A Narrative of a Nine Months' Residence in New Zealand in 1827 eBook

Augustus Earle
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 197 pages of information about A Narrative of a Nine Months' Residence in New Zealand in 1827.

A Narrative of a Nine Months' Residence in New Zealand in 1827 eBook

Augustus Earle
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 197 pages of information about A Narrative of a Nine Months' Residence in New Zealand in 1827.

After two months’ residence at Sydney we had an opportunity of procuring a passage for them to their own country; and they departed, expressing the greatest gratitude for our attentions towards them.  They were loaded with presents of all descriptions; for, finding they generally got what they begged for, while here, they importuned everyone they met, and they used daily to return home burthened with the most miscellaneous and extraordinary jumble of commodities it was possible to conceive; for, as everything they then beheld was new to them, and might be (they thought) of some service to them in their own country, each trifle was of great value in their estimation, and was carefully stowed away.  They always expressed their concern that so few muskets were given to them, and that they were presented with ammunition in such small quantities.  War-like stores were their grand desideratum; and though they would accept of any thing you chose to give them, yet they always had hopes they should finally receive their favourite presents of a stocking of powder, a piece of lead, or a musket.

THE END.

APPENDIX I.

MASSACRE OF CAPT.  FURNEAUX’S BOAT’S CREW.

CANNIBALISM OF THE MAORIS.

[The following is the account given by Captain Furneaux of the massacre of his boat’s crew, referred to in Earle’s narrative on page 24.]

* * * * *

The Resolution, under command of Captain Cook, and the Adventure, commanded by Captain Furneaux, sailed from Plymouth on the 13th April, 1772, to continue the exploration of New Zealand begun during Captain Cook’s first voyage.  The vessels became finally separated in a gale off Cape Palliser in October, 1773, and the two navigators did not meet again until after Cook’s return to England in July, 1775.

Captain Furneaux reported that while his ship was refitting in Queen Charlotte Sound the astronomer’s tent was robbed by a party of natives.  One who was seen escaping was fired upon and wounded, when he and his confederates made for the woods, leaving their canoe with most of the stolen goods on the shore.  “This petty larceny,” Captain Furneaux remarks, “probably laid the foundation of that dreadful catastrophe which soon after happened,” and which he thus describes: 

“On Friday, the 17th, we sent out our large cutter, manned with seven seamen, under the command of Mr. John Rowe, the first mate, accompanied by Mr. Woodhouse, midshipman, and James Tobias Swilley, the carpenter’s servant.  They were to proceed up the Sound to Grass Cove to gather greens and celery for the ship’s company, with orders to return that evening; for the tents had been struck at two in the afternoon, and the ship made ready for sailing the next day.  Night coming on, and no cutter appearing, the captain and others began to express great uneasiness.  They sat up all night in expectation of their arrival,

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A Narrative of a Nine Months' Residence in New Zealand in 1827 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.