymen to act as teachers; and, as his system was that of the Church, he
could only employ them in laying foundations, in preparing instead of
admitting converts, while his own duties only permitted of his making
flying visits. So he established his settlers to show the benefits of
peace, industry, and morality, and thus bring the natives to look higher.
Seed, tools, clothing, he assisted them in procuring and using, but his
smith was expressly forbidden ever to make or repair any warlike weapon,
or the settlers ever to barter muskets or powder for any possession of
whatever value with the natives. He likewise strove, in his
conversations with the chiefs, to show the evils of their vices in such a
manner as their shrewd minds could enter into, trying to make them see
the disgrace and horror of cannibalism, and the inconveniences of
polygamy, thus hoping to raise their standard.
In order that the mission settlement might have some security, he
purchased a plot of land in the name of the Church Missionary Society,
drawing up a regular deed of sale, to which his signature was affixed,
together with a likeness of the tattooed pattern of the Maori chieftain's
face. Duaterra walked about with him in delight, talking of the time
when the church should be built, and planning the spot; but the poor
fellow had probably never recovered the injury his constitution had
suffered, for he fell ill, and his state was soon hopeless. It was a
great grief to Mr. Marsden, who had reckoned much on his assistance, and
found it hard to acquiesce in the will of Providence, more especially as
the poor young man was not yet so entirely a Christian as to warrant
baptizing him. He begged Mr. Marsden to pray with him, but he kept his
heathen priest at hand, and his mind was tossed to and fro between the
new truth and the old superstition. In this state Mr. Marsden was forced
to leave him, four days before his death, when Kendall, who visited him
to the last, was shocked at the savage manner in which his relatives
gashed themselves, to show their grief, and far more when his favourite
wife stole out and hung herself, according to a frequent custom, regarded
as rather honourable than otherwise!
Soon after his death fresh wars broke out, and a hostile tribe encamped
near the mission settlement, loudly threatening to kill and devour the
inhabitants, who, for months together, had to keep watch day and night,
put their children to bed in their clothes ready for instant flight, and
had their boat always afloat with oars and sails; but they remained
steadfast, and the danger passed over.
The _Active_ plied backwards and forwards, supplying them with the
necessaries of life, and bringing guests to the farm at Paramatta, where
Mr. Marsden provided instruction for them. Two, named Tooi and Teterree,
were sent in charge of Mr. Nicholas to visit England in a King's ship,
where they had learnt to speak English tolerably, and to follow the
customs of civilized society. They were gentle and intelligent, and
eager to learn, but no one could reckon on what would interest or excite
them. They were taken to see St. Paul's Cathedral, which did not seem to
strike them at all; but, as they were walking along Fleet Street, they
came to a sudden stand before a hairdresser's shop, screaming out,
"Women, women," as they beheld the display of waxen busts, which they
thought did credit to the Pakeha, or English, style of preserving dried
human heads! Like Duaterra, their great anxiety was to see King George;
but, in 1817, the apology recorded in Teterree's English letter was only
too true,--"I never see the King of England, he very poorly; and Queen
Charlotte very poorly too."
On their return to Paramatta, Mr. Marsden made a second visit to New
Zealand, taking them back, and also going to instal some fresh
missionaries and mechanics on a new settlement. There was great
competition among the chiefs; for the possession of a Pakeha, or
Englishman, was greatly coveted as a means of bringing the material good
things of life, and Mr. Marsden was eagerly assured that there was no
danger of the English being killed and eaten, since the Maori flesh was
much sweeter, because the whites ate so much salt. There was as yet no
convert, but Mr. Marsden's resolution by no means failed him; he
believed--and he was right--that kindness, truth, and uprightness, in
those who could confer temporal benefits, would, in time, lead these
intelligent men to appreciate the spiritual blessings that were offered
to them.
Presents of hoes, with which to plant the sweet potato, were greatly
appreciated. Hunghi's head wife was working away with a wooden spade,
though perfectly blind, and was delighted with the new instrument.
