'Moby-Dick' and Muskets For Maori:

As a kid - did you read Melville's 'MOBY-DICK' book about whaling and the white whale .. or maybe watch one of the several movie versions? - It's a great old book and it's worth remembering that it was whalers who brought their ships and rough ways to "clean-green" New Zealand.

The Moby-Dick book's hero Ishmael becomes great friends with a tattooed South Seas warrior "Queequeg" ..  this character is said to be based on a historic Maori chief Te Pehi Kupe .. who I'd like to introduce:

Te Pehi Kupe is thought to have been born around 1795 at Kawhia - and grew-up as a warrior-chief involved in much inter-tribal warring.

Note: The first two whaling ships recorded to visit NZ were in 1791 - having carried convicts out from UK to Australia first.

- Jump forward around 30 years to 26 February 1824 when the sailing ship URANIA under a Captain Reynolds was becalmed in the Cook Straight. - Te Pehi Kupe had already rightly decided that he urgently needed more muskets to help with the family business of attacking and killing other tribe's men - and enslaving their whanau.

- When the British ship was spotted Te Pehi directed three war canoes to paddle him out and leaped naked aboard on a determined shopping expedition .. "muskets or die".

The Captain must have been a patient sort of joker and denied that he had any spare muskets .. so when TPK said "all right then I'll go to England with you and get some from King George" they tried to throw him over the side back to his wakas .. but he doggedly wouldn't let go .. then the wind returned so the ship moved off with him on board - eventually voyaging all the way to England where he indeed did meet George IV.

Link: To the captains report: http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-McN01Hist-t1-b10-d18.html

This is a well recorded story - Te Pehi stayed at Captain Reynolds home for months and became a well known "tamed savage" personality - learned horse riding and collected a lot of gifts but not many guns. -  On 6 October 1825 he left England on The THAMES - returning to New Zealand via Sydney. In Australia he traded most of his possessions for muskets, powder & ball and on arriving home again set about invading and attempted a "hostile take-over bid" of South Island tribes.

- Just a note to add some 'time scale' - around the same time TPK was in England trying to get his muskets - Stephenson's Rocket was built (1829) and demonstrated there as the worlds first passenger railway.

 Now .. not every story has a happy ending ..

Back in New Zealand the South Island Maori tribe Ngai Tahu proved to be stronger & more devious than these Northern invaders .. so sad to report Te Pehi Kupe came to a bad ending in 1828 .. jointed & cooked with potatoes to provide a high calorie dinner for the Kaiapoi* pa locals - and his bones were used to make fishing hooks.

* The name of the Canterbury fortified village (pa) 'Kaiapoi' comes from the need for kai (food) to be brought-in - poi.

There is a moral here for those who seek fame, wealth, and power by use of arms - his last words are recorded as  'Don't give it to the god, but to the Kaka-kura'. - but sadly no-one seems to know what that means.

Link to Te Pehi Kupe's full story (- Melville would have known of this warrior and later added him into Moby-Dick as "Queequeg" ):

 https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1t55/te-pehi-kupe/print

- One other Maori leader was much more successful in getting muskets from George IV - Hongi Hika of Ngapui did much better four years earlier in 1820 .. but he also came to a premature and permanent ending  .. Link:

https://flicense.blogspot.com/2014/04/some-early-new-zealand-firearms.html

Marty K.