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Updated: June 21, 2025


No attempt was ever made to revenge them. Commissioner Spain visited Rauparaha, at the request of the leading settlers of Wellington, to assure him that the matter should be left to the arbitrament of the Crown. The Crown, as represented by Mr. Shortland, was, perhaps, at the moment more concerned at the defenceless position of Auckland, in the event of a general rising, than at anything else.

On the 19th, a small Dutch frigate arrived here from Batavia; from which I learned, that Lieutenant Shortland had arrived at that port with a single ship, about the beginning of December, in a very distressed condition; that he had buried the greatest part of the ship's company, and was assisted by the officers and company of the above frigate to secure his vessel and hand the sails, which he could not have done without assistance; and that he had been reduced to the necessity, some time before he arrived, to sink the other vessel which was in company with him, for the purpose of manning one out of the remaining part of the two ships companies; without which, he never could have reached Batavia with either: for when he arrived there, he had only four men out of the two crews, who were capable of standing on the deck.

Lieutenant Ball had orders to examine a shoal, which was seen by the master of the Golden Grove, on her return from this island in October last, in latitude 29° 25' south, longitude 159° 59' east of Greenwich: he was also to look for an island and shoal that were seen by Lieutenant Shortland, in the Alexander transport: the shoal, in latitude 29° 20' south, longitude 158° 40' east, and the island 28° 10' south latitude, and 159° 50' east longitude.

Shortland had not sufficient sagacity to discover that playfulness, fun and frolic, formed a strong trait in the character of the American sailor and militia man, for they had hardly become, what is called in Europe, soldiers; drilling and discipline had not obliterated the free and easy carriage of a bold and fearless Yankee.

The crew were landed at Pitt Water, and making their way from there overland gave information of the piracy. Two boats under Lieutenant Shortland started in pursuit. One returned in a few days, but Shortland with the other went as far north as Port Stephens without, however, seeing anything of the pirates.

This our prisoners could not endure; and it soon reached the ears of the rough allies, who seized them, and kicked and cuffed them about unmercifully; and they took one of them, who had talked more imprudently than the rest, and led him to the lamp iron that projected from one of the prisons, and would, in all probability, have hanged him thereon, had not Shortland rescued him by an armed force.

Shortland sent in a message to the committee, requesting their attendance at his office, to which was returned for answer, that considering him a murderer, they were determined to have no communication with him but added, if the commanding officer from Plymouth had any thing to communicate, they would wait on him; and, at his request, they went up to the gate, where they stated to him all the particulars of the affair.

Shortland ordered the soldiers to charge upon them, which order the soldiers were reluctant in obeying, as the prisoners were using no violence; but on the order being repeated, they made a charge, and the prisoners retreated out of the square, into their prison yards, and shut the gate after them. Capt.

He is not altogether bad not so frequently thieving and breaking the law, as intent on simple mischief and practical jokes of the coarsest and roughest sort still, he is a pest that Aucklanders inveigh heartily against, and would gladly see extirpated by the strong arm of the law. We turn out of Queen Street into Shortland Crescent.

We arrived here the 11th of October; and our lot was better than that of thirty of our companions, who came on a little after us from Plymouth. These 30 men were sent from the West-Indies, and had no descriptive lists, and it was necessary that these men should be measured and described as to stature, complexion, &c. Capt. Shortland therefore ordered them to be shut up in the prison No. 6.

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