Murder Cove And Massacre.

The story of the black woman who preserved her own and her child's life from an onslaught by the natives is pathetic as well as tragical. She belonged to a class of unfortunates vulgarly named "whalers' trollops." She was brought to New Zealand in the American ship General Gates from Kangaroo Island. She was an Australian native. She landed along with one of General Gates's seal gangs. Hobart Records show these women were expert sealers, and that it was not uncommon for sealing gangs to have one or more of them. At Bass Straits they did most of the work, including its drudgery and heavy page 104labour. This, however, is the only distinct record we get of them being amongst New Zealand gangs. This woman was the mother of a child two years old. After being on the island for some time a horde of savages (Maoris) came upon them and massacred nearly all the party. The woman, with her child, hid under a rock, remaining concealed until the New Zealanders took their departure. During the eight succeeding months the woman and child lived, without fire, probably under the sheltering rock to which they owed, in the first instance, their preservation. During all that time they lived on birds and seals captured by the poor mother. Eventually they were rescued by a sealer— Captain Dawson, in the Samuel, aforesaid—and taken to Sydney, arriving early in April, 1824. That was the incoming trip prior to Dawson's ill-fated voyage to Cook Strait. The Record narrative reads as follows: —"Captain Dawson, master of the Samuel, brought with him a black native woman, with a child two years' old. She had been taken by the American ship General Gates from Kangaroo Island, and left at the South Cape of New Zealand with a gang of sealers. After these men had been there some short time a horde of the savages came upon them and massacred nearly all the party. The poor native, with her little one, took shelter under a rock till the New Zealanders left the spot. For eight months the mother and child lived without fire on birds and seals. They are yet on board the Samuel, and were in good health when rescued by Captain Dawson."—Sydney Gazette, April 8, 1824.

The place where this sanguinary conflict occurred is appropriately named Murder Cove, situated on an off-shore island in the vicinity of South Cape. The Maori account of the transaction is related in the memoirs of the late Mr J. E. H. Wohler. It is dated as having occurred between 1820 and 1830, and the writer states he knew a few of those who were present and took part in the affray. The captain of a whale vessel is stated to have placed a few of his people in an uninhabited bay in Stewart Island to catch fur seals, whilst he went whale-fishing with the rest of the crew. The natives, however, did not approve of this. Soon a number of men and women went across from Ruapuke to Stewart Island, fell upon the sealers and killed and cooked them. They then searched for their provisions. At that time they were quite unacquainted with European things. They took the flour for white ash, and amused themselves throwing it at one another and watching the white dust fly away. Then they found something that looked like provisions and chewed it till foam came out of their mouths. Being soap, it was not to their taste. Still worse did the tobacco taste, which they therefore called "aurangi" (heaven's gall). A vessel held some black seed (gunpowder), which they scattered about as a useless thing. Then, when they had satisfied themselves with the flesh of the dead men, and in the evening sat round a big fire—Oh, what a fright,—lightning and flames of fire suddenly broke out amongst them. Some time afterwards some canoes, with all their crews, were lost, and no one knew for a long time what had become of them, until some whale fishers from Australia, who became friendly with the natives, brought back the news that the American whaling captain, when he found the men he left on Stewart Island had been killed and eaten, had, whilst sailing about, met some canoes and sailed or ran them down.