Indeed, Hunghi was one of the most eager friends of the mission, though
the splendidly tattooed heads of his enemies decorated his abode, and he
defended cannibalism, on the ground that animals preyed upon one another,
and that the gods devoured each other. His manners had all the high-bred
courtesy that marked the chief, and he was a noble-looking creature, full
of native majesty and gentleness. Every hope was entertained of him, and
he was sent, in 1820, to visit England, where he had an interview with
George IV., and received presents of weapons from him. But the moral
Hunghi brought home was, "There is but one king in England. There shall
be but one in New Zealand." And this consummation he endeavoured to
bring about by challenging a hostile chief whom he met on his way back
from Sydney to New Zealand. He gained the battle, by arranging his men
in the form of a wedge, and likewise by the number of muskets with which
he was able to arm them. When the chief himself fell by his hand, he
drank his fresh blood, and devoured his eye, in the belief that it thus
became a star in the firmament, and conferred glory on himself; and the
whole battle-field was covered with the ovens in which his followers
cooked the flesh of the prisoners whom they did not keep as slaves!
This horrible scene took place while Mr. Marsden was in Australia, but he
could hardly have prevented it. Probably the chief's ferocity, so long
repressed, was in a state of reaction; for, though the missionaries were
not molested, their efforts seemed lost. Hunghi declared that he wished
his children to learn to fight, not to read; and the Maoris insisted on
being paid for any service to the missionaries in fire-arms and powder.
When this was refused they became insolent and mischievous, intruding
into the houses, demanding food, breaking down the fences, and stealing
whatever they could seize; and there was reason to fear that any
excitement might lead to absolute danger. In this crisis some of the
missionaries failed, sold ammunition, and otherwise were wanting in the
testimony they were intended to maintain. The tidings determined Mr.
Marsden on making a fourth visit to New Zealand: and this time he was
able to take with him a clergyman, the Rev. Henry Williams, who lived to
become Bishop of a Maori district. It was nine years since the first
landing there, and, in spite of all disappointments, he found many of the
natives much improved, and the friendly chiefs quite able to understand
his prohibition against the sale of powder, although they were at first
inclined to be angry at his having sent home a missionary on that
account. The other missionaries expressed repentance for their errors,
but he was not thoroughly satisfied with them, though allowing much for
their isolation from Christian society and ordinances.
A Wesleyan mission had been established at Wangaroa, which he visited and
assisted, and finding Mr. Leigh, the chief minister, very ill, offered
him a passage to Sydney for advice, but this ship had scarcely weighed
anchor before a great storm came on; the ship was lost, and the crew and
passengers had to land in boats, and return for two months longer before
a ship could be found to bring them home, and in this time he did all in
his power to bring the Maories to agree to some settled form of
government under a single chief; but though any chief, especially Hunghi,
was quite willing to be that one, nobody would be anything secondary, and
thus the project failed. He also set the missionaries the task of
endeavouring to collect a fixed vocabulary and grammar, which might be
available in future translations. The great kindness shown him at his
shipwreck had greatly touched his heart, especially in contrast with the
usage he was meeting with in Australia, for this was in the height of the
persecution about Ring, which detained him at home for more than two
years. During this time Mr. Williams was joined by his brother William,
also a priest of the English Church, but the wars of the Maories had
become so desperate that the peril of the missionaries had been much
increased; indeed, the Wesleyans had had the whole of their premises
ravaged, so that the minister came as a fugitive to find a refuge at
Paramatta, as a guest of Mr. Marsden.
That brave soldier of his Lord decided on going at once to the scene of
peril. Though sixty-three years old, he sailed as soon as possible in
H.M.S. _Rainbow_, but found peace restored and the danger to his missions
over. He therefore came back, after remaining only five days at his
labours in New South Wales, to the superintendence of the translation of
several chapters of Holy Scripture, and to the instruction of the young
Maories at the sort of college he had tried from the first to keep up at
Paramatta, but which he was forced to abandon, since the delicate lungs
of the Maories could not endure the parching dryness of the Australian
climate.
