Boyd massacre
The Māori attack was in retaliation for the whipping of their rangatira or chief of Ngāti Pou, Te Ara, on his voyage back from Sydney Cove, New South Wales aboard the Boyd.
Boyd was a 395-ton (bm) brigantine that had brought convicts to New South Wales and then in October 1809 sailed from Australia's Sydney Cove to Whangaroa on the east coast of New Zealand's Northland Peninsula to pick up kauri spars.
Te Ara had spent more than a year on board different vessels that included a sealing expedition to islands in the Southern Ocean.
[6][7] Another account states that the ship's cook accidentally threw some pewter spoons overboard and accused Te Ara of stealing them to avoid being flogged himself.
Te Ara regained the confidence of the captain and persuaded him to put into Whangaroa Bay, assuring him that it was the best place to secure the timber he desired.
Physical punishment of his son caused the chief to suffer a loss of face (or "mana"), and to Māori this warranted a violent retribution.
Three days after Boyd's arrival, the Māori invited Captain Thompson to follow their canoes to find suitable kauri trees.
The next morning the survivors saw a large canoe carrying chief Te Pahi from the Bay of Islands enter the harbour.
Five people were spared in the massacre: Ann Morley and her baby, in a cabin; apprentice Thomas Davis (or Davison), hidden in the hold; the second mate; and two-year-old Elizabeth "Betsey" Broughton, taken by a local chief who put a feather in her hair and kept her for three weeks before she was rescued.
Chief Piopio sparked a flint this was said to have ignited the gunpowder, causing a massive explosion that killed him and nine other Māori instantly.
When news of the massacre reached European settlements, Captain Alexander Berry undertook a rescue mission aboard City of Edinburgh.
Berry rescued the four remaining survivors: Ann Morley and her baby, Thomas Davis (or Davison), and Betsy Broughton.
[16] The boy, called Davis or Davison, went from Lima to England aboard the Archduke Charles, and later worked for Berry in New South Wales.
[17] Mrs Morley's child and Betsy Broughton were taken onwards by Berry to Rio de Janeiro, from where they returned to Sydney in May 1812 aboard Atalanta.
[19][20] In March 1810, sailors from five whaling ships (Atalanta, Diana, Experiment, Perseverance, Speke, and New Zealander) launched a revenge attack.
Their target was the pa on Motu Apo island in Wairoa Bay belonging to Te Pahi, the chief who tried to rescue the Boyd survivors and then saw them killed.
[23] A notice was printed and circulated in Europe advising against visiting "that cursed shore" of New Zealand, at the risk of being eaten by cannibals.
