Barstow.—Our Earliest Settlers. 491 
Hongi, who some years afterwards became notorious or illustrious by the 
bloody wars which he waged throughout the Northern Island. It has been 
computed that 30,000 lives were lost during his campaigns. These did not 
commence till 1820, after Hongi's return from a journey to England, during 
which he acquired a considerable stock of arms and ammunition ; to the 
Mission, however, he always proved a staunch friend. 
It was not until November, 1814, that the expedition was fully equipped, 
and the brig “ Active ” sailed from Sydney, carrying “ our earliest settlers ” 
to this country. The ship's company of nine had among it two Maoris, and 
as many South Sea Islanders, whilst the passengers, besides Tuatara, 
Hongi and Korakora with five other Maoris, were Mr. and Mrs. Hall and 
child, Mr. and Mrs. Kendall and three children, Mr. and Mrs. King and one 
child. This child, Philip, was in after years Clerk and Interpreter to the 
Resident Magistrate’s Court, at Waiuku, and died there a year ago, having 
been the last survivor of the “ Active’s” party. These three families formed 
the Mission Staff ; three assigned convict servants were allowed by the New 
South Wales Government to be allotted to them. There were on board 
besides, Mr. Marsden himself, a Mr. Nicholas, and Thomas Hansen, the son 
of the captain. These three returned in the “ Active " to Sydney, but the 
last, Hansen, who was Mrs. King’s brother, came back to the Bay of Islands 
with a young wife early in 1815, and from that time till his death, not ten 
years ago, at the age of eighty-nine, never once again left the bay. 
After calling at the North Cape, the vessel anchored amongst the Cavalli 
Islands. There Messrs. Marsden and Kendall with the chiefs landed, and 
met Hori with a war-party of two hundred men. They passed their first 
night ashore with the people who five years before had killed and eaten the 
* Boyd's" crew and passengers. True they now had the three chiefs with 
them as protectors. On the 19th December, 1814, the ** Active " reached 
the Bay of Islands and came-to in front of Rangihoua. 
Itis hardly possible for any person who has landed in New Zealand 
during the last twenty years to form a correct, conception of the habits and 
numbers of the natives even twenty years further back ; but Auckland early 
settlers can call to mind. the mat-clad people who hawked about fish, pota- 
toes, etc., and the incessant going to and fro of canoes, some even still 
retaining their quaint raupo sails; but then the Maoris all professed 
Christianity, and intertribal wars had all but ceased ; the pakeha too had 
become numerous, though not sufficiently so as to have the effect of over- 
awing the aborigines. But can any of us picture to ourselves the state of 
affairs existing when “ our earliest settlers” landed? In the first place the 
Maoris were four or five times more than now, the population in the north 
especially being very dense. Every hill-top, peninsula, or small island, was 
