a convict ship bound for Sydney.
Fortunately Marsden was among her passengers. The chaplain's heart
was touched at the sight of the wan, wasted Maori sitting dull-eyed,
wrapped in his blanket, coughing and spitting blood. His kindness
drew back Ruatara from the grave's brink and made him a grateful and
attached pupil. Together they talked of the savage islands, which one
longed to see and the other to regain. Nor did their friendship end
with the voyage. More adventures and disappointments awaited Ruatara
before he at last reached home. Once in a whale ship he actually
sighted the well-beloved headlands of the Bay of Islands, and brought
up all his goods and precious presents ready to go on shore. But the
sulky captain broke his promise and sailed past the Bay. Why trouble
to land a Maori? Ruatara had to choose between landing at Norfolk
Island or another voyage to England. Cheated of his earnings and
half-drowned in the surf, he struggled ashore on the convict island,
whence he made his way to Sydney and to Marsden's kindly roof. The
whaling captain went on towards England. But Justice caught him on the
way. He and his ship were taken by an American privateer.

Ruatara gained his home at the next attempt. There he laboured to
civilize his countrymen, planted and harvested wheat, and kept in
touch with Marsden across the Tasman Sea. Meanwhile the latter's
official superiors discountenanced his venturesome New Zealand
project. It was not until 1814 that the Governor of New South Wales at
last gave way to the chaplain's persistent enthusiasm, and allowed him
to send the brig _Active_ to the Bay of Islands with Messrs. Hall and
Kendall, lay missionaries, as the advance party of an experimental
mission station. Ruatara received them with open arms, and they
returned to Sydney after a peaceful visit, bringing with them not only
their enthusiastic host, but two other chiefs--Koro Koro and Hongi,
the last-named fated to become the scourge and destroyer of his race.

At last Marsden was permitted to sail to New Zealand. With Kendall,
Hall, and King, the three friendly chiefs, and some "assigned"
convict servants, he reached New Zealand in December, 1814. With
characteristic courage he landed at Whangaroa, among the tribe who had
massacred the crew of the unhappy _Boyd_. Going on shore there, he met
the notorious George, who stood to greet the strangers, surrounded by
a circle of seated tribesmen, whose spears were erect in the