Narrative of a Voyage to New Zealand
Performed in the Years 1814 and 1815, in Company with the Rev. Samuel Marsden

This 1817 book describes an early European missionary journey to New Zealand, and the Maori communities the author observed there.

John Liddiard Nicholas (Author)

9781108008358, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 25 February 2010

420 pages, 1 b/w illus. 1 map
21.6 x 2.4 x 14 cm, 0.53 kg

John Liddiard Nicholas (1784–1868), a London iron-founder, arrived in New South Wales in 1813 but rather than develop his business, he accompanied Samuel Marsden on a journey to New Zealand from November 1814 to March 1815 that established the first Christian mission to the Maoris. This two-volume book, first published in 1817 after Nicholas had returned to England, was widely successful, and was translated into Dutch and German in 1819. Based on Nicholas' journal, kept throughout his voyage, it tells the story of the missionaries' efforts but focuses particularly on Nicholas' observations of the Maoris and reflects his desire to share knowledge of a 'people so little known to Europeans, and at the same time so … interesting'. Nicholas pays careful attention to the customs, personalities, and relationships unique to different communities. Volume 2 includes the memoir of a Maori chief, and a Maori vocabulary.

1. Visit made to the chief of Bream Head
2. Covetous disposition of the chief Bennee
3. The author suspects the good faith of Pomaree
4. Duaterra's abhorrence of the chief Themorangha
5. The natives crowd on board ship
6. Duaterra taken suddenly ill
7. Duaterra still lingers under his illness
8. Of the first discovery of New Zealand
9. Inquiry into the origin of the New Zealanders
10. Relections on the population of New Zealand
Vocabulary
Appendix.

Subject Areas: Church history [HRCC2]