One of the first letters (perhaps the very first from a woman's pen to be handed down to us) written from Sydney, in November 1788, thus describes the Mother-settlement at the beginning.
"We have now two streets, if four rows of the most miserable huts you can possibly conceive deserve that name. Windows they have none as from the Governor's house (now nearly finished) no glass could be spared, so that lattices of twigs are made by our people to supply their places. At the extremity of the lines where since our arrival the dead are buried there is a place called the churchyard..." and then, telling of the only food obtainable there, in addition to the hard fare provided by the Government, the writer continues, "Our kangaroo cats are like mutton but much leaner and there is a kind of chickweed so much in taste like spinach that no difference can be discerned. Something like ground ivy is used for tea but a scarcity of salt and sugar makes our best meals insipid...Everyone is so taken up with their own misfortunes that they have no pity to bestow on others."* (* To-day Sydney is the seventh city of the Empire.) What was written of Sydney may be said to have been true of all the settlements. Everywhere hardships were encountered, and everywhere they were surmounted.
The Lady Nelson's log will show how in 1806 she paid a second and perhaps a more important visit to New Zealand. Her commander was instructed by Governor King to convey Tippahee, a New Zealand Chief of the Bay of Islands on the north-east coast, back from Sydney to his own dominions. At some time previously a son of this Chief had been brought to Port Jackson in a whaling vessel. The Governor had shown him kindness and had ordered some pigs to be sent from Norfolk Island to New Zealand for his father, and Tippahee, on receiving the present, had himself resolved to pay a visit to Governor King. He embarked with his four sons in a small colonial whaling vessel bound for Norfolk Island. The voyage was hardly a success, for on his arrival there he complained to the authorities that the master of the ship had treated them badly and had detained his youngest son. Captain Piper, the Commandant, gave them a very kind reception, and it is said rescued the youngest son from the master of the whaler. Shortly afterwards, H.M.S. Buffalo called at Norfolk Island, when Tippahee, with his sons, was received on board by Captain Houston, and after the Buffalo had visited Tasmania, the New Zealanders were brought to Sydney, where, dressed in the costume of a Chief of his country, Tippahee did homage to Governor King. We are told that this meant laying a mat at Governor King's feet and performing the ceremony of "joining noses." The Governor seems to have developed a great admiration for Tippahee. He allowed the Maori Chief to remain, along with his eldest son, as a guest at Government House, and provided his other sons with suitable lodgings. The Chief is described as being 5 feet 11 1/2 inches high, stout and athletic looking, and about forty-six years of age. His face was completely tattooed. Among other things, King writes of him that he was "a constant attendant at Divine Service," and he adds, "he had a contempt of the Australian aborigine."
The Reverend Samuel Marsden, then chaplain in Sydney, became intimately acquainted with Tippahee, and he, too, states that he found him "a man of very superior understanding and capable of receiving any instruction. His companions also manifested strong mental faculties." When the Maoris had remained in the colony as long as they wished—by that time becoming familiar figures to all the citizens of Sydney—the Governor gave instructions for the Lady Nelson to be fitted up to convey them back to their own country. Before their departure they were loaded with presents by the Governor and other friends, the gifts being carefully packed in chests and put on board the brig. On this voyage Governor King also ordered some bricks and the framework of a house for New Zealand to be received as part of the cargo.
On February 25th, Tippahee and his sons bade farewell to New South Wales and their numerous friends there, and on their going on board, the Lady Nelson immediately set sail for the Bay of Islands.
During the voyage the Chief was taken ill and Mr. Symons ordered a young man named George Bruce to nurse him. So well did Bruce carry out his duties, that Tippahee afterwards requested that he might be allowed to remain in New Zealand.* (* The request was granted, and Bruce was afterwards given Tippahee's daughter in marriage. How badly the pair were treated by the captain of a British vessel, which called at New Zealand to refit, is told in the Sydney Gazette, which states that Bruce and his wife were carried away from New Zealand in the Wellesley, first to Fiji and afterwards to Malacca, where Bruce was left behind. His wife was taken on to Penang, but on his making a complaint to the commanding officer at Malacca, that gentleman warmly espoused Bruce's cause and sent him to Bengal, where the authorities extended him aid, and eventually his wife was restored to him.)
The Chief's illness may have been an attack of sea-sickness, due to the roughness of the passage, as the log records that the weather was very squally.
On March 2nd the Lady Nelson made a great deal of water and had to be pumped out. The vessel still remained in a leaky state, and this drawback, in conjunction with the cross currents and heavy gales that she encountered, greatly retarded her progress.
A succession of gales followed, consequently the land of New Zealand was not sighted until March 30th, when at noon it was observed for the first time, trending from east-south-east to north-east.
At eight o'clock in the evening a prominent cape was seen eight miles distant, which Symons records was North-West Cape (or Cape Maria Van Diemen). At eleven the ship hauled round to the eastward and hove to. Native fires were seen burning on land. Next morning at six o'clock the Lady Nelson made sail and stood in shore, and as she made her appearance she was met by two native canoes, but perceiving that the coast was very rocky and a gale arising the commander stood to the westward, Tunitico then being east-south-east half a mile. At five o'clock in the afternoon he again endeavoured to anchor, and the Lady Nelson was brought to in a bay "in 15 fathoms of water, sand and shells." Five canoes came alongside, and as the Maoris appeared very friendly a boat-load of wood and of water was obtained.