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{{short description|New Zealand cannibalism incident}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=November 2024}}
[[File: Louis John Steel - The blowing up of the Boyd Steele (1889).jpg|thumb|right|300px|''The Blowing Up of the Boyd'' by [[Louis John Steele]], 1889]]
The '''''Boyd'' massacre''' occurred in December 1809 when [[Māori people|Māori]] of Ngāti Pou from [[Whangaroa Harbour]] in northern [[New Zealand]] killed and [[Human cannibalism|ate]] between 66 and 70 European crew members from the British [[brigantine]] ship ''Boyd''.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2206419|title=THE BOYD|newspaper=The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser|date= 8 May 1832|accessdate=4 July 2011}}</ref> This was the highest number of Europeans killed by Māori in a single event in New Zealand.  

The Māori attack was in retaliation for the whipping of their [[rangatira]] or chief of Ngāti Pou, Te Ara, on his voyage back from [[Sydney Cove]], [[New South Wales]] aboard the ''Boyd''. Te Ara had been wrongly accused of onboard theft and was punished with a [[cat o' nine tails]]. According to another version, he was the son of a chief and had been punished because he had refused to pay for his passage on the ship by working as a seaman.<ref name="nzhistory.net.nz"/> Local people were already tense and inflamed after a previous ship had brought disease to the area.<ref name="collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/36720">{{cite web|url=https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/36720|title=The blowing up of the Boyd|website=collections.tepapa.govt.nz|accessdate=25 April 2023}}</ref><ref name="nzhistory.net.nz">{{cite web|url=http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/maori-european-contact-before-1840/the-boyd-incident |publisher=New Zealand History Online|title=The Boyd incident - a frontier of chaos?|accessdate= 3 May 2011}}</ref> Three days after the ''Boyd'' moored at [[Whangaroa]], the Māori launched a night attack, killing the crew. After capturing the ship, the passengers were taken on deck where they were killed and dismembered. A few Europeans managed to hide and others were taken ashore, in a rescue attempt, by another Māori chief who had come to trade with the ''Boyd''.

In March 1810, European whalers, in the mistaken belief that these Māori had ordered the killings, attacked the island [[pā]] of Chief [[Te Pahi]] of Ngāpuhi about 60&nbsp;km south-east of Whangaroa in retribution for the ''Boyd'' killings.<!--bearing from boyd site to te pahi island is 115 deg--> Between 16 and 60 Maori and one European died in the clash.<ref name="teara.govt.nz"/><ref name="trove.nla.gov.au">{{Cite web|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page6631?zoomLevel=2|title = The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 - 1842) - 28 Apr 1810 - p2}}</ref> News of the events delayed the first missionary visits to the country, and caused the number of shipping visits to fall to "almost nothing" over the next few years.<ref name="nzhistory.net.nz"/><ref name="teara.govt.nz">{{Cite book|url=http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1t53/1?setlang=en |title=The Encyclopedia Of New Zealand|chapter= TePahi|access-date=21 May 2011}}</ref>

After the massacre, the Māori took the ''Boyd'' back to their village where they tried to extract the gunpowder from the barrels in the hold. The gunpowder ignited when a flint was struck burning the ship down to the waterline of its [[copper sheathing]]. The Māori declared the burnt-out hull [[tapu (Polynesian culture)|tapu]], sacred or prohibited. 

==Background==
''Boyd'' was a 395-ton ([[Builder's Old Measurement|bm]]) [[brigantine]] that had [[Penal transportation|brought]] [[convicts]] to New South Wales and then in October 1809 sailed from Australia's [[Sydney Cove]] to [[Whangaroa]] on the east coast of New Zealand's [[Northland Peninsula]] to pick up [[kauri]] [[Spar (sailing)|spar]]s. The ship was under the command of Captain John Thompson and carried about 70 people.