By the time he went again to New Zealand, in 1830, Hunghi had been killed
in battle, and the nation was fast dwindling between war and a disease
resembling the influenza. It was estimated that in twenty years the
numbers had diminished by one-half, and in the meantime English settlers
were entering on the lands so numerously that it was evident that before
long the islands would be annexed to the British crown. Mr. Marsden had
hoped at first that this brave and intelligent people might have been
Christianized and civilized, so as to stand alone, but finding that their
deadly feuds and internecine savagery rendered this impossible, he
thought it best to prepare them to come willingly under a curb that he
trusted would be no more than beneficial.
He found the missionaries much alarmed, for a horrible battle had just
been fought, caused by the misconduct and insulting behaviour of the crew
of an English ship. One tribe had taken their part, another had risen to
revenge the affront, and a great mutual slaughter had taken place;
victory had remained with the avengers, and though the offending crew had
sailed away, it was apprehended that all the English might suffer in
their stead. There was not an hour to be lost. Mr. Marsden and Mr.
Williams crossed the bay and entered the camp of the English allies,
where they were affectionately greeted, and allowed to carry proposals of
peace to the victorious party, but there they met with a less friendly
reception, being told that they were answerable for the lives of those
who had fallen in the battle, since it had been occasioned by the
misconduct of their countrymen. When Mr. Marsden promised to write to
England to prevent the return of the offenders, the savages desired he
would do no such thing, since they only desired vengeance. However, they
agreed to hold a meeting with the hostile tribe, and endeavour to come to
terms. Early the next morning thirty-six canoes arrived opposite to the
mission station, some containing forty men; and notice was given that if
the commissioners appointed on either side did not come to terms, the
white men would be the sacrifice.
The day was spent in conferences, but at night the chief of the hostile
tribe clove a stick in two, in token that his anger was broken, and the
two parties joined in a hideous war-dance, frequently firing their
muskets; but peace was ratified, and Mr. Marsden found that real progress
had been made among the natives around the stations. Many had become
true and sincere Christians, among them the widow and daughters of
Hunghi. A Maori Christian woman was married by Mr. Marsden to an
Englishman. She made all the responses in good English, and appeared in
decent English clothes of her own sewing. He also married a young man,
free, and of good family, to a girl who had been a slave taken in war,
who was redeemed from her master for five blankets, an axe, and an iron
pot. A number of natives lived round the missions, attending the
services, and working with a good deal of industry and intelligence, and
an increasingly large proportion of these were openly baptized
Christians.
A seventh visit was paid by Mr. Marsden in 1837, when seventy-two years
of age. On his return an officer in the ship observed: "I think, sir,
you may look on this as your last visit to New Zealand." "No," he
answered, "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." He adhered to his purpose,
and his daughter, Martha, who had been with him on his last voyage,
accompanied him again in this. There had been some quarrels with the
crews of ships, but the natives always separated Mr. Marsden from the
misdeeds of his people, and the old chiefs were delighted to see him.
"Stay with us and learn our language," one of them said: "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."
Wherever he went, he was hailed as the friend of the Maori, and he made a
progress through all the mission stations, which were growing up
numerously, and whence Christianity was fast spreading by the agency of
the Maories themselves. A chief named Koromona, made captive in Hunghi's
great war, who had become blind, had been converted by Mr. William
Williams, and soon learnt the whole Liturgy, with many chapters of the
Bible, and hymns, by heart, and was fit to be sent as a teacher among the
other tribes. Sunday was generally observed, cannibalism and polygamy
were retreating into the more remote and heathenish regions, and there
was every token that the noble Apostle of New Zealand had verily
conquered a country and people for the Church of God. Terrible wars
among the tribes, provoking all the old ferocities, still were liable to
arise, and the whaling crews, among whom might be found some of the most
unscrupulous, licentious, and violent of mankind, continued to take
advantage of there being no regular jurisdiction to commit outrages,
which spread corruption or provoked retaliation, and for this there was
no remedy but annexation to the British crown, which the influence of the
mission was leading the natives themselves to desire, though this was not
carried out till after Mr. Marsden's death.
