1963 - Markham, Edward. New Zealand or Recollections of it - Introduction, Markham and his manuscripts, p 11-28

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INTRODUCTION

Markham and His Manuscript

In the early years of the present century the London bookseller Francis Edwards acquired an illustrated manuscript entitled 'New Zealand or Recollections of it by Edward Markham'. Having employed a copyist to make a number of transcripts, 1 he advertised the work in his current catalogue. The entry, pasted into the original manuscript, gives a summary of the contents which includes this tantalising sentence: 'He [Markham] also met with Maning, Kelly, Oakes, Marmont, and many other "Pakeha" Maories, whose histories and circumstances he describes in terms which could not well be put in print. ' The catalogue evidently came to the notice of that passionate bibliophile, Alexander H. Turnbull, who bought the manuscript on 18 August 1904. 2 'New Zealand or Recollections of it' thus formed part of the collection bequeathed to the Crown on Turnbull's death in 1918.

Several of the transcripts also found their way into local or Australian collections. One was bought by Turnbull's friendly rival, Dr T. M. Hocken of Dunedin, another by the General Assembly Library, Wellington; a third has been traced to the National Library of Australia, Canberra, while a fourth is in the possession of the Mitchell Library, Sydney, which also owns a manuscript account of Markham's voyage to Van Diemen's Land and experiences in that country. Bound into the Hocken and Mitchell transcripts is a typewritten prefatory note probably (as the language suggests) compiled by the person who drew up the catalogue entry. Here again is a summary of the contents and a further tantalising, indeed intimidating, sentence: 'His [Markham's] description of the Maories, men and women and his transactions with them are detailed most minutely, and some of their customs described in a manner which can neither be repeated nor abridged nor put into print; in fact, the author has himself noted many passages which would have to be omitted if the work should ever find an editor.'

Though it has taken more than half a century for the work to find an editor (who, indeed, was commissioned by its owners rather than 'found' by the manuscript), Markham's observations on precolonial New Zealand have been used for a variety of purposes by a succession of writers. The narrative has contributed its quota of fact and error to such weighty compilations as Hocken's Bibliography and G. H. Scholefield's Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, it has supplied material for specialised linguistic research; 3 some of its illustrations appeared in the centennial history, Making New Zealand; and throughout the years it has been a favourite source for journalists and youthful authors eager to inject colour and life into the pallid and somewhat prudish tradition of New Zealand historical writing. 4 Once, it seems worth recording, Markham almost found not perhaps the ideal editor but a highly gifted interpreter. During a visit to Dunedin in 1936 the late Robin Hyde read the Hocken transcript and conceived the idea of adapting it for publication in semi-fictional form. Unfortunately the proposal foundered on the rock of scholarly principle: Markham, it was thought by the custodians of the transcript, should be presented to the world without imaginative embellishments and only through the mediation of a qualified editor. So New Zealand literature lost what might have been a companion piece to Robin Hyde's brilliant portrait of the Baron de Thierry. 5 Markham's latest and most ardent admirer is the American historian-anthropologist Harrison M. Wright who thus characterises the narrative and its author: 'Markham... spent nine months in New Zealand and wrote a short journal of his stay. As he strolled about the countryside gossiping on this and that with droll humor, he gathered an invaluable

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collection of facts and opinions - much of it evidently unprintable in New Zealand, because his fascinating manuscript has not yet been published.' 6 In defence of the national honour it must be emphasised that Wright's book reached the country after this work had been commissioned.

Its fragmentary and piecemeal publication, the existence of transcripts in addition to the original, its reputation as a chronique scandaleuse have in the course of time all combined with the occupational gossip of historians and librarians to envelop the manuscript in an atmosphere of mingled mystery and notoriety. Even its varied citation as 'diary', 7 'journal', 8 or 'narrative' 9 reflects uncertainty about its nature and the manner of its composition. A similar aura of ambiguity has surrounded the author who is indifferently termed 'trader', 10 'young English naval officer', 11 or, more cautiously, 'visitor from Van Diemen's Land'. 12 'Unfortunately, ' laments a Tasmanian editor, 'no one seems to know, these days, who Edward Markham was.... '13 The most original-and disconcerting-theory of his identity was put to the present writer at a time when he was already deeply involved in his editorial labours. A former colleague with a wide knowledge of historical sources gave it as his opinion that the manuscript was a fabrication and Edward Markham merely a figment in the mind of some fraudulent compiler. 14

The Markhams and Edward Markham

Whether or not the manuscript is authentic - a question that will presently be examined - there can be no doubt that a young man called Edward Markham lived in the early nineteenth century. His birth, education, and career can be traced in official records; he is mentioned in private journals and in at least one contemporary newspaper; his name appears, if inconspicuously, in the annals and genealogies of the family chronicler, the Reverend David Frederick Markham; and his existence is again vouched for in the writings and correspondence of the latter's son, Sir Clements Markham. Edward's role, in short, though minor, is amply substantiated; and he takes his place on the historical scene surrounded by a formidable array of relatives and forbears.

From 'time immemorial', according to the family historian (Edward's cousin), Markhams had been 'seated' in the contiguous parishes of West and East Markham in the county of Nottingham. Leaving their rural abodes in search of advancement, they displayed throughout the centuries a remarkable capacity for survival. They successfully adapted themselves to the Conquest and, under the name of de Marcham, held high office under Plantagenet kings. One of their number, the versatile William de Marcham, after serving as Lord Treasurer to Edward I, was appointed to the see of Wells, won renown for his 'piety and power of working miracles', and in the time of Pope Boniface VII narrowly missed canonisation. Another Markham, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas during the reign of Henry IV, was claimed by his descendants (in despite of contrary opinion) to have been that sturdy democrat who committed the future Henry V to the Fleet. A Markham fought beside Henry VII at the Battle of Stoke, a Markham was Lieutenant of the Tower under Edward VI, Isabella Markham was a maid of honour to the Princess Elizabeth, Sir Griffin Markham - most lamentably - turned Papist, and in the time of James I was arraigned for treason. Besides a multitude of soldiers, jurists, ecclesiastics, and parliamentarians, the family produced several writers, of whom the most distinguished was Shakespeare's contemporary, Gervase (or Jervis) Markham. A soldier-scholar in the true Renaissance tradition, he was versed in the classics, a 'perfect master' of the French, Spanish, and Italian languages, fought under Essex, and barely escaped death in a duel which involved him in proceedings with the Star Chamber. Poet, dramatist, pamphleteer, authority on husbandry, military science, hunting, hawking, heraldry, his publications ranged from A Discourse on Horsemanshippe (1593) to a metrical rendering from the Italian, The Famous Whore, or Noble Courtezan, containing the lamentable Complaint of Paulina the famous Roman Courtezan, sometime Mistresse unto the Cardinal Hippolito of Este (1609). 15

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Sir Robert Markham, eldest brother of Gervase, has been termed '"a fatal unthrift and destroyer of this eminent family"'. He squandered an enormous patrimony, sold his ancestral estates, and reduced the Markhams to a condition of penurious obscurity in which they languished for some generations. 16 The instrument of their recovery was another William Markham, a prelate even more illustrious than his mediaeval namesake. The future Archbishop was born in Ireland in the year 1719, eldest son of a half-pay captain, a man 'of jovial disposition, a writer of drinking-songs with rousing choruses, a lover of daring adventures'. On the death of his wife, Captain Markham took his family to London, where he supplemented his meagre resources by copying documents and painting fan mounts (the first glimmer of artistic talent to appear in the Markham annals). In 1733 William entered Westminster School, the initial step in his steady ascent to social and ecclesiastical eminence. He rose to be captain of the school, went on to Christ Church, Oxford, graduated M. A. and later D. C. L., entered Holy Orders, and in 1753 returned to Westminster as headmaster. '"Our great glory was Dr. Markham,"' wrote his pupil, Jeremy Bentham. '"He was a tall, portly man, and high he held his head. He had a large amount of classical knowledge. His business was rather in courting the great than in attending to the school."' The courtship was supremely successful. Dr Markham became chaplain to George III, acted as preceptor to the two elder princes, was intimate with aristocrats and statesmen. After leaving Westminster he was successively Dean of Rochester and Dean of Christ Church, was promoted to the see of Chester and finally, in 1777, translated to York. No less felicitous in his private life, he married an heiress, Sarah Goddard, and fathered 13 children. 17