The ship carried several passengers, including ex-convicts who had completed their transportation sentences and four or five New Zealanders who were returning to their homeland. Among the latter was Te Ara, or Tarrah, known to the crew as George, the son of a [[Māori people|Māori]] [[Tribal chief|chief]] from Whangaroa. Te Ara had spent more than a year on board different vessels that included a sealing expedition to islands in the [[Southern Ocean]].

On the ''Boyd'' he was expected to work his passage on the ship. Some accounts state that he declined to do so because he was ill or because of his status as a chief's son.<ref name="homepages.ihug.co.nz">{{Cite web |url=http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~tonyf/loot/boyd.html |title=Boyd |access-date=2003-09-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609212225/http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~tonyf/loot/boyd.html |archive-date=2011-06-09 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">Shipwrecks and Disasters at Sea W.H.G. Kingston. George Routledge and Sons, London. 1873</ref> Another account states that the ship's cook accidentally threw some [[pewter]] spoons overboard and accused Te Ara of stealing them to avoid being flogged himself.<ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2206419 The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, May 1832, page 4]</ref> [[Alexander Berry]], in a letter describing the events, said: "The captain had been rather too hasty in resenting some slight theft."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/11933/11933-h/11933-h.htm|title=The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Narrative of a Nine Months' Residence in New Zealand, by Augustus Earle.|website=www.gutenberg.org}}</ref>

Whatever the reason, the result was that the captain deprived Te Ara of food and had him tied to a [[capstan (nautical)|capstan]] and whipped with a [[cat-o'-nine-tails]].<ref name="homepages.ihug.co.nz"/><ref>{{cite web|title=Notes on Early Life in New Zealand, George Clarke - CHAPTER I|page=9|date= 1903| url= http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/document/?wid=1357&page=1&action=null| publisher =[[Early New Zealand Books]] (ENZB), University of Auckland Library | access-date=12 May 2020}}</ref>

This treatment of Te Ara prompted him to seek ''[[utu (Māori concept)|utu]]'', or revenge. Te Ara regained the confidence of the captain and persuaded him to put into Whangaroa Bay, assuring him that it was the best place to secure the timber he desired.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

Upon reaching Whangaroa, Te Ara reported his indignities to his tribe and displayed the whip marks on his back. In accordance with Māori customs, the tribe formed a plan for ''utu''. Under British law, whipping was the common punishment for minor crimes – a British person could be legally hanged for stealing goods to the value of five shillings. In Māori culture, however, the son of a chief was a privileged figure who did not bow to an outsider's authority. Physical punishment of his son caused the chief to suffer a [[loss of face]] (or "[[Mana (Oceanian mythology)|mana]]"), and to Māori this warranted a violent retribution.

==Massacre==
===Killings===
Three days after ''Boyd's'' arrival, the Māori invited Captain Thompson to follow their canoes to find suitable kauri trees. Thompson, his chief officer and three others followed the canoes to the entrance of the [[Kaeo River]]. The remaining crew stayed aboard with the passengers, preparing the vessel for the voyage to Britain.

When the boats were out of sight of ''Boyd'', the Māori attacked the five [[pākehā]] (foreigners), killing them all with clubs and axes. The Māori stripped the clothes from the victims and a group donned them to disguise themselves as Europeans. Another group carried the bodies to their [[pā]] (village) to be eaten.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Moon |first1=Paul |title=This Horrid Practice: The Myth and Reality of Traditional Māori Cannibalism |date=4 August 2008 |publisher=Penguin |location=Google Books |isbn=9781742287058 |chapter=15 The Boyd}}</ref><ref name="NZHistory">[http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/maori-european-contact-before-1840/the-boyd-incident The Boyd incident - a frontier of chaos?], New Zealand History Online, Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Updated 2008-01-24. Accessed 2008-05-05.</ref>

At dusk the disguised group manned the longboat, and at nightfall they slipped alongside the ''Boyd'' and were greeted by the crew. Other Māori canoes awaited the signal to attack. The first to die was an officer of the ship: the attackers then crept around the deck, stealthily killing all the crew. The passengers were called to the deck and then killed and dismembered. Five people hid up the mast among the rigging, where they witnessed the events.