This last visit took place in 1837. By that time the persecutions and
troubles of Mr. Marsden's colonial life had been outlived,--though even
as late as 1828, he writes about a pamphlet which actually charged him
with inflicting torture to extract confession! But his character
outweighed all such absurd charges, and as a more respectable class of
settlers flowed into the colony he was better appreciated. What the tone
must have been may be guessed from the fact that when, in 1825, Governor
Darling began regularly to attend church with his wife and family, it was
regarded as an unexampled act in the supreme magistrate!
Mr. Marsden lost his wife in 1835, but his daughter did her best to
minister to his happiness, and was his companion and assistant in all he
undertook. Once, when she was driving with him, two of the most terrible
of the bushrangers, who were feared by the whole country, broke forth
upon them, seized the horse, and holding a loaded pistol to Mr. Marsden's
breast, bade her empty his pockets into their hands, threatening to shoot
them both if either said a word. Nevertheless, the fearless old man
continued to remonstrate with them on their wicked life, telling them
that he should see them again upon the gallows, and though they charged
him with savage threats not to follow them with his eyes, he turned round
and continued to warn them of the consequences of a life like theirs. In
a few months' time they were captured, and it did actually fall to his
lot to attend them to the scaffold.
Yet, though of this fearless mould, he was one of the most loveable of
men; everyone on his farm, as well as all little children, and the
savages he conversed with, all loved him passionately. Some young
Maories, whom he brought back on his last voyage, used to race after his
gig to catch his eye, and when they took hold of any book, used to point
upwards, as if whatever was associated with Matua, as they called him,
must lead to heaven. He was fond of playing with children, and never was
so happy as when he yearly collected the schoolchildren of Paramatta on
his lawn, for a feast and games after it.
In 1834, the Rev. William Grant Broughton, one of the clergy of
Australia, took home an account of the spiritual destitution of New South
Wales, and the effect was that in 1836 a bishopric was there created, and
the first presentation given to him. Some thought that this was a
passing over of the chaplain who had laboured so hard for so many years,
but Mr. Marsden himself only observed that it was better thus: he was too
old a man, and it was with sincere goodwill that he handed over the
charge he had held for more than forty years, so that only the parish of
Paramatta remained to him, and there he continued his ministry in church,
to the sick, and among the poor to the end.
On the last Sunday of his life he seemed in his usual health; but for the
first time he did not take part in the service, and at the celebration he
seemed to be so overcome by his feelings as not to move from his place to
communicate, when, after a pause, his son-in-law went to him with the
sacred elements. There were many tears shed by those who foreboded that
his hand would never administer to them again. On the Tuesday he set out
for a short journey, but apparently he took a chill on the way to the
house of his friend, Mr. Styles, at Windsor, and arrived unwell;
erysipelas in the head came on, with a stupor of the faculties, and he
died on Saturday, the 12th of May, 1838,--a man much tried, but resolute,
staunch, and gallant, and, in the end, blessedly successful.
Two years later, New Zealand, by the wish of the Maories themselves, was
added to the British dominions, a bishopric was erected there, and, did
not our bounds forbid us to speak of those who are still among us, we
could tell much of the development, under Bishop Selwyn, of Samuel
Marsden's work: though, alas! there is a tale to tell that disgraces, not
our Government, but our people,--a story of lust of land and of gain, and
of pertinacious unfairness towards the Maori, which has alienated a large
number of that promising and noble people, led to their relapse into the
horrors from which they had been freed, overthrown their flourishing
Church in favour of a horrid, bloodthirsty superstition, and will
probably finish its work by the destruction of the gallant race that once
asked our protection.