When the Archbishop died in 1807 (to be interred with suitable pomp in Westminster Abbey), he left the family restored to its former station in English society. Markhams, in the train of their father's friend, Warren Hastings, had fought and enriched themselves in India; there were Markhams in Parliament and the administration; Markhams were to be found in the higher ranks of the two services; the tide of preferment had carried Markhams into cathedral precincts and comfortable livings; Markhams, as the result of brilliant marriages, had allied themselves with the landed gentry and the aristocracy. Of the ecclesiastical Markhams, the most eminent in his generation was George, the Archbishop's third son. Born in 1763, he attended Westminster School, went on to Christ Church, and in 1791 became Rector of Stokesley in the North Riding of Yorkshire. He retained this well-endowed living until his death but was also appointed Archdeacon of Cleveland and subsequently Dean of York. He married the daughter of Sir Richard Sutton, Bart, and had 10 children, eight daughters and two sons, the younger of whom was the author - or putative author - of 'New Zealand or Recollections of it'. 18

Edward Markham, scion of this ancient line, was born at Stokesley on 5 June 1801, and a month later was baptised in the parish church. 19 Misfortune overtook the boy in early infancy, for in 1802 Mrs Markham, abandoning reputation and family, eloped with her lover, a Mr Fawcett. Since her husband removed to York in the same year, the presumption is that Edward passed a motherless childhood in the deanery, then situated in the minster yard. 20 After attending Mr Affleck's school at Doncaster, 21 he followed family tradition and in January 1813 entered Westminster. Less than two years' later his formal education ended and he joined the Maritime Service of the East India Company. 22 Here, as elsewhere in Markham's life, reasons and exact circumstances can only be guessed at. Perhaps it does the boy small injustice to assume that he revealed no signs of a spiritual vocation and no great aptitude for the classical tongues. A few years earlier, at about the same age, his brother George had left Westminster to enter the Navy. 23 As an alternative opening for the younger son, the Dean may have been attracted by the Maritime Service; this was a corps d'elite, officered by gentlemen, and through its system of 'indulgences' (or rights of private trading) supplied a field for lucrative investment. 24 Markhams had already acquired wealth and honour in the East - why should Edward not do likewise? One further amd more positive fact may have influenced the choice of career: on 30 August 1815 the Dean's eldest daughter, Elizabeth, married General Rufane Donkin, who soon afterwards left for India to take up the appointment of Quartermaster-General.

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He and his wife embarked on the Elphinstone (Captain Haviside) on which Edward also sailed as midshipman and sixth mate. 25

The record of Markham's years with the East India Company is, for the most part, merely a list of dates and ships; but his first voyage figures in an episode of the family's history which had some influence on his life and left its imprint on his final testament. Travelling on the Elphinstone with Bessie Donkin was a young woman of French origin, Josephine Chapuis, who long before had been adopted by Edward's grandmother. One day in the year 1798, so the story goes, Mrs Markham discovered the child in a milliner's shop chanting to herself. 'Je vais a Paris demain. Je vais a Paris demain.' On making inquiries, she learned that during the Terror a refugee had found Josephine in the streets of Paris and brought her to England; her rescuer could no longer support her, and she was about to return to France. Touched by the child's plight, Mrs Markham took her home and, with the Archbishop's consent, made her one of the family. In the course of time a close friendship grew up between Josephine and Bessie who, after marrying General Donkin, insisted that she should accompany them to India. Her presence, however, so displeased the General, an elderly man of 'crusty' and jealous disposition, that he treated the young woman with discourtesy, even brutality. Again Josephine was rescued, this time by an army officer named Chadwick. He proposed marriage, and before the voyage ended the ceremony was performed by Captain Haviside. The two brides both came to a similar and untimely end. The Chadwicks went to Hyderabad, where Josephine gave birth to a boy and died in August 1817. 'Poor Bessie' also bore a son and died at Meerut a year after her friend. 26

While his sister's affairs moved towards their sad conclusion, Edward Markham was acquiring the craft of seamanship and experiencing its perils. In February 1817 his service on the Elphinstone abruptly terminated when the ship was burnt at Whampoa, the deep-water port of Canton. The young midshipman survived the disaster and gained temporary promotion, returning home as third mate on the Aurora. After two further seasons in eastern waters - on the Perseverance (Captain Templer) and the Warren Hastings (Captain Larkins) - he again joined Captain Haviside as third mate of the Thames bound for Bengal. This voyage was briefer and even more calamitous than the first. The Thames had been only four days at sea when she struck a storm of hurricane strength and on 3 February 1822 was wrecked off Eastbourne with a loss of 11 men. 27 Edward, according to family tradition, got ashore and made his way to 'Ades' in Sussex, the home of his uncle, Admiral Markham. There he 'was hospitably received... until he began to make love to his cousin Maria, when he was sent away to York.' 28 He appears to have re-embarked for Bengal in the same season and to have returned home as third mate of the Marchioness of Ely. His last two voyages were made on the Asia (Captain Balderston) and the Thomas Coutts (Captain Chrystie), in both of which he sailed as second mate. He left the service of the East India Company when the Thomas Coutts returned to England in March 1827. 29

Why Markham should have retired from the sea - and apparently from any active occupation -before reaching the age of 26 must remain a matter for surmise. Perhaps he found the life not to his taste; perhaps he had profited from trade and judicious speculation; or it may be that he now benefited from his mother's bounty. In the years since her sensational elopement, Mrs Markham had borne several more children, inherited a fortune from Lady Bath, and taken the name of Pulteney. 'Edward... was well off,' wrote Clements Markham in an unpublished memoir, 'His mother, the Pulteney heiress, caring for the interests of her Markham as well as her Pulteney children.' 30 As for the Dean of York, he had died in 1822 at Scone Palace, the seat of his brother-in-law, Lord Mansfield, and his unmarried daughters, leaving the cathedral precincts, had finally established themselves at Bessels Green in Kent. This, we may assume, was Edward's home - or at least a pied a terre - during his early manhood, and here, we can be certain, the Miss Markhams entertained certain of his East India associates. One of their number was Josephine's widower, Major Chadwick, who married Anne, the fifth daughter, in 1825; another was Captain Haviside, who later married the next sister, Frederica. In the end only two Miss Markhams remained at

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Bessels Green - the second daughter, Harriet, and the youngest, Sarah, Edward's junior by a year and, like him, known in the family for her artistic accomplishments. 31

Markham's activities in the years immediately after quitting the East India Company have left few traces. Clements Markham confines himself to the general statement that Edward travelled a good deal in France, Germany, and Italy and, without reporting any misconduct, mentions one occasion when he stayed at Florence with his uncle and aunt, Archdeacon and Mrs Robert Markham, and their daughters. 32 Whatever his movements and occupations during this interlude, at the end of five years he was contemplating a fresh career in Britain's remotest possessions and, to further his interests, had solicited the help of an influential patron. 'Allow me to introduce to your notice and protection Mr. Edward Markham who has been for some years in the mercantile service of the East India Company and is now of sufficient standing to be a candidate for the command of one of their ships, but is deterred, as I understand, from aspiring to that situation by the heavy expence of outfit, and the reduced profits of an ordinary voyage.' Thus, on 30 August 1832, Lord Amherst, retired Governor-General of India, wrote to Governor Bourke of New South Wales. Mr Markham, the letter explained, was 'a son of the late Dean of York and grandson of the Archbishop'. 'I have become acquainted with him,' his lordship continued, 'when he has been on a visit to his Sisters, who are my near neighbours in this County. Mr. Markham's object in going to New South Wales and Van Diemen's land is to satisfy himself, by his own observations, whether it be advisable to embark his property in either of those Countries; and while I take the liberty of recommending him to your notice I trust that I shall have introduced an agreeable addition to your society in a young man so respectably & highly connected.' 33

