Barnet Burns, the Tattooed Trader.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVI, Issue 1, 5 July 1911, Page 42

Barnet Burns, the Tattooed Trader.

Strange Story of Old New Zealand — A Pakeha-Maori’s Adventures Amongst the Cannibals.

{Specialty written for the “ Weekly Graphic ” by James Cowan.)

O'/ f FEW days ago I unearthed V I iii the Carter collection I I in the Dominion Museum, through the courtesy of Mr. A. Hamilton, director, a rare little pamphlet containing an account of probably the most interesting pakeha-Maori that ever lived in New Zealand—not even excepting the famous, or notorious, John Rutherford. It is a 26-page booklet, bound up for some inscrutable reason with a number of articles on scientific subjects by Sir Walter Buller. This is how the title page of the pamphlet reads: — “A brief narrative of a New Zealand chief, being the remarkable history of Barnet Burns, an English sailor, with a faithful account of the way in which he became a chief of one of the tribes of New Zealand, together with a few remarks on the manners and customs of the people, and other interesting matter. Written by himself. Belfast: Printed by R. ami D. Read, Crown entry, 1844.’’ A quaint title, brimful of suggestions, and certainly enticing to a student of early New Zealand history. I imagined I had read pretty well everything in print bearing on the lives of the early pakeha-Maoris. but here was one quite new to me, as 1 fancy it will be to most of my readers. The story is a strange one, but it is undoubtedly quite authentic—far more so, at any rate, than (he adventures of Rutherford -and it is backed up by a couple of very curious woodcut illustrations. One picture, the frontispiece, is a portrait of Barnet Burns, showing him to have been wonderfully closely tattooed, from the top of his forehead to his chin, as thickly and elaborately tattooed, in fact, as ever any Maori chief ever was. His head would have been a prize for any museum. His curly hair is worn very long, falling down to bis shoulders. The other principal picture is a full page block at the cud of the book, showing “B. Burns, a New Zealand chief.” dres-u-d in what a; - appears to be either a kiwi-feather or dogskin-covered cloak, with a short flax mat round bis waist. Maori ornaments hanging from bi-; neck, and the topknot of his long hair dressed up in chieftain-like fashion ami adorn* <1 with three feathers, while the rest of it flows down over his should rs. In his belt is thrust a stone mere: in Ids hand ho holds a long tongue-pointed and heft athered taiaha. Not only is Irs face tattooed, but there are spiral tattoopatterns on (he ca’ves of his legs. Round hi- ankles he wears some peculiar ornaments like a row of white stones, after an ancient Polvnesian fashion. All the cessories of “A Now Zealand chief”, of th; cannibal era are there: on tha ground at his feet is a human thigh bone, on the other side lies a decapitated tattooed Maori head. There is a Maori wbare. too; and in the background is a wrecked ami battered ship with tie w. ves breaking over her. ’n tin* preface or “address” written V some long-winded sympathiser with <be pakeha-Maori. there occurs til’s explanation of the publication: — “The severe hardships and great cruellies which the subject of this short history underwent during his ten years’ detention in New Zealand. I Burns’ own statement gives a shorter term], the change of habits, harassing away of life and other circumstances, which it has been his misfortune tr be subject to, has so broken up li’ir constitution ns to Tender him no longer an able seaman or capable of earning bis livelihood by

his labour. He, therefore, by the advice of several persons who have interested themselves in his behalf, has published this, his history, hoping that tha British public will hold out the hand of humanity to 'one of her sons of the ocean, and assist in alleviating the cares ami troubles which he must endure for the remainder of his existence.” rile tattooed author also explains why he ventured into print. "Since 1 find it impossible,” he writes, “to walk the streets without exciting the curiosity of all who see me, from my remarkable appearance, and not always having an opportunity of satisfying them., I have been advised by my friends to present the public with a short account of my adventures since I first left England until my return from New Zealand,

