A History of the English Church in New Zealand — John Shaqi
A History of the English Church in New ZealandPurchas, Henry Thomas
History
A History of the English Church in New Zealand
Purchas, Henry Thomas
Church of the Province of New Zealand -- History; New Zealand -- Church history
At his departure in December, Marsden left behind him a peaceful
community and an apparently prosperous mission. Butler had during the
year put into the ground the first plough ever used in New Zealand. The
Maoris were quiet, and the missionaries went to their beds at night
without any sense of insecurity. Four of the newly visited chiefs from
the Thames district followed Marsden at a short interval to Australia,
and stayed with him in his parsonage at Parramatta. Among these was
Hinaki of Mokoia, who wished to continue his journey to England. They
were still in the house when, in the following May, Hongi and Kendall
arrived on their return journey. It was the month of the death of the
great Napoleon at St. Helena, and it would almost seem as though a
portion of his spirit had passed into the Maori chief on his passage
through the Atlantic. At any rate Hongi began now to disclose his
purposes: "Do not go to England," he said to Hinaki at Marsden's table;
"you will surely be ill there. Better go home and see to your defences.
I shall come to visit you before long." All the presents which the great
people in England had showered upon him (excepting, of course, the suit
of armour) he now bartered for muskets and powder. A legend of his race
told how when the Maoris came from Hawaiki they were followed by an
invisible canoe in which sat the figure of Death. With more reason might
that grim form have been supposed to lurk now in the hold of the ship in
which Hongi and Hinaki sailed together to their native land.
They arrived there in the July of 1821, and the missionaries of Kerikeri
soon realised that they had a different Hongi to deal with. For a time
he held aloof from them, and when he did speak he showed great reserve.
Some allowance must of course be made for the inevitable disillusionment
of such a return. After the palaces of the bishops by whom he had been
entertained in England, the mission stations must have appeared even
startlingly humble. But the real grievance was the cessation of the
trade in firearms. The King had approved of this trade: why should the
missionaries object? Kendall in his new clerical attire seemed quite
willing to play the part of court-chaplain to the would-be king. "I
would as soon," he said, "trade with a musket as with a dollar."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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