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From Tasman To Marsden.

1812

1812.

The Governor Macquarie, under Captain Bunker, procured a cargo of spars at New Zealand, and then visited the Derwent before sailing for Sydney, which she reached on 12th March.

Fifteen days later the Cato, Lindsey, came into Sydney from the coast of New Zealand with 55 tons of oil, got in five months. On the fishery she had been in company with the Frederick, Bodie, with 1050 barrels; the Ann, Gwynn, with 600; and the Thames, Bristol, with 350. The last named had sailed from England on 21st June.

The Ann, now out 16 months, arrived on 1st August, and reported losing a man in a storm off New Zealand about three months before. Shortly before that the Frederick had gone up to the Moluccas.

page 149

The next whaling news of the year is the recorded presence of the King George, the Phoenix, and the Ann, whaling in company off Macaulay Island.

Captain Jones warned shipping masters of a “subtle Otaheitan," residing in New Zealand, against whom they should be on their guard. This man, who was called “Otaheite Jack" by the sailors, had been left by the Seringapatam, upwards of four years before, and, being armed with a thorough knowledge of the language of the New Zealanders, and with a tolerable share of English, never failed to ingratiate himself with commanders of vessels by tendering his services for procuring spars. Captain Jones alleged that he finished by decoying away the seamen so as to distress the vessel. What became of those decoyed away, Jones could form no idea of, unless they were murdered for their clothes or for their flesh, as had been the Boyd's company.

This was evidently the same Tahitian who had given to Captain Chace the version of the massacre favourable to Te Pahi. The Seringapatam had touched at Tahiti in the end of 1807 and had taken on board the Rev. James Elder as a passenger for Sydney. She spent a week in the Bay of Islands, where this Tahitian may have left and joined the Natives. That was in the early part of 1808.