Barnet Burns ( – 26 December 1860) was an English sailor, trader, and showman who became one of the first Europeans to live as a Pākehā Māori and to receive the full Māori facial tattoo. He travelled to Australia and found employment as a trader of flax in New Zealand in the 1830s. Burns returned to Europe in 1835 and spent most of his remaining years as a showman giving lectures, where he described the customs of the Māori, performed the haka, exhibited his Māori tattoos and recounted his adventures in New Zealand.
Early life George Burns, later known as Barnet, was believed to have been born about 1807, but the exact location of his birth has yet to be determined.
At the age of 13 or 14 he became a cabin boy and ended up working for Louis Celeste Lecesne in Jamaica. When Lecesne travelled to England to petition parliament over his false arrest and exile,The Anti-slavery Reporter, Zachary Macaulay, Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery, Vol. 1, pp. 27–31, retrieved 12 October 2008. Burns travelled with him."Burns, Barnet", Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Volume 1, 1990. Te Ara. Retrieved 25 January 2009. Under the patronage of Lecesne, Burns went to the Lancasterian school at Borough Road in London.
Burns again set sail in 1827 on the brig Wilna and arrived at Rio de Janeiro. Following a dispute between the Captain and crew, all the crew were paid off from the ship and Burns then obtained a berth as steward on the barque Nimrod Captain Eilbeck, which set out for Australia and arrived at Sydney on 22 August 1828.
Colonial Australia and trading voyages
Barnet Burns worked as a house servant for William Henry Mackenzie of the Bank of Australia. He commenced employment at about the time of the Bank of Australia robbery on 14 September 1828. Burns also worked with other prominent businessmen of colonial Sydney, who supported Burns's application for a land grant in May 1830. A plot of was granted at Tambourine Bay on the Lane Cove River.
Burns joined the brig Elizabeth, captain Brown, on a trading voyage to New Zealand departing Sydney on 23 July 1830. During his time in New Zealand Burns learned the Māori language. The Elizabeth returned to Sydney on 5 January 1831 and soon afterwards Burns appeared before the Police Magistrates where he was convicted of gross assault. A fellow seaman on the Elizabeth, James Nance, had accused Burns of being a convict and Burns had reacted by "leading [Nance] about the decks by his nose, like a pig by the snout". Burns was ordered to "enter into his own recognizances to the amount of £10, to preserve the peace for twelve months".Police Report, The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 29 January 1831. Retrieved 11 January 2009.
In January 1831 the Sydney merchant Joseph Barrow Montefiore had just returned from a voyage to New Zealand and required flax traders to be located at various parts of New Zealand. Barnet Burns agreed to return to New Zealand to trade with the Māori for New Zealand flax (Phormium tenax), used mainly for rope materials.Wigglesworth, Roger Philip, "The New Zealand timber and flax trade 1769–1840", PhD thesis, Massey University, 1981. On 13 February 1831 Burns departed Sydney on the schooner Darling, captain William Stewart,Ross, John O'C., William Stewart: Sealing captain, trader and speculator, Roebuck Society Publication, Canberra, Australia, 1987, "Stewart, Captain William W." An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, 1966, Te Ara. with various items of trade including clothing, leather goods, muskets, gunpowder, tobacco and pipes, ironmongery, hardware and rum. The Darling stopped at several places on the west coast of the North Island, including Kawhia, Mōkau, Taranaki and Kapiti Island, before proceeding through Cook Strait to the east coast where Burns was landed at Māhia Peninsula. The Darling continued on to Poverty Bay, where John Williams Harris was landed on 16 May 1831. Harris and Burns were among the first European residents in the area.
Pākehā-Māori In the 1830s the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand was a place constantly under the threat of attack from neighbouring Māori tribes.Ballara, Angela, "The Origins of Ngati Kahungunu", PhD thesis, Victoria University of Wellington, 1991. In the preceding decades the Ngā Puhi from the Bay of Islands had obtained muskets and made devastating attacks on their southern neighbours. Crosby, R., A History of Inter-Iwi Conflict 1806–45, The Māhia peninsula became a place of refuge for various Māori that felt threatened at an intensification of tribal warfare, decimation, enslavement and migration. Burns wrote: "So here I was amongst a set of cannibals ... not knowing the moment when they might take my trade from me, and not only my trade, but my life."A Brief Narrative of a New Zealand Chief: Being the Remarkable History of Barnet Burns, an English sailor, with a faithful account of the way in which he became a chief of one of the tribes of New Zealand, together with a few remarks on the manners and customs of the people, and other interesting matter. Written by Himself, Belfast edition, 1844. Transcript from Hocken Library copy taken in 1970.