So it was in the somewhat prosaic role of would-be investor that Markham temporarily forsook England in 1833. In March of that year he sailed from London in the Warrior and on 26 June, as the Hobart Town Courier states, reached Van Diemen's Land. 34 According to a legend still current in the family 70 years later, he travelled even farther to New Zealand, where, it was believed, 'he got into some trouble with the natives'. 35 Of the 'trouble' there is no independent testimony; but thanks to those industrious diarists, the Anglican missionaries, ample proof survives of his presence in this distant no-man's-land. On 4 August 1834 George Clarke, of the Church Missionary Society's station at Waimate, noted in his journal the arrival of 'Mr Markham Grandson to the Late Archbishop of York - he had a letter of introduction from Mr Busby'. In later entries Clarke mentions that the visitor inspected the mission pupils, attended the sick, and performed similar acts of benevolence; then on 12 August he writes, 'after dinner Mr Markham left us for the Kerikeri'. Clarke's colleague, James Hamlin, also refers to Markham (whom he calls 'Mr Marcum') and describes a joint expedition to Kaikohe on 10 August. 36 The next stage in the journey is again attested, this time by James Kemp of Kerikeri, who records on the 12th the appearance of a 'gentleman from the Waimate by the name of Markham... having a letter of introduction from Mr Busbey'; 'he remained all night with us,' continues the missionary (a native of Norfolk) and comments, 'he appears a gentleman who have traviled a great deel & have seen a great deel of the world.' After one further entry - 'Wednesday 13th. Accompined Mr Markham to see the K. K. waterfall' - Kemp's journal abruptly ends. 37

His visit to the falls at Kerikeri is the last incident in Markham's travels that can be independently established (independently, that is, of the two manuscripts bearing his name). He appears to have returned to England in 1835 and settled into a quiet existence which has been described in two memoirs by his kinsman Clements. He was a member and frequenter of clubs - the Union in Trafalgar Square and the Old Raleigh Club - and in 1836 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (in recognition, it may be, of his penetration of relatively unexplored territories). On 30 June 1840, runs the unpublished memoir, he married 'Charlotte, daughter of John Longden, Esq. of Bramcote', but the union was brief, for Charlotte died 'in premature childbirth' on 4 December 1840. From that date (or a year later, as the published memoir has it) Edward lived for two decades in sorrowing widowerhood at his residence, 45 Welbeck Street, Cavendish Square. 'In the

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drawing room,' to quote Clements, 'there was a marble bust of his wife, covered with gauze. The room was full of water colour pictures, chiefly French, but some by Pinelli. He was fond of art and a good judge of pictures. Edward was very kind hearted, and devoted to his sisters.... He was constantly with his unmarried sisters, Harriette and Sarah, at Bessels Green. 45 Welbeck Street was a centre of hospitality, relations and friends always staying or dining there. He was very kind to his younger cousins, especially to Edwin... when he was at the military academy at Woolwich. He also had his cousins David and Clements, and later Frank Markham up from Winchester for Saturdays and Sundays.' In his later years Markham became 'excessively stout', and at the age of 60 married for the second time. His wife, briefly characterised as 'not much younger' than Edward himself, was 'Harriet, daughter of the Rev. John Rumsey of Killick Court in Monmouthshire'. 'The second venture,' writes Clements, 'lasted for four years, during which time he was more or less an invalid, though he was still occasionally to be seen at Bessels Green and at the Union Club.' He died at 45 Welbeck Street on 20 July 1865 and, if his widow carried out his testamentary wishes, he was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery. Mrs Markham survived her husband for almost 22 years, also dying at Welbeck Street in February 1887. 38

Markham's will, though not a particularly revealing document, adds a few details to the picture of a well-circumstanced member of the upper middle class. The settlement made in contemplation of the marriage with 'my present wife Harriet Markham' was confirmed; the said wife was to have the use during her life of his plate and pictures; she was likewise to enjoy a life interest in the residue of his estate after the payment of bequests amounting to considerably more than £12,000. Among the legatees were his domestic servants (the recipients, under certain conditions, of two years' wages), a godson, Edward's maiden sisters, Henrietta and Sarah, and other relatives whose names recall the romantic incidents of his first voyage - the two sisters, Anne Isabella Chadwick and Frederica Haviside (here spelt 'Heaviside'), Mrs Chadwick's second daughter, Josephine (named after the French refugee), and 'George Rufane Donkin eldest son of my late nephew George David Donkin' (poor Bessie's only child). Markham's relationship to two further legatees is undefined, and their names appear nowhere else in the family records. They are, firstly, 'Melanie Josephine de Claremont otherwise Delphine de Claremont Widow now residing in the house of Madame Rosignol at number 24 (or 25) Rue Faubourg Montmartre in Paris', who received an annuity of £100; and, second, 'Edouardine Marie Helene Trouguiou Wife of Monsieur Maxime Trouguiou of Tours in France' to whom Markham bequeathed the income from Consolidated Bank annuities to the value of £2,000. 39 In the absence of facts the identity of the two ladies, together with the services for which they were remembered, must remain a subject for sentimental conjecture.

Members of the Markham family have continued to distinguish themselves in English public life. In the generation after Edward's perhaps the most eminent was Sir Clements Markham, son of the Reverend David Frederick Markham, Canon of St. George's Chapel, Windsor, and one of Edward's innumerable cousins. Sir Clements was the leading British geographer of his day, the patron and friend of Robert Falcon Scott, and, as an author, even more prolific than his Renaissance kinsman, Gervase. His writings have contributed largely to this chronicle and are remembered in literary history as among the sources of Joseph Conrad's Nostromo. 40 In the later nineteenth century the family's nautical tradition was maintained in the person of Admiral Sir Albert Hastings Markham, son of another cousin of Edward's. His place in history is secure, for he commanded the Camperdown, which, during the course of manoeuvres in 1893, rammed and sank the flagship Victoria. Exonerated by a court martial, the Admiral continued his naval career and, turning author in his later years, compiled a life of his cousin, Clements. 41 Two members of the family, it should be added, later followed Edward's path to the antipodes. They were: Georgina, sister of Clements, who married the Canterbury politician and poet, Sir Charles Christopher Bowen; and Peter Markham, a descendant of the Archbishop's eldest son, who also made his home in Canterbury. 42 In tracing Markham associations with New Zealand the historian is forced to consider one further

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possibility - that the ancient line was perpetuated in the north through some Polynesian Edouardine or Edward; in default of evidence, however, that subject too must be consigned to the realms of speculation.

The Question of Authenticity

Up to this point the sketch of Edward Markham, his forbears, relatives, and hypothetical descendants, has been outlined without reference - or with only oblique reference - to the narratives that bear his name. The two manuscripts - the Mitchell Library's 'Voyage to Van Diemen's Land' 43 and the Turnbull's 'New Zealand or Recollections of it' -are discussed more fully below, but here it can be said that on examination they reveal many striking similarities. Both are composed in the same colloquial, ungrammatical, often inconsequential manner; both use the same highly eccentric systems of punctuation, spelling, and capitalisation; both are written in the same neat nineteenth-century hand. Clearly they are the work of one author and have been written by one person who need not, of course, have been the author, since the possibility of an amanuensis or copyist cannot be wholly neglected.

As for the 'author' - whether Edward Markham himself or, as suggested earlier, a literary forger - he discloses a very accurate knowledge of the established facts in Markham's life. For example, most details of the voyage to Van Diemen's Land supplied in the narrative agree with those published in the Hobart Town Courier; and the only discrepancy - a difference of one day in the date of departure - is slight and open to simple explanation. 44 Again, in the New Zealand narrative the account of Markham's stay at Waimate and Kerikeri corresponds in every important particular with the information found in the journals and diaries of three missionaries. 45 More striking still are the allusions, casually scattered through both manuscripts, to Markham's early life and to members of his family. The description of a drinking party in Van Diemen's Land contains this reference to the Archbishop: 'He commenced by soaping me down I may say. "You are decended [sic] from the Primite [sic] of the Church.... "' 46 After reaching Hobart Town, the narrator twice mentions writing letters to England: first, 'to Anne [Mrs Chadwick], and to Bessels Green [the family home]'; 47 second, to 'Mrs Stansfeild', one of Edward's cousins, Mrs Stansfield. 48While dining out later in his stay he meets a Captain England 'who knew poor Robert M also Fred M'; these figures can be identified as two other cousins, Captain Robert Markham of the 58th Regiment, who died in 1832 (hence the epithet), and Major Frederick Markham of the 32nd Regiment. 49 In describing his New Zealand experiences he alludes to 'Miss Sarah Markham' or 'Sarah' (the youngest sister), 50 to 'George Donkin' (a nephew), 51 and to 'Jack Markham', known to Henry Williams and therefore in all probability Edward's cousin, Lieutenant John Markham, R. N. 52 Throughout the two narratives the author reveals his knowledge of seamanship and his familiarity with the East. Even more significantly, he makes specific and dated references to voyages in two Indiamen -the Warren Hastings in 1820, the Marchioness of Ely in 1823 53 - which tally with the official record of Markham's service.