which I hope will prove ue; .qu :< .■> ' i > all who may feel anxious to hear something about New Zealand, as well as to those who may wish to have an account of the circumstances which It'd to my adoption as a Chief by the natives of that remarkable Island." “I left England,”' Barhet Burns’ narrative opens, "in the year 1827, in the brig Wilna, with Captain Tate, bound for Rio de Janeiro, touching at the Western Islands.” At Rio, he explains, all hands were paid off, and he reached Sydney, N.S.W., in the barque Nimrod. At Sydney he spent two years in the service of the Bank of Australia. He then joined the brig Elizabeth, Captain Browne, bound on a trading voyage to New Zealand for flax. The brig was

on the New Zealand coast for nearly eight months, during which time Burns picked up the Maori language, and was able to speak it fairly fluently. Peculiarly, though, the word ‘Maori’ never occurs anywhere in his narrative; he invariably speaks of the people as “New Zealanders,” or “Natives.” Me took a great fancy to New Zealand and determined to return from Sydney and settle here.

Eventually, in February, 1829, Burns was appointed a trading master for a Sydney merchant, L. Baron Montifore, and under agreement with that gentleman proceeded to Mahia Peninsula, on the East Coast of the North Island, to trade for flax and other New Zealand commodities. (“Dried” are-not mentioned in the agreement, a copy of which Burns prints, but no doubt they came in handy all the same in those days). Burns’ wages were fixed at £'4 per month, together with a commission of five per cent, on all flax, to be valued at £l2 per ton. Burns sailed from Sydney for Mahia in the schooner Darling, which caller at "Cortier”' (Kawhia is meant; Burns’ spelling of Maori names is erratic) and “Mocaw” (Mokau) to land a trading master at each place, then at “'Piranrz.kia” and aft Entry Island (Mana), arriving at last at the Mahia after a voyage of four months. At the Mahia settlement the schooner landed Burns, with his trade goods, and sailed for the bay of Islands. Trading at the Mahia. ft was a trying time for the young trader, those first few nights on shore. There was not another white man within

a hundred miles of him. He’ was alone amongst thousands of cannibal savages. It was a period when ferocious intertribal wars, made more sanguinary still L the introduction of firearms, were waged almost continually. The Maoris welcomed the white man only for the goods he brought, and he was liable at any time to be robbed and killed and eaten. Burns landed Iris trade in canoes, and placed it in a Maori whare. “Directly 1 landed,” he says, “the chief whom -I had particularly selected to trade with left me; so I had the whole charge on my hands. I was obliged to carry my musket and constantly sleep with it by my side; in fact, I had to keep watch all the time. Then, for the first tinrn since I took my fancy to visit New Zea-

land, I felt frightened at my I knew 1 was not sure of my life an hour. “In the course of a few days my trading chief returned with a large quantity of flax. I traded with him by giving him powder, muskets, shot, blankets, tobacco, etc. I stopped here for nearly eleven months before I received any news from my employer, when at last a vessel arrived from Sydney, sent down to receive the stock that I might have on hand. At the time the ship arrived, it ■was a poor time, for the trade in the place, so they had orders to take away the trade.”

Burns’ troubles were now beginning. He gave up all the llax and the balance of the trade to the agent on the ship. The natives grew troublesome when' they found the trade was to be removed. Burns was under the protection of a) chief named “Awhawee”; he had married the chief’s daughter, who at the time the ship arrived was about to have a child. He decided to stay at the Mahia, and take trade in lieu of the money due to him. "The vessel soon' after sailed, and I was left behind. Words cannot express in what state my feelings were; suffice it to say it would have been better if I had been dead. The ship, which contained all my friends and •countrymen, leaving me at one side;' and on the other my wife, who would not quit her native country; and as she was on the point of lying-in I could not bring myself to leave the country with the ship.” So the down-hearted young trader watvhed the sails of the ship that was his last link with civilisation fade out of sight. He was now, it seemed, a pakeha Maori for good. Henceforth his lot was cast in the smoky huts of the cannibals. In a few days trouble came. He was warned that spies had come from a tribe who lived some distance away —Burns calls them the “Wattihabitfies,” which apparently means the people from the Whatu-i-Apiti, in the Wairoa district—with the object of ascertaining whether it would be possible to plunder his establishment. He told his chief. wh<> “began to cry,” lamenting that his tribesmen were so far distant that* it would be no use Burns trying to defend his property. He counselled flight to Poverty, Bay? where «e and his white man would be amongst friends. In a Canoe to Poverty Bay.

