LETTER OF ... VISCOUNT GODERICH AND ADDRESS OF JAMES BUSBY TO THE CHIEFS OF NEW ZEALAND, IN ENGLISH AND MAORI, 1833

8vo, FIRST EDITION, ten pages, parallel English and Maori text, PRESENTATION COPY FROM CHARLES DARWIN inscribed on the front endpapers ("For the learned Linguists", "from Mr Charles Darwin to us sisters", "Letter in New Zealand language given to us sisters for our museum by Mr Charles Darwin about 1834"), contemporary blue paper wrappers inscribed on upper cover "New Zealand Letter", slight spotting

Parkinson & Griffith 20; Hocken, p.53; Ferguson, 1648; Bagnall, 2139; Williams, 11

THE EARLIEST NON-MISSIONARY PRINTED TEXT IN MAORI, ACQUIRED BY CHARLES DARWIN. In October 1831 a group of 13 Maori Chiefs had written to King William IV, appealing for help against French colonial ambitions. This bilingual pamphlet contains a reply to that letter by the Colonial Secretary, Viscount Goderich, dated 14 June 1832, introducing James Busby as the first British Resident Agent in New Zealand. It also includes an address by Busby himself to the "Chiefs and peoples of New Zealand" dated 17 May 1833, after his arrival at the Bay of Islands. This exchange of letters, and the arrival of Busby in New Zealand, began the chain of events that led to the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi. This pamphlet was presumably acquired by Charles Darwin during his brief stop in the Bay of Islands on the Beagle, 19-30 December 1835. On his return to Britain in 1836 he presented it to Joanna and Leonora Horner, the younger daughters of Leonard Horner, who were, like their sister Mary (wife of Charles Lyell), accomplished linguists. Darwin had first been introduced to the Horner family when studying in Edinburgh in 1825.

NO COPIES OF THIS PAMPHLET ARE RECORDED OUTSIDE NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTIONAL LIBRARIES AND WE HAVE NO RECORD OF ANY COPY HAVING APPEARED AT AUCTION IN RECENT DECADES.