In the face of such evidence, the theory of forgery becomes untenable. Nor does it seem in the least likely that the two manuscripts were the work of a copyist or amanuensis. Neither has the appearance of a fair copy, and 'New Zealand or Recollections of it' in particular, with its many corrections and interpolations, shows all the characteristics of an author's working manuscript. Furthermore, due allowance being made for changes in the long intervening period, the handwriting of the two manuscripts is quite consistent with the one authenticated specimen of Markham's calligraphy, the signature on his will. 54 There is, in sum, no good reason for doubting that Edward Markham himself compiled and wrote both 'Voyage to Van Diemen's Land' and 'New Zealand or Recollections of it'. Fortified by this conclusion, we may now consider more fully the two episodes which have conferred on the author some slight measure of immortality and the belated fulfilment of publication.

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Visit to Van Diemen's Land

On 17 March 1833, by his own account, Edward Markham left Gravesend on the Warrior (Captain Stone) bound for Van Diemen's Land and New South Wales. Omitting all preliminary explanations, indulging in none of the emotional flourishes of the departing exile, this rentier Childe Harold opens his narrative with the casual statement, 'I went on board... from the opera, having just seen the 2d or 3d representation of Faust, then into a post chaise for Gravesend, and went on board and found it no easy matter to get to Bed as the cot had not been slept in for some Years and had to be unlashed: I began my wandering on the deep. ' His wandering nearly ended when it had barely begun. With a wealth of nautical terminology and much repetition, he tells how, as the Warrior ran through the Downs, 'from a bad lookout on the part of the Mate we all but dashed her brains out.' She struck a rock, 'seemed to hang for some moments', but 'hauled off from the Land, and resumed her course' without loss or damage. In this, as in a later crisis, Markham acted a cool and manly part: 'the row and confusion was beyond any thing I had been accustomed to, but I made myself useful on the Poop and shewed the other Passengers what to be about. Was thanked by the Captain and most of them after the Row had subsided.' They sailed on without further incident until on the tenth day, passing close to Madeira, they 'could see the white houses on shore and could with glasses see the men at work in the Vineyards', a sight that prompted Markham to exclaim reminiscently, 'How old Marine Captain Borrowcliff would have admired it, as he used when drinking the produce of the Sunny side of the Island.' 55

The next diversion was a dramatic episode which Markham describes in his inimitable manner: 'the Cook had got drunk one morning instead of night and the steward went forward as usual before 8 o'clock as we had breakfast at 8 and found nothing ready no hot Rolls no Fish or Grill &c and he kicked the Cook who was a chinaman, who took it in high dudgeon & ran on the Forecastle and jumped overboard, the Ship was going about 4 Knots and every person on Deck. The cry of a Man overboard makes men shew all their energies, The Ship was hove to and the boat lowered and China Jack was picked up - He had been 7 years with the Captain and of course the Steward was reprimanded for taking the Law into his own hands, Jacks Grog was stopped for some time, and he was very penitent and got his grog again.' 56

It is in connection with the affair of China Jack, thus happily concluded, that Markham introduces the two fellow passengers most frequently mentioned in his voyage narrative. Both clerics, the first was the Rural Dean of Hobart Town, Palmer by name, 'a man of no Talent', while 'the other was a Rev'd Mr Stiles [or Stile or Styles] a clever but ultra religious man'. With their respective wives they were Markham's table companions, and each responded to the incident in characteristic fashion: 'the Rural Dean on hearing of the cook being overboard exclaimed oh! what shall we do for a cook, he was such a good cook, oh I am so sorry, Ten to one if there is any one can cook on board, half so well, Mr Stile said May God have compassion on the Mans soul, and asked numerous questions as to the state he was in, and hearing he was a Heathen admitted He would be damned. But the chinaman was saved, and the Rural Dean recovered from his anxiety'. 57

Nothing further relieved the monotony of shipboard life until, after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, the Warrior again narrowly escaped disaster. 'The Cape being doubled,' Markham relates, 'as in duty bound, there was to be a song and a double glass of Grog drunk that night and a full muster of all the passengers and every song put in requisition. We were going on very merrily when an end to our songs took place a Mr Barton was singing chevalier Newcombs song The Sea the Sea! &c Two or 3 verses were sung when a cry from below of Fire, Fire! no more grog, no more song, that night as the smoke and smell rolled up from below... every person jumped up, some run on deck, but all the Seamen the Captain Mate & your humble servant went below to put out the fire - Mr Nicholson's cabin was on fire & next the storeroom Spirits Turpentine &c &c in it, the Bulkhead or division was nearly burned through... one watch hove the ship to and handed down water and the others went below, I kept the women back they always are in the way when

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there are any anxious moments and cling to you oh! shall we be saved, not if you stop us from handing down water I said and gave them to the other Passengers who were all asking questions instead of exerting themselves by passing along Buckets of water I remember once before in the Mosambique channel the Warren Hastings [in] 1820 took Fire, and... the women all clung around us instead of allowing us to do our utmost to save the ship.' In the end the fire was extinguished, and summoned aft by the two clergymen, 'all returned thanks to God' for a 'providential escape'. 58

On the following Sunday, inspired by the incident, Mr Styles delivered 'a beautiful sermon' which was the occasion for a critical stocktaking on Markham's part: 'he was clever & impressive as a preacher, and gentlemanlike, but never mind what the subject of conversation was, He would eventually turn it to a Religious one, I always cut them as I have no idea of a man treating you as a boy, begin upon a religious subject and end it so, But not eternally harping on the same string as he did, so I always had to leave him short or start at dinner some opposition subject to keep him from dosing me with religion at every meal.... ' Towards the end of the voyage the excessive and intrusive piety of Mr Styles provoked a distressing incident. A 5s. lottery was organised for the charitable purpose, Markham explains, of making 'a Purse that should send one of the party, with a few Pounds to go on shore with'. When Mr Styles was approached, he 'could not refuse his name quietly, but he chose to try and dissuade others from it Quoting Scripture - and they cast losts [sic] for his Raiment and trying To make us believe that were we guilty of the crime that we believe was booked to the account of the Roman Soldiers, he went further and said it was damnable then denied it, and I then told him he was a mad Fanatic, going on as he did'. Nor was this all, for Markham ruefully concludes, 'it cost me 5 shillings as I took a second ticket in consequence.' 59

Surveying his fellow passengers on the eve of disembarkation, Markham records his approval of singularly few: 'Mr Clerk an Architect I liked, and Mrs Clerk also Barton I disliked Mrs B so so Nicholson I liked the Parsons so so'. As for Mrs Palmer, wife of the Rural Dean, and her sister: '[they] told me taking praise to themselves that they had never been at a Ball or Concert or play, had never played at cards, in fact I said you mean you have lived a wishy washy kind of life and have seen little of the world, and glory in your ignorance. Now why did you not go into a convent as you seem so proud of your good works, and you are prepared to open a Debit and Credit account with your maker, and these silly things as your offsets, where are your acts of charity; where have you been the Peacemakers, where have you helped Youth of either sexes, these I call things to be proud of and not your self denial from the enjoyments of society the which by your own account you can not enjoy, and by your own admitting are no ornament to.' If the cloistered virtue of Mrs Palmer failed to accord with his own principles, even more abhorrent were the greed and hypocrisy of her husband. The Rural Dean, wrote Markham, 'put me in mind of the Yorkshire Ploughboy that likened a sign post to a parson He said they pointed the way to Heaven but never went it.' 60

With this tribute to his father's sacred calling and a circumstantial account of the Reverend Mr Palmer's 'Gluttony', Markham brings the voyage narrative to an end and goes on to recount his experiences in Van Diemen's Land. Shortly after he reached Hobart Town (on 26 June 1833), the Chief Constable, Mr Capon, found him 'very comfortable Lodgings' with 'a first fleeter' who 'could remember when only 11 tents were to be seen, where there are now Brick and stone houses for 16 thousand Inhabitants'. Markham noted 'a great want of churches &c and Public buildings', but there were pleasure gardens and, on the evidence of his own narrative, no want of taverns. He promptly submitted letters of introduction and was soon on convivial terms with a large acquaintance of Government officials, leading merchants, garrison officers, and such lesser figures as 'an ugly Diva' of Neapolitan birth, 'pleased to find a person who understood something of her language'. 61

Within a week of his arrival he had settled into a routine whose nature can be suggested by a short sequence of the diary entries with which he fills out this portion of the narrative: '4 July Rode a horse on trial a bad one called on the Capons, and went there in the evening & had a specimen of Mr Deans concert price one shilling. 5 July a wet day did not move out all day, commenced

