- MD
Historical: The Boyd Massacre
Read this link first: https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/96913242/an-early-massacre-seen-from-two-different-perspectives
Background
In 1808 the crew of the Commerce had inadvertently caused an outbreak of disease that killed a number of Māori. Ngāti Uru believed that a curse had been placed on them and viewed the next European visitors, those on the Boyd, with apprehension and suspicion.
The Boyd was a 395-ton (bm) brigantine convict ship that sailed in October 1809 from Australia's Sydney Cove to Whangaroa on the east coast of New Zealand's Northland Peninsula to pick up kauri spars. She was under the command of Captain John Thompson and carried about 70 people, including several passengers and ex-convicts who had completed their transportation sentences as well as four or five New Zealanders who were returning to their homeland. Te Ara was a son of a Māori chief from Whangaroa who had spent more than a year on board different vessels that included a sealing expedition to islands in the Southern Ocean.
There are a number of stories as to why he was flogged but the truth is - no one knows. Yet he was deprived of food, and he was whipped according to European shipboard (customs) of the day. (Under British law, whipping was the common punishment for minor crimes and one could be hanged for stealing in excess of 5 shillings in value).
This made Te Ara seek utu, or revenge and after regaining the confidence of the captain, persuaded him to put into Whangaroa Bay, assuring him that it was the best place to secure the timber he desired. Upon reaching Whangaroa, Te Ara reported his indignities to his tribe and displayed the whip marks on his back. In accordance with Māori (customs), they formed a plan for utu. In Māori culture the son of a chief was a privileged figure who did not bow to an outsider's authority. Physical punishment of a chief's son, though justified by British law, caused the chief to suffer a loss of face (or "mana"), and to Māori this warranted a violent retribution.
The Revenge Killings (Utu)
Three days after the Boyd's arrival, the Māori invited Captain Thompson to follow their canoes to find suitable kauri trees. He was unaware of local feelings about the ‘curse’ maori felt Europeans brought. Combined with the flogging of Te Ara they wanted to dispatch the Europeans. Thompson, his chief officer and three others followed the canoes to the entrance of the Kaeo River. The remaining crew stayed aboard with the passengers, preparing the vessel for the voyage to England. When the boats were beyond the Boyd's sight the Māori attacked the pākehā (foreigners), killing all with clubs and axes. The Māori stripped the western clothes from the victims and a group donned them as disguise. Another group carried the bodies to their pā (village) to be eaten. At dusk the disguised group manned the longboat, and at nightfall they slipped alongside the Boyd and were greeted by the crew. Other Māori canoes awaited the signal to attack. The first to die was a ship's officer: the attackers then crept around the deck, stealthily killing all the crew. The passengers were called to the deck and then killed. Five people hid up the mast among the rigging, where they witnessed the dismembering of their friends and colleagues' bodies below.
The next morning a large canoe entered the harbour carrying Te Pahi, a prominent chief from Rangihoua in the Bay of Islands who supported trade with Europeans and had visited Sydney in 1805. Shocked by what he found, he tried to rescue the frightened Europeans still clinging to the ship’s rigging. After Te Pahi had gathered the survivors from the Boyd, they headed for shore. But two Whangaroa canoes pursued them. As the survivors fled along the beach, Te Pahi watched as all but one were caught and killed by the pursuers. In a classic case of mistaken identity, Europeans would later blame Te Pahi for the tragedy.
Destruction of the Boyd
The Whangaroa Māori towed the Boyd towards their village until it grounded on mudflats near Motu Wai (Red Island). They spent several days ransacking the ship, tossing flour, salt pork, and bottled wine overboard. The Māori were interested in a large cache of muskets and gunpowder. About 20 Māori smashed barrels of gunpowder and attempted to make the muskets functional. Chief Piopio sparked a flint. This ignited the gunpowder, causing a massive explosion that killed him and nine other Māori instantly. A fire then swept the ship igniting its cargo of whale oil. Soon all that was left of the Boyd was a burnt-out sunken hull. Māori declared the hull tapu, sacred or prohibited.
European survivors
Five people were spared in the massacre: Ann Morley and her baby, in a cabin; apprentice Thomas Davis (or Davison), hidden in the hold; the second mate; and two-year-old Betsy Broughton, taken by a local chief who put a feather in her hair and kept her for three weeks before rescue. Thom was spared because he had tended to Te Ara after his flogging and had smuggled food to him. The second mate was put to work making fish-hooks from barrel hoops, but when he proved incompetent at this task he was killed and eaten.
Rescue
When news of the massacre reached European settlements, Captain Alexander Berry undertook a rescue mission aboard The City of Edinburgh. Berry rescued the four survivors: Mrs. Ann Morley and her baby, Thomas Davis (or Davison), and Betsy Broughton. The City of Edinburgh crew found piles of human bones on the shoreline, with many evincing cannibalism. Captain Berry captured two Māori chiefs responsible for the massacre, at first holding them for ransom for the return of survivors. After the survivors were returned, Berry told the chiefs that they would be taken to Europe to answer for their crimes unless they released the Boyd's papers. After the papers were given to him, he released the chiefs. He made it a condition of their release that they would be "degraded from their rank, and received among the number of his slaves", although he never expected this condition to be complied with. They expressed gratitude for the mercy. Berry's gesture avoided further bloodshed — an inevitability had the chiefs been executed.
