460 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1817. 



settle a mission from the latter 

 country to New Ze;tland. They 

 were attended by a cliief of the 

 island named Duateira, together 

 with two other chiefs, Shungi and 

 Korra-korra, who sailed with 

 them from New South Wales. 



In December 1814, the shipj 

 with two other missionaries on 

 board, arrived otfthe North Cape 

 of New Zealand. Mr. Maraden 

 was principally itidiiced to make 

 this attempt by a copviction that 

 the merchant vessels which had 

 occasionally touched upon the 

 islands had been tiie a^gressor-j, 

 and had propagated the opinion, 

 that the natives were no better 

 than cannibals ; he tlierefore, with 

 his companions, landed without 

 scruple upon an isle within the 

 Bav of islands. This was very 

 near the spot where tlie Englisii 

 ship Boyd had been totally cut o(f 

 in 1S09; and it happened that 

 al)oi!t a hundred of tlic warriors 

 of \\'angeroa, the scejie of the 

 action, were collected on the isle 

 to attend the funeral of a deceased 

 chief. The desciiption given by 

 Mr. Nicholas of his adventure witli 

 this hand of uarriois, is extremely 

 striking. 



" The public, 1 should suppose, 

 are already aware from Mr. Mars- 

 dcn's statement, that tiu^ chief 

 Cicorge, who is known by this 

 name to the Kurojtenn .sailors, 

 ,»(jnic of whom, in all probability, 

 first gave it to him, had been the 

 principal agent in cutting off the 

 Boyd, and certainly the face of 

 this man bespoke liim capable of 

 couiniitting so auocious an act. 

 His features were not unsightly, 

 l;\it tlioy appeared to veil a dark 

 nail subtle malignity of intention, 

 'Hid the lurking tieachery of a 



depraved heart was perfectly legi- 

 ble in every one of them. He had 

 acquired too, from his intercourse 

 with European sailors, a coarse 

 familiarity of manner mingled 

 with a degree of sneering impu- 

 dence, which gave him a character 

 completely distinct from his coun- 

 trymen, and making him odious 

 in our view, reconciled us the 

 more easily to their imsophisti- 

 cated rudeness. This chief having 

 served on boani some of the 

 whalers, could fc[)eak English very 

 fluently, and on my going up to 

 shake liands with him, he thought 

 proper to return the compliment 

 with " How do you do, my boy ?" 

 which he uttered in so characte- 

 ristic a style of vulgar freedom, 

 yet so totally unlike the blunt fa- 

 miliarity of honest friendship, that 

 he excited at the same moment my 

 abhorrence and disgust. It was 

 necessary, however, to be very 

 circumspect towards this designing 

 chief, and I took care that he 

 should see nothing in my conduct 

 that could lead him to suspect he 

 was at all obnoxious to me. 



The contending parties being 

 now in perfect amity with each 

 other, and peace firmly established, 

 we left the camp to return to the 

 village, resolving however to corae 

 back again, and spend the night 

 among these warriors, with whose 

 reception of us we had every rea- 

 son to be satisfied. We wished to 

 shew them by all the means in 

 our power, that we were capable 

 of forgetting the enormity of the 

 crime they had committed, and 

 that we harboured no resentment 

 against them for the cruel slaugh- 

 ter of our unfortunate coimtrymeii. 

 It wai with this view, therefore, 

 that we determined on trusting 



ourselvp'^ 