So preparations were immediately made for the removal to Turanganui, or Poverty Bay. A large canoe was got! ready, and Burns loaded her with what trade goods he had, and put to sea, with his wife and father-in-law and six slaves. The Mahia women, whose husbands were absent, stood on the beach making dolorous farewell; they wept and cut; their faces and bodies with sharp sfonesf “until the blood came streaming from them, it grieved them so much that we should leave them for want of protection.” Burns and his crew had a perilous voyage. A strong southerly wind sprang up, and the sea began to run so- heavy that they were forced to run for shelter for the night. The next day they “steered.” for a place called “\\ yshee ’ (Waih:), which they eould not leave because of the heavy seas running in. They, therefore. tramped to Poverty Bay on foot, the local Maoris, who were friendly and who Hoiked round them in hundreds, carrying Burns’ property. At Poverty Bay Burns was safe —for a while. He made his home about twelve miles inland, where he could enjoy the protection of the strong and populous fortified villages. “This part of New. Zealand,” he wrote, “I think is the finest and most beautiful of all the island —at least what I saw of it. Here I found plenty of game, such as diveks, pigeons, ■ami other kinds of birds; plenty of pork, potatoes, melons, and Indian corn, and every kind of vegetable in abundance.” Burns on tlie Warpath. Before many weeks had passed war broke out between Burns’, tribe and another. mustering nearly six hundred fighting men, whose headquarters were ' about twenty miles away. “It was now for the first time I went to battle, it be-ing-my chief's particular wish for me to accompany him. I needed but very little pressing to take this step, as I thought it was better to go than stop behind by myself. I gave them all the muskets 1 had, also all the powder and shot. So we set out from here for a place called Mariaathe; I dare say nearly seven hundred of ns. We had to strike right through the country about twenty miles to where we heard the enemy were. On the day we arrived we perceived a great deal of smoke arise in different p'aceg, from which we thought the enemy wera

Hot far off. We had a dog along with Us, a common thing amongst New Zealanders, who generally take these aniinals with them when they are going to var. 'We intended to lay in ambush the Bight we perceived the smoke; but the dog having made its way right to where the enemy lay, the enemy finding it to ibe a strange dog, seized and made it fast round the leg with a piece of cord, by which means, with the help of a p rson who was piloted by the dog, they discovered where the whole of us lay, and took the opportunity of making their escape, tor when we eame on the following morning to where we thought they were we ifouud them gone. We pursued them, (but could only take four persons, who ■pere some of the slaves that were employed carrying their provisions. They were shot and devoured; on which the tribe performed a war-dance and then proceeded towards home again.” Raptured by the Enemy. Returning to his home Burns resumed liis trading and “procured a great quantity of flax and pigs.” He expected a ship shortly, and being anxious to purchase more flax he imprudently went inland about twenty-eight miles, to a place called “Multi” (probably the Motu district). He bought a large quantity of dressed flax there, but while so engaged his people were attacked by their enemies the “Knightarangy” (Ngai-te-Rangi) tribe, who squared accounts with them very thoroughly. “There were not many of us to lie sure,” goes Burns’ narfative, “but we gave battle to a man, were beaten, and every soul killed, and not only killed but eaten, except myself, whom they spared, making a prisoner of me, thinking thereby to procure it. ransom from my Chief for me. They liook me along with them in the bush; (they had no houses belonging to them, being a regular wandering tribe.” , [Burns was now in a desperate pickle. The ferocious cannibals threatened him hpntinuously, and some of them told him they would eat his heart first opportunity. Fortunately the prisoner “got particularly acquainted” with the head chief’s daughter, who befriended him iind certainly saved his life. He decided to make an effort to escape, but ed impossible. How Burns Was Tattooed.

