t one of the places they touched at, Thompson, with the aid
of Kelly, abducted a handsome young Maori girl. She was a niece of Te
Morenga, a chief in the Bay of Islands district. The unfortunate girl,
however, so fretted, and lost so much of her attractiveness, that her
scoundrelly abductor sold her to a chief named Hukori, of Mercury
Bay, or, if he did not sell her, she eventually came into Hukori's
possession. On their voyage up the Hauraki Gulf, they raided one or two
small Maori _hapus_ and carried off another girl, the daughter of the
chief Te Haupa, or, as he was better known, Te Totara.

* * * * *

Early in the following year Captain Bierney, of the London brig
_Commerce_, reported to the Governor of New South Wales that the _Venus_
had anchored at Te Puna, in New Zealand, and that Kelly had invited a
number of Maoris on board to an orgie. For some time a great state of
drunkenness had prevailed on board; for the _Venus_, among other stores,
carried a large quantity of wines and spirits, intended for the use of
the military at Van Diemen's Land. Her sails and running gear were in a
very bad state, and not the slightest discipline was maintained.

In answer to the mutineers' invitation, a number of Maoris came on
board, and Kelly, addressing the leading chiefs, told them that he
was perfectly well aware of the fact that he and those with him were
incapable of offering resistance if his visitors attempted to cut off
the ship. But, he said, he had determined to abandon the ship, and
therefore he had invited them on board so that they might take what they
wanted from her; and if they had no objection, he and his wife wished to
live ashore with them for the future. He then broached a cask of rum and
invited them to drink it.

The Maoris appeared to have fallen in with his suggestion with alacrity,
and the chief gave the leading mutineer and his wife a large _whare_ to
live in, and also two slaves as servants.

The rest of the tale is incomplete in its details. Of the fate of the
_Venus_ nothing is known. Probably she was burnt by the Maoris. Kelly,
Kitty Hegarty, Charlotte Badger and her child, Thompson, and two others,
lived among the natives for some time. Then the woman Kitty Hegarty
died suddenly while Kelly was away on a warlike excursion with his Maori
friends, and was hastily buried. It was alleged that she was killed by
some women, one of whom was anxious to possess Kelly fo