IV.— MISCELLANEOUS. 



Art. LII. — The Story of John Batherfonl. 

 By Archdeacon W. L. Williams. 



[Bead before the Auckland Institute, 6th October, 1S90.] 



Having occasion recently to look up the story of John 

 Eutherford, I thought that additional interest might be im- 

 parted to it if it could be illustrated by the native traditions 

 of the circumstances attending his capture, and of any events 

 connected with his enforced residence of nearly ten years 

 among a savage people. As many interesting details of Cap- 

 tain Cook's visit to these parts are still current among the 

 natives, it was to be expected that the capture of the 

 " Agnes," which occurred forty-seven years afterwards, would 

 be the subject of a tradition quite as circumstantial and as 

 interesting as that relating to the great navigator, especially 

 as this event would acquire additional importance from the 

 fact that they became possessed thereby of a considerable 

 number of much-coveted firearms. The object of this paper is 

 to place on record the results of inquiries made among the 

 natives, and the conclusions to which they lead. 



Puthcrford states that he left New Zealand in 1826, and, 

 after a sojourn of nearly a year at Tahiti, and of some 

 further time at Port Jackson and Eio de Janeiro, arrived in 

 England early in 1828. Being himself unable to w^-ite, he got 

 a friend to commit the story of his adventures to writing, at 

 his dictation, in the course of the voyage from Eio to England. 

 The substance of tliis story was published in 1830 by Charles 

 Knight, in " The New-Zealanders," a volume of the Library 

 of Useful Knowledge, which is said to have been revised and 

 in part written by Lord Brougham. As this book is long since 

 out of print, and now seldom to be met with, I will extract 

 from it such a ])rief sketch of Eutherford's personal adventures 

 as may suffice for my present purpose. 



After several voyages in different parts of the world, 

 Eutherford shipped on board the " Magnet," a tlii'ee-masted 

 schooner trading among the islands of the Pacific Ocean. 

 This vessel having put in at Hawaii, in the Sandwich Islands, 

 Eutherford fell sick and was left on tliat island. Having re- 