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Monsieur Botte wrote to Mrs Stansfeild, went to John Murdocks to dinner met 2 Murdocks Major Briggs - Beauvais Hewett, had 3 sheeps heads Haggis & whisky Toddy. 6th July went to try a horse before purchase, and rode to Austins Ferry 9 miles and back again, kept the horse out 3 hours, He stumbled 3 or 4 times No go, he was weak, returned him, and saw the owner of it & was told that I put him to great inconvenience in having kept him out so long. I said I was sorry the more I appologized the more the Man Bullied at last I turned on my heel and told him to be Damned I had 8 of them to dinner that day, and in the evening a bill came in for horse hire I sent word he should have my Horse whip gratis if he dared send any such thing again.... Sunday went to Church heard Mr Palmer read the lessons, and Mr Bedford preach Mr B was formerly a stay maker and was patronized by Mrs Fry, made ordinary in Newgate, then made senior Colonial Chaplain. He speaks as if he had hot pudding in his mouth, and is a pompous ass, and was at one time very drunken. But the Governor gave him a hint, that he would be dismissed if he continued so he joined the Temperance Society Went on board the Warrior and dined with Capt Stone, stayed till 6 oclock went home read Botte and went to bed.' 62

In the course of the social round, he sampled a local delicacy, 'Kangaroo steamed' ('worth the Voyage to taste it' was Markham's verdict) and the less delectable pleasures of the Vice-Regal board: 'July 10th... dined with the Governor oh! what a dull dinner, oh! what a dull evening sat down 22 or 24 to dinner Roast Goose, Turkey Two ducks, boiled Pork & fowls a Round of Beef Mutton and Pork chops, and Cape wine sat next the Governor, I asked him to help me to some Turkey people stared as if I had asked him for a Guinea all the company drank Cape wine but I boldly drank out of the Governors bottle of Good Madeira it being private. But I knew what to expect before I went out to dinner, I dined twice with the Governor, [he] sat after coming in to the Ladies &c like a Tailor perched up on a music stool, with both hands in his pockets. I approached Mrs Arthur [the Governor's wife] she was talking about wheening a child poor dear Motherly soul Bah! the insipid slop, then a Knot [?] of men wishing so for 10 to strike standing in the middle of the room like Gabies, what a merry party we had at supper, when most of the officers adjourned to the Macquarrie Hotel, leaving the ladies sitting round the room like Wall Flowers, & the Miss Arthurs were flirting at the end of the room with officers &c and most of the men were Toading the Governor. The stile of dinner might have done at a Tavern when 20 Convicts meet to celebrate their freedom'. 63

Soon after the function at Government House, Markham paid a short visit to Henry Oakes, brother of a Colonel Oakes he had known in Florence. His host was then leasing a property called 'Red lands' in the district of New Norfolk, 22 miles (by Markham's reckoning) from Hobart Town. The time passed pleasantly in 'one of the prettiest places' in Van Dieman's Land while Markham inspected Oakes's farm ('fine land but slovenly kept'), rode about the countryside, and tried his hand at the novel sport of cockatoo shooting. They called one day on a neighbouring landowner, Mr Lamb, and spent a hilarious evening at the expense of another visitor, the senior colonial chaplain. Having first tried to 'soap down' the Archbishop's grandson, Mr Bedford so far forgot himself as to break his vows of temperance and (according to his chief antagonist) was thoroughly worsted in successive duels of wit. During the visit Markham continued his search for a suitable mount and before returning to Hobart Town committed himself to an unfortunate choice: 'Bought a horse of a man Oakes knew, and he gave the Horse a good character, I paid 32£ for him, too much by half I have every reason to suppose some small debts of Oaks was wiped off by this transaction & as I was told of it afterwards.' 64 Thus, it seems, originated the feud with Oakes which was to reach its unhappy climax in New Zealand.

Back in Hobart Town, Markham again took up the variegated - and occasionally tangled -threads of his social life and did some further entertaining on his own account. His cosmopolitan background enabled him to confer an air of elegance on his functions - 'Gave 5 gents a dejeuner a la Fourchette', runs one entry - while their success was doubtless enhanced by the '2 gallons of good Brandy' which he requisitioned from Captain Stone before the Warrior left for Sydney.

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With a horse at his command he could widen the range of his excursions and extend the scope of his sporting activities. He shot quail and opossums and experienced the hazards of kangaroo hunting: 'went out shooting Kangaroos, had the worst riding I ever saw, over Fallen trees Rivulets and through brush wood up to your eyes, when mounted, up & down such hills so steep we brought home 3 Kangaroos'. Proving unequal to these demands, the horse acquired at New Norfolk was soon replaced: 'Friday bought Capt Jacobs 44th Regt black Horse, a real Trump, and I sold him at the end of 5 months.' In disposing of his first mount Markham was not so lucky: 'determined to sell the other Horse forthwith, as my height would always gall the Horse I did for 25£ never got the Money, a Bill at 3 months date, and the Beggar became a Bankrupt before it became due.' 65

In August Markham again left Hobart Town, this time on a longer and more elaborate expedition to Launceston in the north. He entertained his six fellow travellers at a breakfast of 'Kangaroo steamer', and the party then rode by easy stages across the island, frequently stopping for refreshments with hospitable landowners or at the inns which dotted the route. Markham observed the 'Convicts working in chains', found the 'cyder' 'as good... as in the Normandy', thought the scenery of the interior 'Magnificent', and recorded nocturnal horseplay involving 'chamber articles' and situations of a kind familiar to readers of Smollett. At Launceston they put up at the hostelry of the former highwayman Dick White, 'a bandy or broken leged mulatoe', who played the violin, doubled the parts of innkeeper and auctioneer, and was in Markham's opinion 'a decided character and wit'. The neighbourhood of Launceston abounded in original characters. There was Mr Walkinshaw who, anticipating the Peggoty family, had manoeuvred an abandoned hulk ashore and converted her into a dwelling: 'he lives under the Poop makes a warehouse of her hold & between decks... and he has shored up the decks forward and aft and built up brick chimnies on board, & has altered her Cabins, and she is a very comfortable lodging.' Markham dined with Mr Walkinshaw and also - rather indifferently - with Major Macloud and his family who lived in squalor but displayed 'an all consuming pride of birth, she being daughter to a Highland laird old Coll of Coll & Mull'. 'Under the floor of the room they live in,' reported their guest, 'the native cats had burrowed and bred and the smell and effluvia arrising is terrible it is like living over a wild beast show, we had a badly dressed dinner, chump ends, and bits next the loins &c rode with the Major, who is next to imbecile now, as Mrs Macloud wears the Breeches'. A more jovial host was Captain Barclay, an 'old East India Captain of 80 swearing like one of the troopers of the Army that Uncle Toby used to speak of. In return Markham 'swore as much as he did', sampled his well-stocked cellar, and met his youthful heiress, offspring of the aged but honourable Captain's union with 'a convict woman whom he married to Legitimise the daughter'. With 'a dinner to all the people that had been civil to our party', the visit to Launceston reached its end and a bibulous climax: 'sat down 22 to Table and my share cost me 11 pounds, every person was more drunk than sober, when they left us they had a skinful to carry off.... ' 66

A wild scamper along the homeward stretch brought the party back to Hobart Town, where for a while Markham 'passed the time agreeably' in the customary routine. The small circle of his familiars was occasionally diversified by a welcome recruit. The Alligator arrived from the Swan River with 'the Baron Hugel', an Austrian naturalist who had travelled 'all over the East' and penetrated to the Himalayas; and one day at a review of the 63rd Regiment Markham recognised one, Fletcher, 'a chum at Rome' from whom he had 'parted at Venice' and now, so small was the world, met again in Van Diemen's Land. Soon afterwards he left with a party of friends to visit the whaling establishments in D'Entrecasteaux Channel - a more sober excursion than the jaunt to Launceston. The local whalers, he noted, had enjoyed a 'very successful' season, 'having taken some 2,000 tons [i. e. tuns] of Southern Oil'. He stayed six days in the neighbourhood, and, though not a single whale was 'struck' in that time, he witnessed the process of 'trying out' and recorded various features of the temporary settlements: the beach with '200 whales in every state of decomposition', emitting a 'terrible' stench; the special huts where the helmsmen lived apart from their crews; the nail-studded trees used as improvised lookouts; the covering of the 'stringy barked

