Barstow. — Our Earliest Settlers. 427 



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 

 Eesident 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 Bangihoua. 



It is 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 



