NEW ZEALAND HISTORY.

Evening Star, Issue 12865, 14 July 1906, Page 12

NEW ZEALAND HISTORY.

FEOM AMERICAN SOURCES, [By Robert M'Nab, M.H.R.] No~I.

If I am correct in the opinion that the great events of the world for the next five hundred years will occur on the Pacific, the key to that history must be found in the records of the Americanmade whale ships.—Rev. Dr Griffis. The above expression of the rev. doctor was brought under the notice of the writer while engaged in historical research in Mass., U.S.A. That very day was the prophecy being fulfilled. To find the secret of New Zealand history the writer had made a pilgrimage to the old whaling port of New Bedford to ransack its musty records. For some years the writer has whiled away his leisure hours collecting material connected with the very early history of the southern portion of the colony, including the outlying islands. By very earlyhistory is meant belonging to a date prior to civil government and the hoisting of the British flag—a time when New Zealand was no-man's-land, with only stray visitors to its coast line. Amongst the material obtained were references to American vessels, engaged first of all in sealing and later in whaling. Where these references were found precluded the possibility of more thaji the barest reference. The Sydney newspapers which commenced in 1803 mention their arrival and departure at Port Jackson, if in the course of their visit to New Zealand thev called at that port, or if they were spoken by a Sydney vessel. London-pub-lished books of an early date contain stray references to American ships, when during the voyage something of more than passing interest took place. Hobart files and manuscripts of later date also supply information along the same lines. The most exhaustive search amongst the archives of Australia only produced scraps of information, but quite enough to show that the Americans had been on our coast line very far back. An American vessel (says Collins, the old New South Wales historian) visited Dusky Bay in 1797, and took away the last of the survivors of the Endeavor'— that old wreck that every visitor to the Sound is familiar with. Delano's ' Voyages' show that in pursuit of the seal the American captain visited the Snares and the Bounties as early as 1804. Fanning tells us that one American sealing party took 60.000 sealskins from the Antipodes Islands about 1805. In 1817 a Philadelphia vessel rescued three men from the Snares after they had spent seven years on these barren islands. D'iring the "twenties" the Americans did a lot of sealing in the Auckland Islands before the decline of that great industry. Some of the mest stirring of the many fierce contests between the Maoris and the old sealing gangs are associated with the General Gates, of Boston, in Foveaux Strait and on the coast of Stewart Island. These illustrations of early American connection with this country are taken from the south, with which the writer is more familiar, but they are quite sufficient to indicate the possibility of American shipping ports containing information bearing on the visits, and other visits too, which would 'prove of fjreat value to the historian. To search for these and for anything about the old Bay of Islands whaling trade the writer has long kept in view a visit to the eastern coast of the United States. It may come as a surprise to many of your readers that New Zealand history should have to be sought for in American shipping ports or in the archives of the United States at Washington. It is so, however. More than that: New Zealand is one of the most cosmopolitan countries of the world so far as its history is concerned. To exhaust the material available there are few countries of Europe whose capitals have not got to be visited to get material. A long search of the writer ran to earth at Madrid, the Spanish capital, the official records of a visit of Malospina to the West Coast Sounds in 1793. The Russian and Japanese war prevented the obtaining of the records of a Russian exploration voyage which visited New Zealand about 1821, and for the unofficial reports I am since indebted to a German translation of an old and extremely rare Russian work. As a result of the many early French expeditions, stacks of ma•..'rial are hidden away somewhere in 'aris, but the hidden stacks are riot quite s large or so numerous as they were a year or so ago. Outside of that, Lisbon must contain material of the old Portuguese whaling, Dunkirk of the French; while Holland and German whaling vessels must have left some news somewhere. That is altogether outside of British sources of information. It seems to have been left only to Dr Hocken, of Dunedin, beyond the little done by the writer, to search up the material, and as the results of that search have not yet been published, the colony's history is absolutely unknown.