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Gum', 'something like the outer husk of the Cocoa Nut', which the whalers called 'Bulls Wool' and used for cleaning their boats and their persons. And, ever the gourmet, he tasted with approval two further specialites du pays - fish cooked in boiling whale oil and 'damper' or 'bread baked in the Woodashes without Yeast'. 67

Markham now began to suffer from boredom. On concluding his account of the bay whalers, he writes, 'For some time after this I lead a Monotonous life, riding & sometimes dining out but I used to ask two or 3 of them to dine with me to vary it'. He adds mysteriously and not too comprehensibly, 'I was waiting all this time to make good the Titles that I had or was going to have Mortgages on but this is entre nous - well when all was compleat I went [?] to make up my mind for New Zealand. Hewett often laughed at me for it, but I never expected to have been so long there.' The narrative then tails off into emigrants' handbook information, pronouncements on the colony's future, and scandalous references to Governor Arthur (characterised as 'a great jobber' and, somewhat illogically, as both 'little Jesuit' and 'canting Puritan'). It ends, 'Time went by in the usual Monotonous way Till February when I decided on going down to New Zealand. I sold my horse, having ridden him for 5 Months, and sold him to Captain Forth of the 21st regiment for 5 pounds more than I gave for him. I gave all my chums a dinner... and on the 7th of February I embarked on board the Brig - Brazil packet Captain Crow, no relation to "Jim Crow"!' 68

Markham in the Hokianga

So Edward Markham reached New Zealand, intending, as he casually remarks, to stay for three weeks. Why did he come? On this point he has no more to say than he has on his reasons for migrating from England. Perhaps the spirit of adventure induced him to cross the Tasman, or merely perhaps his acknowledged boredom. His motives, on the other hand, may have been pecuniary and quite practical. It will be remembered that in describing his visit to D'Entrecasteaux Channel he noted the success which the local whalers had enjoyed that season in southern waters. On 7 October 1833, probably soon after the visit (which is undated), the Marianne returned to Hobart Town with 'no less than 260 tuns of oil... and about 15 tons of whalebone'. This 'splendid cargo' had been obtained at Cloudy Bay in a period of less than six months and brought to the owners, Hewitt, Gore, and Company, a profit of some £4,500. One outcome of the bonanza was a proposal to establish at Cloudy Bay a colony where commercial enterprise would unite with the ideals of self-help, the strict principles of Sabbath observance, and certain political theories of a quasi-socialistic nature. Half the population of Hobart Town, reported a local newspaper, were 'crazy to leave for the new Colony'. 69 The scheme - one in the long line of projected Utopias with which our history is littered - came to nothing, and in any case would scarcely have appealed to a man of Markham's tastes and convictions. The whole episode might, nevertheless, have drawn his attention to New Zealand as a possible field for the kind of investments he had evidently made in Van Diemen's Land. Further colour is lent to this view by the fact that one owner of the Marianne was Hewitt (or 'Hewett'), his business adviser and, more conspicuously, his boon companion in the excursion to Launceston and other escapades. Like Oakes and Maning, Markham may thus have been borne to New Zealand on the tide of economic expansion then flowing strongly from the Australian colonies.

Whatever the motives impelling him, he came to the fabled anchorage of Kupe, the navigator's last resting place before he returned to Hawaiki and for that reason (so asserts a local annalist) called 'Hokianga' or 'going back'. 70 Harbour, river, estuary, as it is variously termed, the Hokianga lies on the west coast of the North Island, penetrating deeply into the northern peninsula. For half a century after Cook's rediscovery of New Zealand it remained untouched, shut off from European contact by the treacherous bar at its mouth and the bush-clad hills beyond its upper reaches. At the time of Markham's arrival these barriers had long been breached. In June 1819 the missionaries Thomas Kendall and John King made their way overland from the Bay of Islands to ascertain whether 'Jukiangah' 'would be a suitable place for a settlement'. 71 Their stay was short, their

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verdict apparently inconclusive, and the following September a larger party, now led by Samuel Marsden, set out along the same route, made a more thorough examination of the river, and succeeded in reaching the Heads. In his journal Marsden mentions repeated requests from the Hokianga chiefs for the services of a missionary, and reports in general terms, 'The river is very beautiful, and will be very convenient for the navigation of small vessels should this country ever become a commercial nation.' 72 He prophesied with needless caution. Only six months later - and partly at his own instigation - the seaward route was opened. At the end of March 1820 the store ship Dromedary (Captain Skinner) with the schooner Prince Regent (Captain Kent) visited the river for the purpose of collecting spars. This object was not achieved, for the Dromedary did not venture inside the Heads, but Captain Kent safely negotiated the bar and explored the river. 73 Other vessels followed in the wake of the Prince Regent, and within a decade the Hokianga had become an established centre of trade and shipping.

In the early years of settlement the chief commodity was timber. 'The river,' wrote Richard A. Cruise of the Dromedary, '...forms many deep coves, and branches into several streams, the banks of which are beautifully wooded, and the lofty and luxuriant cowry grows in great profusion close to the water's edge.' 74 These two facts - the abundance of forest trees, especially the kauri, and the convenience of water transport - created the dominant industry and determined its methods. Once felled, the trees were either sawn into planks or manoeuvred to the water's edge. Thence the timber was floated in rafts to ships anchored in the main stream. The spars, according to one authority, went to England, the planks to New South Wales, 'the colony' as it was then called. 75 In the late twenties the export trade was supplemented by local shipbuilding, carried on mainly at Horeke or 'Deptford'. The Europeans thus lived not in compact communities but, of necessity, in isolated sawing stations or in a few larger 'establishments' dispersed throughout the river. And, with very few exceptions, they were employed in felling or preparing timber. Even the Wesleyan mission at Mangungu, established in 1828, became involved in this local industry. In the troubled years when it was under the direction of William White the station succeeded in combining its spiritual labours with a profitable commerce in planks and spars. 76

At the time of Markham's visit there were, by his own estimate, about seventy Europeans on the river. 77 Living as they did in isolation and without support from established authority, they depended entirely on the good will - and often on the forbearance - of a native population numbering some three or four thousand. 78 Actually they had little to fear from their Maori neighbours. Drowning and drunkenness killed more Europeans at this period than the patu or the musket. The Hokianga people indeed seem to have enjoyed a reputation for mildness and fair dealing. In 1820 Cruise compared them most favourably with other northern Maoris, praising their 'gentle manners' together with their 'honest' and 'generous' conduct in supplying provisions. 79 This opinion, it must be added, was based on limited knowledge and might have been modified had Cruise written in 1834. Contact with traders and seamen in the intervening years had doubtless tarnished the primitive virtues. Even in 1820, moreover, the reputed gentleness of the Hokianga Maoris would not have been apparent to their traditional enemies. Patuone, Nene, Moetara, and warriors of lesser degree joined with gusto in the southern raids of the eighteen twenties; and, as Markham himself witnesses, during the early thirties local feuds could still erupt in bloody conflict. The Fortitude affair, however, was something of a portent. Moetara's faction, implicitly rejecting their ancient usages, acted throughout in defence of the Pakeha; and the struggle ended not in the defeat or extermination of one side but with a lasting truce. After the destructive wars of the previous decade, Maori society was returning to a precarious equilibrium - at least in the north; while, for better or worse, European standards were prevailing.

Such, briefly, was the setting for the first half of Markham's stay in New Zealand. His movements in the months before he established himself on the opposite coast may now be summarised. Having crossed the bar on 18 February 1834, the Brazil Packet anchored that afternoon off Pakanae, Moetara's village in the lower reaches. On the 21st Markham was transported farther up the river to

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Kohukohu where he shared a two-roomed cottage with Kelly, Maning, and, until they transferred to Pakanae, the Oakeses. A week or so later, during an excursion to the Mangamuka, one of the main tributaries of the Hokianga, he met 'Awattie' and witnessed the obsequies of a young Maori woman. On 5 March, soon after his return, the Kohukohu purchase was completed and, with the help of two carpenters, he began to build his own room. The work was interrupted while he attended Moetara's feast at Pakanae. There he dismissed Awattie for 'infidelity' and met 'Arungher', her successor. These events seem to have taken place between his first two visits to the Wesleyan missionaries at Mangungu, on 9 March and the following Sunday. He records a storm of hurricane strength on 26 March, and, early in April, an excursion to Omanaia where he too was guilty of infidelity.