It was now that the captured trader was made “pretty” for life per medium of the tattooing artist’s bone chisel and blue pigments. Burns tells of it in these words: — Kwiien I found there was no chance t>f inaking my escape I tried to make them all think I was getting very partial to them, and by this means I found I W’-as both loved a(nd respected by them. On one of these occasions the chief took an opportunity of telling me that it was the wish of the chiefs under him, not his own, that I should allow myself to be tattooed after the manner of his subjects. I asked him what was ■the reason for wishing it, and he told me it was merely to make sure I should stop along with them, bring them trade, fight for them, and in every way make myself their friend. I told this old man, who had a great regard for me that I did Itbt fancy the tribe; I could not stop ialong with them; that I was losing a great deal of time by stopping ialong with them, and that I never gave 'them reason to serve me so. I (was losing all my trade; I was losing my time; in fact, I told him that I Should kill myself if I could not get away.” A short time later Burns had an encounter with a party of these Maoris in the bush and would probably Jhave been killed had he not promised Io fight for them, and be tattooed the same as they were. At this “there was toothing but exclamations of joy.” They lifted him on their backs and carried him to the old chief’s village. “For the purpose of getting extra liberty, T told them to commence tattooing me as soon «s possible. They immediately began the Operation; the priest cutting in the flesh with bone instruments, which were* horribly painful.” Then Burns, when he was only about h quarter tattooed, ran away from this 100 friendly tribe. He managed to make to is escape one rainy night, and in three days he reached Poverty Bay after a terribly rough bush flight; ho was barefooted. When at last he reached his friends he was received with the greatest 3oy; “there was scarcely anything to be heard, but the firing of musketry.” A ’fear party of sixty men went out to hunt for his late captors, but the wandering tribes had prudently taken up their toiafi iand vanished. All Itlae “utu” ■Burns’ champions got consisted of four

The War Trail Again. Later Burns went up the Turanga River (he spells it “Toeronga,”), about three miles from his home to buy flax. The tribe with whom he was trading were suddenly attacked by the “Walkaithowas” (the Whakatohea tribe), a tribe consisting of four hundred men, women, and children. Burns left and canoed down the river with his flax. Then the tribe he had left, the “Baldiraakos” (Pirirakau, the bush-dwellers) prepared for a campaign against th? “Walkathowas.” Burns’ tribe was called upon to help, and all th? warriors set out on the war-path. Burns accompanied them, having the command of one hundred and fifty men himself. The war party was six hundred strong. “We marched to the Walkathowas’ Pa. which was very strong; we surrounded it three weeks, during which time several persons were shot and devoured.” One of the victims of Burns’ cannibal

comrades was the wife of one of the enemy’s chief’s: she was captured while attempting to escape from the pa. The chiefs bespoke their joints while the poor woman was still alive. “One said he would have a leg. another an arm. and another her heart, et •.. etc., until she was shared amongst them. Then she was ordered to prepare some potatoes for cooking with herself, and to gather green leaves for the oven; the savage made a large earth stove, laid the leaves on the hot stones, tied both legs together herself, and then asked one of the party to tie her hands. “When this was done she took a friendly leave of two or three persons that she knew, and then throw herself down cm the leaves. When she was over the fire she begged some of the party to knock her brains out, but this they would not; they kept her on the fire a few minutes, then laid potatoes over her, and covered her with earth—aye, before life was half gone—until she was cooked fit for

eating. I assure you so sweet is the flesh of a New Zealander—an enemy—• esteemed by these people that part of this woman’s body was sent upwards of three hundred miles off to other friends, merely that they might have a taste. Such were the pleasant manners and customs of Povertv Bay in “good old days.” Storming the Pa—Sixty Prisoners Eaten. At last Burns* tribe got tired of the siege, ami ended it by storming the palisaded pa in force, cutting their way in with their tomahawks. “We effected an entrance. and made every soul it possessed a prisoner—about four hundred in number. When we brought the prisoners out they were all regularly shared between each tribe; and T. myself, was an eye-witness to about sixty being killed and eaten.” Touching that terrible cannibal ban-

quet the pakeha Maori explains that if a chief was kilted his head was generally cut oil*, and saved, to be sold in the way of trade to the shipping, or in some oth< r way. “The bodies were cut up in quarters; something like the way you see a pig cut up by a butcher; not a single particle of the bodies go to waste. . . . They have also a method of preparing human flesh for the purpose of travelling, which is done by making a tire underneath a grating of vines; they then lay the flesh over the smoke of the vines until it becomes quite dry; such is the way they get meat ready for travelling, etc.” Trading Life at Onawa. Back from the war trail, Burns hung his musket and tomahawk up in his whare, and resumed the less exciting life of the trader. Now, a trading vessel came into the bay from Sydney, the Prince of Denmark. Burns agreed to trade for the captain for £3 pet

