Hocken. — Early Visits of the French to New Zealand. 139 



De Surville, rightly or wrongly, suspected the Natives of having 

 stolen it, and on this assumption resorted to most cruel measures, 

 burning their houses and canoes, maltreating them, and finally 

 taking as a prisoner on board his vessel the chief Naginoui, who 

 had proved himself the sick sailors' most faithful friend, and 

 had offered his whare to them as a shelter. The surgeon of the 

 vessel, Duluc, thus continues the story : " I was greatly sur- 

 prised to see that the Indian who had been carried on board, 

 tied hands and feet, was the chief who, directly he had selected a 

 site suitable for the sick, brought me some dried fish in the 

 most feeling manner, asking for no payment. No sooner had 

 the poor fellow recognised me than he threw himself at my 

 feet, and with tears in his eyes implored me, so far as I could 

 guess his words to mean, to protect and intercede for one who 

 had helped me when I myself so greatly needed help. I explained 

 as well as I was able that he should suffer no harm. He clasped 

 me in his arms, pointing to the land of his birth, from which he 

 was being torn. Happily for me the captain took him to his 

 cabin, for I was distressed beyond measure to witness this un- 

 fortunate man's dread of the fate before him." Poor Naginoui 

 did not long survive. The sweetness of man's flesh, of dried 

 shark, and pounded fernroot were for him no more, and within 

 two months after his cruel abduction he died, and was cast 

 overboard, when the vessel was off Juan Fernandez. Those who 

 contend for retributive justice may here recognise an example 

 in the conclusion of this sad story. A fortnight later, De Surville 

 was drowned whilst attempting, in the ship's boat, to cross the 

 bar of Chiloa, on the coast of Peru. Thus was perpetrated, so 

 far as New Zealand is concerned, the first of many acts of cruelty 

 and injustice on the part of the white man from which the 

 Natives have subsequently' suffered. Well may the savage take 

 utu, or vengeance, out of all proportion to the wrong which 

 his rule and practice impel him to right. The Abbe Rochon, 

 who collected the account of this expedition and of that which 

 follows, published them in a volume of great rarity, concluding 

 it thus : " But the manner in which he treated those Natives 

 who had the misfortune to come across him, his seizures of 

 defenceless men who trusted to his faith, the artifices he adopted 

 to deceive those who had the good sense to mistrust him, will 

 always be a stain on his memory in the eyes of those who have 

 any sentiment of humanity and justice." Those words retain 

 their weight and application until to-day. 



The next visit in point of order was a most eventful one, and 

 ended in terrible catastrophe. It was an expedition under- 

 taken in 1771-72 by Captain Marion du Fresne, an able and 

 zealous officer of the French marine, who, like others of his 



