J14 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. XI. 
From the foundation of this establishment may be 
dated the spread of loose characters over the northern 
part of New Zealand. Two convicts who concealed 
themselves on board the missionary brig escaped into the 
country ; and, strange though it may appear, part of the 
retinue of the first missionaries also consisted of three 
convicts, for whose return to New South Wales within 
three years Messrs. Marsden and Kendal gave security.* 
I am unable to ascertain whether or not the security 
was forfeited. 
It is more difficult to ascertain the date at which 
sealers began to establish themselves on the southern 
coasts. Even in the end of the last century, certainly, 
parties were left with provisions and ammunition to 
collect seal-skins for colonial vessels on those coasts. 
There being but few natives in that part, it was pro- 
bably some time before the two races came into col- 
lision ; but I have met in New Zealand a person who 
is now attached as interpreter to the local Government, 
and who had about that period led the hazardous life of 
a sealer in the south. He related to me many hair- 
breadth escapes, and numerous instances in which the 
physical superiority and union of the Europeans had 
been required to maintain their position and defend 
themselves from the unprovoked aggressions of their 
treacherous neighbours. 
But the foundation of the whaling settlements on 
shore seems to have been laid about 1827, when the 
same men who had for years previously pursued the 
arduous life of a sealer along the coasts of the JNliddle 
Island and Foveaux's Strait were encouraged to en- 
gage in the pursuit of the whale, and to form esta- 
Principal Chaplain of New South Wales,' by John Liddiard 
Nicholas, Esq., in 2 vols., London, 1817, vol. i. p. 215. 
* Ibid. vol. i. p. 37 ; vol. ii. p. 206. 