All the American references available from the Australian side indicated only Atlantic ports. These varied with the lime and the. nature of the trade. The eaily sealers came from Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, the later whaling from Nantucket, Xew Bedford, Salem, Newport, Providence, Sagharbor, and a host of smaller places along the coast-lino. A glance at the map will show that n range of only a frw hundred miles of coast in those infant days of America commanded trade:_ and not only the whaling trade of New Zealand, hut also of the world. Bo celebrated were the American whalers that Nantucket men occupied responsible positions on British whalers, and practically directed the subsidised whaling trade of France.

On arrival at Boston and getting into touch with some of the historical societies of that city, the writer decided to commence his search at Salem, a small town with a very old shipping historv, situated some seventeen miles along the coast to the north. Salem's early trade, was a merchant service to Calcutta, Canton, and Sumatra for silks, coffee, and tea. It was late in the day that her merchants engaged in the whaling trade, and no references could be found to New Zealand sealing. Some 108 years ago her shipmasters formed a club, one of the conditions of membership of -which was that the applicant must have, as captain or supercargo, sailed round the Cape one voyage at least. The club m m bers made a point of collating curios wherever they were, and of keeping th • journals of their voyages. These collections, sup piemen ted fiom various sources, are still in Balem in the Kast India Marine Coll ction, and the vast collection of ships' logs in the Essex Institute, lhe last-named, associated with the other s~ciety, is the finest historical society in the 'New England States. 6 The writer will close this article by describing the most valuable discovery he made in the Essex Institute. It is known that the first trading port established in New Zealand was Raven's sealing gang at Dusky Bay in 1792, the first vessel built in Australasia of Australasian timber was the Providence (built by that sealing gang in Dusky during their stay there), and the first wreck in New Zealand was the Endeavor, in Facile Harbor, Dusky, in 1795. Outside of the bare facts we know very little about any of these in idents. Some of the New South Wales historical records deal with the sealing gang and the loss of .the Endeavor in bare official style, but that b all. Tn the logue the writer found a log entered up

under the nam© of the Britannia, 1792. Recognising the name and date aa corresponding with Raven's vessel at Dusky, the log was procured, when a remarkable discovery was made. It was the log kept by Mr R. Murray, the fourth officer of the Britannia when Raven left his sealing gang at Dusky in 1792, and during all the time which intervened until weir relief in 1793. Not cont<nt with a bare recital of the nautical work, the young officer has given an elaborate account on both visits of the state of things at Dusky and the arrangements made for the men during their ton months' sojourn there. In 1795 Mr Murray was shitted to the End avor. then in Sydney, and the log was continued as the log of that vessel during her passage across. There is contained the fu'l d'ary of her misfortunes, including her condemnation and abandonment andth" fitting up of other craft to take off iao stranded men. Nothing is left to guess. All the details of the fitting out of the Providence, left built there by Raven's sealing gang, are given. Finally, after they sail away, Murray is placed on boaid" the Providence, and the log continues as the log of the first vessel built in Australasia of Aus trabisian timber. The one log book cleared off the whole mystery which surrounded Raven's sealing gang, the loss of the Endeavor, and the building of the first vessel. Outside of the Cook manuscripts, the writer does not know of any more valuable manuscript connected with the earliest history of New Zealand. How it came to be lodged in the Essex Institute at Salem it is impossible to explain. The most likely explanation is that as the log ends near Batavia, the vessel went to that port, and there one of the American captains from Sulem obtained it from Mr Murray, depositing it at his club rooms on his r turn, where it lay for 108 years, until, in the fulfilment of the prophecy mentioned above, student from the far away islands of New Zealand, s-ekirg the key to his country's history "in the records" of American whale ships," brought the document to light.

Needless to say, all the materia] dealing with New Zealand was carefully examined and transcribed, and the writer hopes to be able to lay it before the student of history shortly after his return. For another article, subject always to the fiat of the editor, will be reserved an explanation of the purely American material obtained.