Augustus Earle - A Narrative of a Nine Months Residence in New Zealand in 1827

A New Zealand War Speech. (From a sketch by A. Earle.)

CONTENTS
VOYAGE FROM SYDNEY
WRECKS AT HOKIANGA
MAORI WELCOME
NATIVE CHARACTERISTICS
EUROPEANS AT HOKIANGA
CANNIBALISM
A MAORI VILLAGE
THE TAPU ON CROPS
MAORI ART
HOKIANGA RIVER
MR. HOBBS' MISSION
THE TIMBER INDUSTRY
AN OVERLAND JOURNEY
THE CHIEF PATUONE
A PICTURESQUE SCENE
IN THE DENSE FOREST
THE KERIKERI MISSION
INHOSPITABLE RECEPTION
THE BAY OF ISLANDS
MASSACRE OF THE BOYD
KORORAREKA
A MIXED COMMUNITY
SHULITEA (KING GEORGE)
MAORI CONSERVATISM
A MISSION SETTLEMENT
THE MECHANIC MISSIONARY
VISIT FROM HONGI
HONGI'S COAT OF MAIL
INTERVIEW WITH HONGI
A MAORI WELCOME
INLAND EXCURSIONS
MAORI WOMEN'S CAMP
LOADING SPARS, HOKIANGA
DEATH OF A CHIEF
TRADING WITH MAORIS
BRUTAL MURDER OF A WIFE
ANOTHER JOURNEY
INTERIOR OF THE COUNTRY
A WAR PARTY
HOSTILE DISPLAY
THE LAW OF MURU
A SEDUCTION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
LAW OF RETALIATION
A WAR EXPEDITION
CANNIBALISM
MAORI SLAVERY
PIRACY BY CONVICTS
N.Z. CLIMATE
THE STARVATION CURE
THE ART OF TATTOOING
TRIBAL GOVERNMENT
MAORI BELIEFS
THE CUSTOM OF TAPU
SUNDAY OBSERVANCE
MASSACRE OF FRENCH NAVIGATOR MARION AND PARTY
THE MAORIS' VIEW OF CHRISTIANITY
HONGI'S THREATS
PREPARING FOR WAR
ARRIVAL OF A WARSHIP
WHALERS AND MISSIONARIES
THREATENED WAR
CONSTRUCTION OF A PA
A SHAM FIGHT
AN EXCITING INCIDENT
VISIT OF A GREAT TOHUNGA
VICTORIOUS WARRIORS
TREATMENT OF PRISONERS
BAKED HEADS
VISITS OF WHALERS
SOUTH SEA ISLANDERS
DEATH OF HONGI
A TRIBAL CONFLICT
SHULITEA (KING GEORGE) KILLED
EXCITEMENT AT KORORAREKA
EARLE'S FAREWELL
MISSIONARIES ALARMED
JOURNEY TO HOKIANGA
EUROPEAN DEFENCES
MR. HOBBS' MESSAGE OF PEACE
MAORI SOCIAL CUSTOMS
EUROPEAN LIAISONS WITH MAORIS
MAORI MARRIAGES
A MAORI TANGI
MAORI CHARACTERISTICS
ORIGIN OF OUTRAGES
FAMILY AFFECTION
TRADE OF HOKIANGA
A CREW MASSACRED
FAREWELL TO NEW ZEALAND
MAORIS IN SYDNEY
MASSACRE OF FURNEAUX'S BOAT'S CREW
CANNIBALISM
A TRIBAL FIGHT

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The author of this account of New Zealand in the year 1827 was an artist by profession. "A love of roving and adventure," he states, tempted him, at an early age, to sea. In 1815 he procured a passage on board a storeship bound for Sicily and Malta, where he had a brother stationed who was a captain in the navy. He visited many parts of the Mediterranean, accompanying Lord Exmouth's fleet in his brother's gunboat on his Lordship's first expedition against the Barbary States. He afterwards visited the ruins of Carthage and the remains of the ancient city of Ptolomea, or Lepida, situated in ancient Libya. Returning to Malta, he passed through Sicily, and ascended Mount Etna. In 1818 he left England for the United States, and spent nearly two years in rambling through that country. Thence he proceeded to Brazil and Chile, returning to Rio de Janeiro, where he practised his art until the commencement of 1824. Having received letters of introduction to Lord Amherst, who had left England to undertake the government of India, Mr. Earle left Rio for the Cape of Good Hope, intending to take his passage thence to Calcutta. On the voyage to the Cape the vessel by which he was a passenger touched at Tristan d'Acunha, and was driven off that island in a gale while Mr. Earle was ashore, leaving him stranded in that desolate land, where he remained for six months, when he was rescued by a passing ship, the "Admiral Cockburn," bound for Van Diemen's Land, whence he visited New South Wales and New Zealand, returning again to Sydney. In pursuance of his original resolution to visit India, he left Sydney in "The Rainbow," touching at the Caroline Islands, Manilla, and Singapore. After spending some time in Madras, where he executed many original drawings, which were afterwards copied and exhibited in a panorama, he set out for England by a French vessel, which was compelled by stress of weather to put into Mauritius, where she was condemned. Mr. Earle ultimately reached England in a vessel named the "Resource," but, being still animated by the desire for travel, he accepted the situation of draughtsman on His Majesty's ship "Beagle," commanded by Captain Fitzroy, which in the year 1831 left on a voyage of discovery that has been made famous by the observations of Charles Darwin, who accompanied the expedition in the capacity of naturalist.

The notes which furnished the materials for this book were made by Mr. Earle during his first visit to New Zealand, in 1827. They are valuable as setting forth the impressions formed by an educated man, who came into the primitive community then existing at Hokianga and the Bay of Islands, without being personally connected either with the trading community, the missionaries, or the whalers. It should not be inferred from the reflections Mr. Earle casts upon the missionaries that he was himself an irreligious man, because the journal of his residence on Tristan d'Acunha shows that, while living there, he read the whole service of the Church of England to that little community every Sunday, and his diary in many places exhibits a reverence for Divine things. It may, however, be said in extenuation of the lack of hospitality on the part of the missionaries of which he complains, that many of the early residents and European visitors to New Zealand were of an undesirable class, and that they exercised a demoralising influence upon the Maoris. It was not easy for the missionaries to consort, upon terms of intimacy, with their fellow-countrymen whose relations with the Natives were such as they must strongly condemn. Earle's narrative is interesting because it conveys a realistic description of the Maoris before their national customs and habits had undergone any material change through association with white settlers. In dealing with Maori names, Mr. Earle, having at that period no standard of orthography to guide him, followed the example of Captain Cook in spelling words phonetically. Except in the case of certain well-known places the original spelling has been retained in the present edition of his book.

Having made up my mind to visit the island of New Zealand, and having persuaded my friend Mr. Shand to accompany me, we made an arrangement for the passage with Captain Kent, of the brig Governor Macquarie, and, bidding adieu to our friends at Sydney, in a few hours (on October 20th, 1827) we were wafted into the great Pacific Ocean.

There were several other passengers on board, who were proceeding to New Zealand to form a Wesleyan missionary establishment at Hokianga. Amongst these were a Mr. and Mrs. Hobbs, who were most enthusiastic in the cause. They had formerly belonged to the same mission at Whangaroa, when a war which took place amongst the natives totally destroyed their establishment; and, after enduring great varieties of suffering, they escaped, but lost everything they possessed, except the clothes they had on. We had a very fine wind for nine days, and on the 29th we saw a gannet, a sure sign we were within a hundred miles of land, for these birds are never seen at a greater distance from it. True to our anticipations, towards the afternoon the water became discoloured, and at midnight we saw the land.