===Survivors===
[[File:Elizabeth Isabella Broughton.jpg|thumb|Portrait of [[Elizabeth Broughton|Elizabeth "Betsey" Broughton]], painted in Sydney in 1814 by convict artist [[Richard Read Sr.]], [[National Library of Australia]]]]
The next morning the survivors saw a large canoe carrying chief [[Te Pahi]] from the Bay of Islands enter the harbour. The chief had come to the area to trade with the Whangaroa Māori. The Europeans called out to Te Pahi's canoe for help. After Te Pahi had gathered the survivors from the ''Boyd'', they headed for shore, but two Whangaroa canoes pursued them. As the survivors fled along the beach, Te Pahi watched as the pursuers caught and killed all but one.

Five people were spared in the [[massacre]]: Ann Morley and her baby, in a cabin; apprentice Thomas Davis (or Davison), hidden in the hold; the second mate; and two-year-old [[Elizabeth Broughton|Elizabeth "Betsey" Broughton]], taken by a local chief who put a feather in her hair and kept her for three weeks before she was rescued. The second mate was initially forced to make fish-hooks, but his captors found his skill unsatisfactory, so they killed and ate him, too.<ref name="NZHistory"/>

=== Wreck===
The Whangaroa Māori towed ''Boyd'' towards their village until it grounded on mudflats near Motu Wai (Red Island). They spent several days ransacking the ship, tossing flour, salt pork, and bottled wine overboard. 

When up to 20 Māori found a cache of muskets and gunpowder, they smashed barrels of gunpowder and attempted to make the muskets functional. Chief Piopio sparked a flint this was said to have ignited the gunpowder, causing a massive explosion that killed him and nine other Māori instantly. A fire then swept the ship igniting its cargo of whale oil. Soon all that was left of ''Boyd'' was a burnt-out sunken hull. Māori declared the hull [[Tapu (Polynesian culture)|tapu]], sacred or prohibited.

==Rescue==
When news of the massacre reached European settlements, Captain [[Alexander Berry]] undertook a rescue mission aboard {{ship||City of Edinburgh|1807 ship|2}}. Berry rescued the four remaining survivors: Ann Morley and her baby, Thomas Davis (or Davison), and Betsy Broughton.

The ''City of Edinburgh'' crew found piles of human bones on the shoreline, with many evincing cannibalism.<ref name="McNab10">{{cite book|quote=McNab quotes Captain Berry saying, "We had seen the mangled fragments and fresh bones of our countrymen, with the marks even of the teeth remaining on them|url=https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-McNTasm-t1-body-d10.html |chapter=Chapter 10: The Massacre of the Boyd, 1809 and 1810|title=From Tasman To Marsden: A History of Northern New Zealand from 1642 to 1818|first=Robert|last= McNab|publisher= J. Wilkie & Company, Dunedin|year= 1914}}</ref>

Captain Berry captured two Māori chiefs responsible for the massacre, at first holding them for ransom for the return of survivors. After the survivors were returned, Berry told the chiefs that they would be taken to Europe to answer for their crimes unless they released the ''Boyd's'' papers.<ref name=NZETC>{{Cite web|url=https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-McNTasm-t1-body-d11.html|title=Chapter XI. — After the Massacre, 1810 to 1814 &#124; NZETC|website=nzetc.victoria.ac.nz}}</ref> After the papers were given to him, he released the chiefs. He made it a condition of their release that they would be "degraded from their rank, and received among the number of his slaves", although he never expected this condition to be complied with.<ref>{{cite journal
 | last        = Berry
 | first       = Alexander
 |date=April 1819
 | journal     = The Edinburgh Magazine
 | title       = Particulars of a late visit to New Zealand, and of the measures taken for rescuing some of English captives there
 | pages       = 304
 | url         = https://books.google.com/books?id=UlwAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA304
}}</ref>
They expressed gratitude for the mercy. Berry's gesture avoided further bloodshed, an inevitability had the chiefs been executed.