The completion of the additional room, shortly after his return from Omanaia, opened a new, more orderly phase in Markham's sojourn. He had ranged rather freely in the previous weeks but now settled with Arungher into a quiet domestic routine which continued until June. Excursions were briefer and usually undertaken for practical reasons. On one outing Markham - perhaps in company with Arungher - crossed the river to Horeke to buy iron pots and tin pannikins for the menage at Kohukohu. He mentions two further appearances at Mangungu, once at the funeral of a Mr Craigh, victim of intemperance, and again at a gathering (on 18 April) summoned to investigate a boundary dispute. These were sporting forays and, with the onset of wintry weather in May, an expedition for timber to build a 'New Zealand fashion' chimney. Some variety was introduced into these simple pursuits when, about the middle of June, the Amity arrived with friends from Hobart Town. Markham visited Pakanae to welcome the ship, often dined on board when she anchored in the upper river, and on 23 June entertained in his own modest quarters. A week later he left the Hokianga and made his way across country to the east coast. Following approximately the same route as the pioneer missionaries, he travelled, by fairly easy stages, with a retinue of five porters and an interpreter. On the evening of 2 July he reached the Bay of Islands, so named, he remarks, by Captain Cook.

Markham at the Bay of Islands

On this occasion, as so rarely in his historical asides, Markham was correct. An entry in Cook's journal for 27 November 1769 records the discovery of 'a large and pretty Deep Bay' on the west side of Cape Brett. 'I have named it the Bay of Islands,' he later wrote, 'on account of the great number which line its shores, and these help to form several safe and Commodious harbours wherein is room and depth of water sufficient for any number of Shipping....' The place, he went on, offered 'every kind of refreshments for Shipping'. 80 Thus from the very outset Cook recognised the advantages which by the eighteen thirties would attract many Europeans to the Bay and transform it into a busy port. Its growth, however, was slow and spasmodic. The fate of Cook's successor, Marion du Fresne, murdered in 1772 with more than a score of his men, probably deterred other mariners, and for a lengthy period no further visits were recorded. Only in the opening decade of the nineteenth century, with the development of Pacific whaling and the expansion of trade from New South Wales, did the Bay become widely known as a convenient depot and source of supplies. Such facilities as existed at this time were provided by the local Maoris, who sometimes joined the crews of visiting ships and made their way to New South Wales or, more rarely, to England.

These enterprising travellers were indirectly responsible for the first influx of permanent settlers. It was through his encounter with Maoris at Port Jackson, Marsden relates, that he conceived the idea of founding a mission to free 'this very interesting people' from 'their cruel spiritual bondage and misery'. 81 Having overcome obstacles that would have defeated a less resolute man, in December 1814 he led his little band of catechists and mechanics to the Bay where they established themselves at Rangihoua on the northern headland. From this bridgehead they gradually spread to more central and fertile localities - Kerikeri, Paihia, and Waimate, the three stations visited by Markham.

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They also made exploratory journeys to the Hokianga and other northern districts, but, in spite of appeals for their services, they were forced to confine their ministrations to the Bay and its immediate neighbourhood. Even in this limited area progress fell far short of Marsden's hopes. Occupied with the basic problems of subsistence in a new country, afflicted by domestic quarrels and scandals, the pioneer evangelists laboured for years without making a single convert.

For this initial failure there was a further reason: the Maoris were disinclined to renounce their spiritual bondage and embrace Christianity. In fact, for a decade or so after the mission was established their pagan customs were more deplorably in evidence than ever before. 'The Inhabitants of this Bay,' Cook had observed, 'are far more numerous than at any other place we have yet been in and seem to live in friendship one with another altho it doth not att all appear that they are united under one head.' 82 With the advent of traders and whalers, their condition was inevitably transformed. Shrewdly exploiting their unique situation, the Bay tribes exchanged their commodities and their services - together with the services of their women - for European goods, especially the musket; and under the redoubtable Hongi they achieved a loose and precarious union. So armed and led, they began a series of raids and massacres that went on with unabated violence until Hongi's death in 1828. With the removal of his dominant presence and the growing strength of rival tribes the north gradually lapsed into an uneasy truce. As William Yate expressed it some years later, 'No one dared to refuse when Hongi called.... But now, the war-cry may go round the Bay, from house to house, and from village to village, and none answers to the call. It is with the utmost difficulty that a sufficient number can be raised to go out to war, beyond their own immediate district, lest they should be met by a party more powerful than themselves.' 83 Disunited and demoralised by incessant fighting, the Bay Maoris now turned in increasing numbers to the missionaries who, under the vigorous direction of Henry Williams, were quick to seize their chance. Progress was so rapid that by 1834 the mission was able to open its first southern station.

The turmoil into which the north was plunged in the years of Hongi's ascendancy retarded but did not prevent further settlement. The Bay itself, at the centre of the storm, remained comparatively peaceful. Ships continued to call, and to meet their needs traders, shipwrights, artisans began to establish themselves during the late twenties and early thirties, so adding a 'respectable' element to the small secular nucleus of runaway sailors and similar vagrants. The village of Kororareka received most of the newcomers, but others built homes, stores, or workshops elsewhere on the Bay's vast circumference. This ill-assorted community became even more varied when James Busby arrived in 1833 and set up the British Residency at Waitangi. By the following year, at the time of Markham's visit, the permanent European population was still far from its peak and may not have exceeded 200. 84 For the Maoris no reliable estimates exist, but they probably outnumbered the settlers by at least 10 to one. 85

Markham intended to remain at the Bay only three weeks, but owing to the lack of Sydney-bound shipping he was compelled to stay four months. Reaching Kerikeri on the evening of 2 July, he left the next morning for Kororareka where he found temporary accommodation at Alexander's grog shop. On the 5th he looked up Rogers, his fellow passenger on the Brazil Packet, who was now employed as tutor at Okiato, the trading establishment of Clendon and Stephenson. As a result of the visit he was offered the use of a 'skilling' slightly larger than his room at Kohukohu. He accepted the offer and shifted from Kororareka on Monday the 7th. In the meantime he met such notabilities as Gilbert Mair and, after a service at Paihia, the two Williams brothers. On the 18th, supplied with a note of introduction from Clendon, he called at the Residency. Apparently he made a favourable impression on the Busbys, for he returned to Waitangi for an overnight visit on 20 July and again early in August before setting out for Waimate. During this excursion he inspected the mission farm and schools, saw Hongi's old pa at Lake Omapere, and attended a service in the chapel at Kaikohe. Returning by way of Kerikeri and Waitangi, he reached Okiato on 14 August to resume his duties as part-time cook in the bachelor quarters. Following a domestic interlude of unspecified length, he undertook a second expedition, this time to the Hauraki Gulf

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in a sealing boat manned by sawyers and Maoris. The voyage came to a premature end when they struck a rock some 40 or 50 miles south of Cape Brett. Markham ingeniously effected temporary repairs and, within six days of his departure, got back to Okiato. The 'dreadful' monotony of which he now complains was occasionally relieved by the society of whaling cronies or by visits to the missionaries and the Busbys. He was at Waitangi on 25 October when HMS Alligator sailed into the Bay after rescuing the Guard family in Taranaki. On obtaining a passage in the warship Markham settled his affairs at Okiato, stayed a few days at Waitangi, and left for Sydney on 30 October. Altogether he had been in New Zealand about eight and a half months.

Edward Markham, Author

The Alligator reached Sydney on 13 November 1834. From that date onwards the record of Markham's travels is blank save for casual references in his own narratives. He mentions leaving his dog Venus at Port Stephens for four months in charge of Mrs Dumaresq. 86 Hence he spent at least the early part of 1835 in New South Wales and travelled beyond the neighbourhood of Sydney; moreover, since Colonel Dumaresq was the brother-in-law of Governor Darling, presumably Lord Amherst's introduction gave Markham the entree to Viceregal circles. From New South Wales he may have gone to Mauritius, to which he refers on two occasions. 87 His knowledge of the island could, on the other hand, have been acquired during his service with the East India Company. A similar inference might be drawn from the many allusions to 'the Cape' and 'Southern Africa' scattered through both narratives. 88 But there is definite evidence that Markham spent some time in the Cape Colony on his way back to England. It was there, he says, that he saw Yate's book on New Zealand which was not published until 1835. 89 Apparently, then, he made a leisurely journey home by way of South Africa, reaching England, as already mentioned, some time in 1835. 90

So ended Markham's expedition to the antipodes. Turning now to the two manuscripts, we are confronted first by the problem of when they were written. As the most casual inspection will show, they are retrospective accounts, both obviously based on records kept at the time of the writer's travels but in no exact sense to be termed diaries or journals themselves. And since both mention events in South Africa, they were in all probability compiled after Markham had left the colony. Indeed, it is quite possible (though by no means certain) that 'Voyage to Van Diemen's Land' was an outcome of the last stage in the homeward journey. The original manuscript of some 60 unnumbered pages is contained in a book of foolscap size (32 by 20 5 cm) resembling those used for rough logs and similar nautical records. Little care has been taken with the presentation. The narrative runs on virtually without paragraph breaks, no margins have been left, and the only illustration is a small ink sketch towards the end of the manuscript. There are few, if any, signs of revision. Such an expansion of diary jottings might well have been undertaken to relieve the boredom of a voyage. It was probably drawn up without thought of publication, merely as a personal record or perhaps for the benefit of relations and friends.