The four people rescued were taken on board Berry's ship bound for the Cape of Good Hope. However, the ship encountered storms and was damaged, and after repairs arrived in Lima, Peru. Mrs. Morley died while in Lima. The boy, called Davis or Davison, went from Lima to England aboard the Archduke Charles, and later worked for Berry in New South Wales. He drowned while exploring the entrance to the Shoalhaven River with Berry in 1822. Mrs. Morley's child and Betsy Broughton were taken onwards by Berry to Rio de Janeiro, from where they returned to Sydney in May 1812 aboard the Atalanta. Betsy Broughton married Charles Throsby, nephew of the explorer Charles Throsby, and died in 1891. '
Aftermath
In March 1810, sailors from five whaling ships launched a revenge attack. Their target was the island pa belonging to Te Pahi, the chief who apparently tried to rescue the Boyd survivors and then saw them killed. Te Pahi had later accepted one of the Boyd's small boats and some other booty, and his name was confused with that of Te Puhi, who was one of the architects of the massacre. This was the belief of Samuel Marsden, the prominent early missionary who said it was Te Ara (George) and his brother Te Puhi who took the Boyd as revenge. In the attack between 16 and 60 Māori and one sailor were killed. Te Pahi, who was wounded in the neck and chest, realised that the sailors had attacked him because of the actions of the Whangaroa Maori. He gathered his remaining warriors and attacked Whangaroa, where he was killed by a spear thrust some time before April 28.
News of the Boyd Massacre reached Australia and Europe, delaying a planned visit of missionaries until 1814. A notice was printed and circulated in Europe advising against visiting "that cursed shore" of New Zealand, at the risk of being eaten by cannibals. Shipping to New Zealand "fell away to almost nothing" during the next three years.
European Revenge (Utu)
Rumours of the incident reached the Bay of Islands, and three weeks later the City of Edinburgh and other vessels to investigate. A Māori chief from the Bay of Islands who accompanied the European force negotiated the return of Ann Morley, her baby and Thom Davis. The taking of hostages secured the release of Betsey Broughton after a short delay.
Asked why they had attacked the ship, some of those involved said that the captain was a ‘bad man’. The whalers present blamed Te Pahi for the incident, even though the real perpetrators declared his innocence. Te Pahi’s pā, Te Puna, was destroyed by the European sailors, with considerable loss of Māori life.
This action resulted in civil war breaking out in the region, and in a final cruel irony, Te Pahi died of wounds received in battle in 1810. When Samuel Marsden arrived in 1814 to establish his Church Missionary Society mission, tensions still simmered. He invited chiefs from Whangaroa and the Bay of Islands aboard his ship, the Active, gave them gifts and asked them to ensure peace between their people. ‘Each chief saluted the other,’ Marsden wrote, ‘and then went around to each one pressing their noses together.’ They also assured him that they would never harm another European.
There are two other accounts but all agree that the Europeans were lured away with the intention of killing and that the end result with all dead except four, occurred at the hands of the local natives.
Summary of injury/deaths
1. European to Maori - TeAra accused of stealing and flogged - according to European custom for on-board stealing.
2. Maori to European - 70 killed & eaten in utu, (revenge) for one flogging - according to local native custom for violation of mana
3. Accidental - While under tow and while sacking the ship for gunpowder and muskets, a spark ignites gunpowder and 10 Maori are killed instantly including the chief. The ship is then destroyed by fire and sinks.
4. European to Maori - Another ship arrives to investigate their own revenge (but ends up being done on the wrong chief) - A Pa is destroyed with considerable loss of life.
Mistakes made:
Flogging someone not ‘crew’ but using standard European custom of the time
Taking offence and not performing equal retribution but committing a massacre was not equal retribution but it was ‘customary’ with maori, including eating those they killed. One could argue why the captain was not killed on his own?
European mistaking Te Pehi with Te Pahi and destroying the wrong pa. Deaths of innocents occurred while the murderers of the crew and passengers of the Boyd were never held to account ( by European customary laws for crimes against Europeans)
The views of who was right and who were wrong are dependant on which side of the ‘customs and practices’ of the race you belong to, or are sympathetic to. Each event is capable of being seen differently from different eyes but there is no denying the flogging of one and the killing of 70 in retribution. Is that a fair trade even for Maori. Do modern Maori acknowledge that killing 70 and eating them is just retribution for the flogging of one man? However, the views of Maori were very different back, as were European views. While Europeans are seen as wrong in their dealings by Maori standards, Maori are also seen as wrong by European standards, and both are wrong by modern standards.
*****
We watched a program on Maori TV in May this year about this event and the words were something like "Maori 'killed' those on board..." and in retaliation the "Europeans 'massacred' Maori". It sounded like the killing of Europeans was not as bad as the killing of Maori. It's this sort of blatant racist manipulative programming that creates divides that do not exist. The facts are very clear above, but we outline them again in the context of like for like if you can't handle cultural expectations of either race at the time, and both of which felt they were justified at date they occured...
1. One Maori accused of stealing.
2. Europeans 'flog' that one Maori.
3. Maori 'massacre' all 70 on board in revenge (that's 70 'massacred' for 1 flogging).
4. In response Europeans 'massacred' an unspecified number of Maori (likely to be around 60).
Some will say the Europeans attacked an innocent group that didn't attack the Boyd, which is totally true. As a result, the real murderers were never punished. But were the 'massacred' crew and passengers on the Boyd not innocent of the floggings? Yes, they were as innocent as the 'massacred' Maori were.
We do not know for certain the result of why Te Ara was flogged. But in the aftermath, no one race mentioned here is any better than the other.