The four people rescued were taken on board Berry's ship bound for the [[Cape of Good Hope]]. However, the ship encountered storms and was damaged, and after repairs arrived in [[Lima, Peru]]. Mrs Morley died while in Lima.<ref>
{{cite news
 | url = http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2206419
 | date = 8 May 1832
 | newspaper = The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser 
 | page = 4 
 | title = The Boyd
}}
</ref>
The boy, called Davis or Davison, went from Lima to [[England]] aboard the {{ship||Archduke Charles|1809 ship|2}}, and later worked for Berry in [[New South Wales]]. He drowned while exploring the entrance to the [[Shoalhaven River]] with Berry in 1822.<ref>
{{cite book
  | last = Swords
  | first = Meg
  | isbn = 0-85587-128-8
  | title = Alexander Berry and Elizabeth Wollstonecraft
  | page = 9
| year = 1978
 }}
</ref>
Mrs Morley's child and Betsy Broughton were taken onwards by Berry to [[Rio de Janeiro]], from where they returned to [[Sydney]] in May 1812 aboard {{ship||Atalanta|1798 ship|2}}.<ref>
{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article628475 |title=Ship News. |newspaper=[[The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser|The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 - 1842)]] |location=NSW |date=23 May 1812 |access-date=8 January 2015 |page=2 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
Betsy Broughton married Charles Throsby, nephew of the explorer [[Charles Throsby]], and died in 1891.<ref>
{{cite web
  | url = http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an23478163
  | title = Betsy Broughton (A Brief Biography)
  | publisher = National Library of Australia
  | access-date = 29 October 2009
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=A toddler's survival story |url=https://www.nla.gov.au/blogs/treasures/2015/11/09/a-toddlers-survival-story |website=National Library of Australia |access-date=4 November 2018 |archive-date=4 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181104050254/https://www.nla.gov.au/blogs/treasures/2015/11/09/a-toddlers-survival-story |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Aftermath==
In March 1810, sailors from five whaling ships ({{ship||Atalanta|1798 ship|2}}, ''Diana'', ''Experiment'', ''Perseverance'', [[Warren Hastings (1789 ship)|''Speke'']], and {{ship||New Zealander|1808 ship|2}}) launched a revenge attack. Their target was the pa on Motu Apo island in Wairoa Bay belonging to [[Te Pahi]], the chief who tried to rescue the ''Boyd'' survivors and then saw them killed. Te Pahi had later accepted one of the ''Boyd's'' small boats and some other booty, and his name was confused with that of Te Puhi, who was one of the plotters of the massacre. This was the belief of [[Samuel Marsden]], the prominent early missionary who said it was Te Ara (George) and his brother Te Puhi who took ''Boyd'' as revenge.<ref name=Ballara>{{cite web|last1=Ballara|first1=Angela|title=Te Pahi|url=http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/biographies/1t53/te-pahi|website=Dictionary of New Zealand Biography|access-date=26 January 2015}}</ref><ref name="CARv1">{{cite book |last1= Carleton |first1=Hugh |title= The Life of Henry Williams|year= 1874 |publisher= [[Early New Zealand Books]] (ENZB), University of Auckland Library|pages=25–26|chapter= Vol. I |chapter-url=http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/document?wid=1038&action=null}}</ref> In the attack between 16 and 60 Māori and one sailor were killed.<ref name="trove.nla.gov.au"/>

Te Pahi, who was wounded in the neck and chest, realised that the sailors had attacked him because of the actions of the Whangaroa Maori. Some time before 28 April, he gathered his remaining warriors and attacked Whangaroa, where he was killed by a spear thrust.<ref name=NZETC/>