ir.’.ffith, and it was decided that h* should shift his camp to “Onawa,” a village about thirty miles further along the coast, and a likely place for a good flax trade. Thither the trader sailed in a canoe with his wife and child and brother-in-law and slaves. When he arrived he found another white man there trading for Captain Kent. 'The two pakehas shared the trade of the district; one living on each side of the river, which was a beautiful one. I Burns evidently means the Uawa, at Tolago Bay.] For three years Burns remained in this place, constantly trading, and sen ling away in that time 107 tons of flax to Sydney. He found it pleas inter hero than in Poverty Bay. “This was the place,” he says, “where I enjoyed happiness; this was the place where I was tattooed—at least where the remaining part of my face was marked, and not only my face but my body. Ido not’ mean that I have been tattooed altogether against my will, as 1 submitted to have the Lifter part done. In fact, I thought within myself, as one part of my face was disfigured, I might as well have it done completely, particularly as it would be of service to me—and so it was. In the first place I •could travel to any part of the country, amongst my friends, if 1 thought proper. 1 was made and considered chief of a trifle of upwards of six hundred persons, consisting of men, women and children. I could purchase flax when others could not. In fact I was as well liked amongst tlie rest’ of the chiefs as if 1 h id been their brother.”

Burns Rescues Three White Sailors. While trading in this bay. Burns received word that three while sailors who had run away from a whaler, ha I been •captured by a chief at the East (’ape called “Cotahrow,” whom U e pakeha. Maori describes as a great tyrant. They were to be killed, report said. Burns determined to rescue them. IL* and “sixty of the ablest men. most' of whom were under-chiefs,’’ got a large warcanoe ready and set out for th? East (’ape, “a. distance of about thirty leagues.” Three days’ sail took them there; then they marched inland to the pa where the sailors were confine I. By dint’ of diplomatic tact, and not a little pluck. Burns delivered his countrymen, who had been kept in a hut for six days. They had been told daily that they were to be killed. After considerable trouble the trader took the sailors bark to Nawa with him, and they afterwards returned to Sydney in the ‘‘Byron” schooner. Farewell to New Zealand. Burns now, it seems —reading bid ween the lines of his narra t ive — grew homesick. About six months after his rescue expedition to the East Cape, a large vessel called the “Bardaster,” of Liverpool, commanded by Captain T. .1. Milliners, arrived in the Bay. Burns resolved to leave by her and have a settlement in Sydney with his employer. ’The ship wont on to Poverty Bay, ami Burns joined her there, his wife and children and relations travelling to the Bay with him. “1 had now,” he writes, “to take leave of my wife and children, her friends, and all my other acquaintances. 1 cannot describe how the Natives felt; but, however, 1 will say for myself that no man ever left a place more regretted than 1 did when leaving New Zealand.” The ship called at Queen ( barlotto Sound on her way back to Sydney, to buy whalebone from the white whalers at Te Awaiti and elsewhere. Here Burns detected and frustrated a plan on the part of the Maoris—not less than fiffy canoes came off to the ship—to seize an I plunder Hie vessel. Then up anchor for Sydney. “This ended my adventures in New Zealand,” concludes Barnet Burns. “The gentlemanly kind way in whivh the Captain of the Bardaster used me, to whom 1 shall always return my most sincere thanks, induced me to stop in his ship and return with him to England, after an absence of eight years, glad enough to see my count rvnien, to

whom 1 have been no less an object of curiosity than of commiseration.” So ends t’he remarkable story of Burna the tattooed trader. One only wishes ha could have written more in detai’ of his daily life in Maori Land. It would havo l>eeil a perfect picture of wild and savage life. But, as it is, it is a valuably record, a story that’ I can only comparo with the narrative of Kimble Bent, who began liis strange life with the Taranaki llauhaus thirty years after Burns Lid bidden farewell io the tangling tribespeople of PoYert'y Bay.