Allusions in the New Zealand narrative make it possible to date the manuscript with greater precision. Markham has added to his version of the Guard affair marginal references to Two visits to New Zealand; these could not have been written before 1836 when Marshall's book first appeared. 91 Another terminal date is provided by a reference to Baron Huegel who, Markham remarks, is 'now acting as Ambassador... at Paris'; 'now' cannot have been later than 1837, for Huegel's appointment to the Austrian Embassy in Paris ended that year. 92 'New Zealand or Recollections of it' thus belongs to the period immediately after Markham's return, and in various ways seems to reflect the leisured and settled circumstances in which it was compiled. The narrative is neatly written in a quarto exercise book (22.5 by 18.5 cm) bound in stiff covers. Each of the 150 pages is numbered and a margin has been lightly ruled in pencil. Scattered through the manuscript is a series of illustrations in several media, ranging in size from a double-page watercolour

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drawing to small vignettes. The margins seem to have been provided for the 'side notes' common in nineteenth-century books, but Markham has also used them for cross references and for his numerous comments and afterthoughts. These and other features of the work - the use of printed sources (not always acknowledged), the valiant attempt at paragraph arrangement, the didactic tone of certain passages - all suggest that it was meant as something more than a private record, that it was, in fact, intended for publication; and this inference is supported by the note on the final page where Markham lists the passages that 'might have been left out or modified so as to be presentable to strangers'. 93

Few persons not actually illiterate could ever have been so poorly qualified for authorship. The formal deficiencies of Markham's manuscript must have been quite as apparent in his own day as they are at present; and if he did submit it to a publisher, the response would surely have been an emphatic rejection. Time, however, effects its transformations. What may have been no more than an unpublishable effusion in 1836 had within 70 years become an historic document which so discerning a collector as Alexander Turnbull gladly acquired for his library. The lapse of a further half century has, if anything, enhanced its interest while removing the supposed obstacles to publication. Markham remains an unreliable guide to facts and events, but he is a rare witness to aspects of precolonial New Zealand passed over by other more accomplished authors. He records forgotten customs and fragments of settler's lore; he is a unique repository of gossip, that indispensable element of social life and hence of social history; and, alone among our early annalists, he shows something of a Polynesian candour in his approach to sex. Not that Markham ever permits himself the freedom of a modern novelist or the unbuttoned licence of the classic self revealers. He is no Boswell and certainly no Pepys.

The reputedly unprintable sections of the narrative are thus among the least of an editor's difficulties; they are given below without emendation of any kind. More serious are the problems arising from eccentricities of composition and arrangement. The general aim has been to reproduce Markham's manuscript exactly as he left it. Except by photographic means, however, that aim is not completely attainable, and some modifications have inevitably been made in transferring manuscript to print. In the first place it has been necessary to remove Markham's numerous comments and afterthoughts from the margins and render them as footnotes. The initials 'E. M.' have been added to distinguish such passages from the verbal and textual notes which also appear at the foot of the page. All other explanatory notes will be found in numerical sequence following the text. The margins themselves are now used solely for the original side notes and cross references (the latter being suitably modified). Markham's unorthodox spelling is reproduced, but the correct form of proper names and other words not immediately recognisable is given in square brackets, usually on their first appearance. Both forms are entered either in the index or, with Maori words and phrases, in the glossary. The extremely erratic capitalisation of the manuscript has been preserved, but in the interests of readability the even more eccentric punctuation has sometimes been amended. Markham's favourite punctuating device is a small dot which at different times performs the function of comma, semicolon, or full point and which, as sense demands, has been so interpreted. Full points have been added where unintentionally omitted (e. g., at the end of a line or page), while brackets, which Markham often uses instead of inverted commas, have occasionally been closed. When such changes and additions might alter Markham's presumed meaning or result in ambiguity, they have been avoided.

Manuscripts and Transcripts

Like so much else concerning Markham, the transcripts of 'New Zealand or Recollections of it' have been a subject of speculation. Historians have recorded their uncertainty as to which of the several versions is the 'original', and Harrison M. Wright has recently suggested that the Hocken copy was 'probably done by the author at one time or another'. 94 A cursory inspection soon

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disposes of such problems. The Alexander Turnbull Library undoubtedly possesses Markham's original, while the General Assembly and Hocken Libraries - together with two Australian libraries - own transcripts by another much later hand. All these transcripts are the work of one copyist, each contains facsimiles of Markham's illustrations, all are of quarto size, and three are uniformly bound in green half morocco. Though made with some care, they differ from the original and from one another in punctuation, spelling, and pagination. Of the two copies available for close examination, that owned by the General Assembly Library is slightly superior to the Hocken copy (that is, nearer the original). 95

What, then, is the source of the transcripts and how did they come into being? Only with the discovery in England and Australia of hitherto unknown material, at a time when the present work was on the point of completion, has it become possible to answer these queries. The new information also throws light on the history of Markham's two manuscripts and establishes their authenticity beyond question. 96

First of all, it is now apparent that the existence of the manuscripts was known to one of Markham's younger relatives. 'Edward Markham,' writes Clements, 'kept interesting and entertaining illustrated journals from the day of leaving Gravesend to his leaving New Zealand. ' When Edward's widow died in 1887, the account continues, the manuscripts were, 'by a strange mistake, sold to some bookseller'. The original purchaser's identity is uncertain, though he may have been a dealer living in the West of England; nor is it clear what happened to the manuscripts in the following years. It is established, however, that in 1904 or thereabouts 'New Zealand or Recollections of it' came into the hands of Francis Edwards, 'the Marylebone bookseller', who then passed it on for perusal and description to E. A. Petherick, 'the catalogue maker'. (Petherick was almost certainly responsible for the censorious comments quoted in the first part of this introduction; in discussing the manuscript with Clements Markham, he wrote, 'There are passages in it which could not be printed as they stand.') Before the manuscript was sold, at the modest price of £6, to Alexander H. Turnbull, Petherick suggested that it should be copied. The suggestion was adopted, and Edwards ultimately disposed of the resulting transcripts which were also priced at £6 a copy. The several witnesses differ as to the number of transcripts made at this time; Clements Markham says 'two', Petherick 'two or three', while Turnbull gives the number as 'six'. 97 Turnbull's figure is most likely to be correct, since no less than four copies have now been traced: those in the Hocken, General Assembly, Mitchell, and Australian National Libraries. The unbound copy owned by the last institution was, it appears, originally bought from Edwards by Petherick and passed with his collection into the National Library. 98

Some time after the appearance of 'New Zealand or Recollections of it', states Petherick, 'another MS turned up from another part of the country.' This was Edward Markham's 'Voyage to Van Diemen's Land' which was also acquired by Francis Edwards and sold, for an undisclosed sum, to 'a man in Sydney'. The man was in all likelihood David Scott Mitchell, founder of the Mitchell Library. (The library, unfortunately, has no record of the manuscript's provenance. 99) Before the work was sent to Sydney, Petherick obtained permission to make a copy for his personal collection, whence the transcript entered the National Library of Australia. 100

All the Markham manuscripts traced in Australian and New Zealand libraries - two originals and five transcripts - are thus accounted for; but the tale is not yet complete. In 1907, while cataloguing Clements Markham's Naval Career during the Old War, Petherick entered into correspondence with the author, informing him that transcripts of Edward Markham's two manuscripts were in his collection. As a result, Clements commissioned further transcripts (which were, properly speaking, transcripts of transcripts) for his own collection. These are now in the possession of a representative of the family, the Reverend Canon G. W. Markham of Grimsby, Lincolnshire. 101 If Alexander Turnbull's information concerning the number of transcripts of the New Zealand narrative was correct, only one major problem remains unsolved: where are the two undiscovered copies of the six originally commissioned by Francis Edwards?