News of the Boyd Massacre reached Australia and Europe, delaying a planned visit of missionaries until 1814.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://waitangi.com/ww/chap01.html|title=Christianity Among The New Zealanders, by William Williams, 1867, CHAPTER I.|website=waitangi.com}}</ref> A notice was printed and circulated in Europe advising against visiting "that cursed shore" of New Zealand, at the risk of being eaten by cannibals.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/maori-european-contact-before-1840/the-boyd-incident|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080220020837/http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/maori-european-contact-before-1840/the-boyd-incident|url-status=dead|archive-date=20 February 2008|title=New Zealand History Online: The Boyd incident - a frontier of chaos?}}</ref>

Shipping to New Zealand "fell away to almost nothing" during the next three years.<ref name=NZETC/>

==Cultural references==
Details of the massacre have featured in many non-fiction publications. One of the most comprehensive was:
* ''The Burning of the 'Boyd' - A Saga of Culture Clash'' (1984), [[Wade Doak]]

The massacre was the subject of a 2010 New Zealand [[children's book]]:
* ''The Shadow of the Boyd'', by Diana Menefy

Historical fiction references include:
* ''The Boyd Massacre: The true and terrible story of'', (2005), {{ISBN|978-0646447957}}, Ian Macdonald (a descendant of Boyd survivor Betsey Broughton)
* ''Burning the Evidence'' by Terri Kessell, {{ISBN|978-1877340147}}, follows Ann Morley, who lived with Maori for some months before her rescue by Alexander Berry

The massacre has also featured in several paintings:
* {{ill|Louis Auguste Sainson|de}}, ''The Boyd Incident'', (1839)
* [[Louis John Steele]], ''The Blowing Up of the Boyd'', (1889)
* Walter Wright,  ''The Burning of the Boyd'', (1908)

==See also==
*[[List of massacres in New Zealand]]

==Notes==
;Citations
{{Reflist|2}}
;References
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110609212225/http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~tonyf/loot/boyd.html A comprehensive report by Tony Flude]
*[http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/1966/B/boydMassacreOf/en "BOYD", MASSACRE OF], from ''An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand'', edited by A. H. McLintock, 1966. Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 18 September 2007.
*[https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-McNTasm-t1-body-d10.html The Massacre of the Boyd, 1809 and 1810] and [https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-McNTasm-t1-body-d11.html After the Massacre, 1810 to 1814], Chapters 10 and 11 in ''From Tasman To Marsden: A History of Northern New Zealand from 1642 to 1818'', by Robert McNab. Published by J. Wilkie & Company, Dunedin, 1914.
*Massacre of the Boyd, in [http://www.waitangi.com/ww/chap01.html Chapter 1], in ''Christianity Among The New Zealanders'', by the Right Rev. William Williams, D.C.L., Bishop of Waiapu. Seeley, Jackson, and Halliday, London, 1867.

==External links==
*[http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo/boyd-incident-painting Depiction of the capture of the ''Boyd'' in Whangaroa Harbour], Louis Auguste Sainson, 1840s?.
*[http://www.teara.govt.nz/EarthSeaAndSky/SeaAndAirTransport/Shipwrecks/2/ENZ-Resources/Standard/4/en ''The Burning of the'' Boyd], oil painting by Walter Wright, 1908.

{{1809 shipwrecks}}
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[[Category:Conflicts in 1809]]
[[Category:Massacres in 1809]]
[[Category:Cannibalism in Oceania]]
[[Category:Massacres in New Zealand]]
[[Category:1809 in New Zealand]]
[[Category:Far North District]]
[[Category:Maritime history of New Zealand]]
[[Category:History of the Northland Region]]
[[Category:December 1809 events]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in 1809]]
[[Category:1809 murders in Oceania]]
[[Category:Incidents of cannibalism]]