At the Māhia Peninsula Barnet Burns was protected by a chief whom he called "Awhawee" but whom Māori oral records know as "Te Aria" or "Aria".Iles, Mark, "A Maori History of Tokomaru Bay, East Coast, North Island", M.A. Thesis, University of Auckland, 1981 Burns married the chief's daughter, Amotawa and lived as a Pākehā Māori with mana and benefits in business transactions. Burns's hapū was probably Te Whānau-a-RuataupareTe Whanau-a-Ruataupare which was part of Te Uranga Wera or the burnt post tribe, a collection of hapū from the Tokomaru Bay area.Donald, Stephen, Transcript of Census of the Archdeaconry of Waiapu taken by Ven. William Williams, 1846, sourced from Auckland Institute and Museum, MS 63.Taylor, Richard, A Leaf from the Natural History of New Zealand, Auckland, 1848, New Zealand Electronic Text Centre, p. 56. Retrieved 12 January 2009.Polack, J. S. Vol. II, Polack, Joel Samuel, New Zealand: Being a narrative of travels and adventures during a residence in that country between the years 1831 and 1837, Vol II, London, 1838, p. 121.
It is likely that Burns and the tribe were located at Nukutaurua on the north-eastern coast of the Māhia Peninsula. After 11 months a vessel arrived with orders to close the trading station but Burns refused to leave with the ship as Amotawa was about to give birth. Shortly afterwards most of the tribe went some distance from their pā to cultivate the potato gardens. Burns learned that the neighbouring Ngāti Te Whatuiāpiti threatened to plunder the remaining trade goods. Burns escaped with Amotawa and her father in an open waka (canoe) and seven other Māori and they headed north stopping overnight at Whareongaonga before landing at Waihi near Orongo beach on the southern side of Te Kuri a Paoa (Young Nick's Head). The canoe was hauled out of the water and the local Māori, likely the Ngāi Tāmanuhiri, carried the property for nearly to Poverty Bay. A day later Burns proceeded inland to a stronghold of the Rongowhakaata at Manutuke on the Waipaoa River where there were two strong defensive pā named Umukapua and Orakaiapu. Soon afterwards at the request of his Chief, Burns went to Maraetai with about seven hundred men to battle but their enemies had fled and they returned and lived again in peace.
During an inland flax-buying trip with some of the members of his tribe, a party of Ngāi Te Rangi attacked, killed and ate the group with the exception of Barnet Burns. He managed to negotiate for his life by agreeing to live, fight and trade with them. Also, as part of the negotiations, Burns had to agree upon the party tattooing him. He was forced to have his full face, chest, thighs, and arms tattooed as a sign of loyalty to the tribe. Even though Burns did not want to, he agreed to save his life. When about a quarter of the tattoo on his face was completed, Burns escaped and found his way back to his own tribe, who sought vengeance without success as the Ngāi Te Rangi were not to be found.
In 1832 subtribes of Te Whakatohea from the Bay of Plenty region had settled in an area inland from Poverty Bay. An alliance of about 600 men from Rongowhakaata, Ngati Kahungunu, Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti and Ngā Puhi under Te Wera a Hauraki"Te Wera, Hauraki Kaiteke", An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, 1966. Te Ara. besieged about 400 men, women and children of Te Whakatohea at the pā of Kekeparaoa,"A Tame, But Interesting Siege", JA Mackay 1949, New Zealand Electronic Text centre. Retrieved 15 January 2009. located near the confluence of the Waipaoa River and the Waikohu river. Burns claimed to have led 150 men in the siege which lasted about three weeks. He described how a Whakatohea woman had attempted to escape from the pā by swimming across a river. She was captured and imprisoned. Resigned to being eaten, she assisted in preparing potatoes and threw herself onto the fire for a hāngī feast. When the pā at Kekeparaoa had been breached, many of the imprisoned occupants were shared between the victorious tribes. Burns says he witnessed about 60 of the prisoners being killed and eaten; the flesh being cooked in a hāngī or smoked for transportation to fellow tribal members.
The schooner Prince of Denmark arrived at Poverty Bay and Burns was then engaged by the captain to continue as a flax trader at £3 a month. He agreed to establish himself further north at Uawa which was named Tolaga Bay by Captain James Cook. When he arrived at Uawa, Burns settled on the northern side of the Uawa river with Te Urunga Wera while on the southern side another white man traded for Captain John Rudolphus Kent with Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti. From 1832 to 1834 he sent about 107 tons of flax to Sydney and he considered these his happiest years in New Zealand. Burns claimed to have been made a chief of over 600. The remaining part of his face and parts of his body were tattooed at nearby Waihau (Loisels beach).
While at Uawa in about April 1833, Barnet Burns learned that three Englishmen were being held captive on the Waiapu River, near East Cape, the easternmost point of the North Island of New Zealand. A whaling vessel, Elizabeth, commanded by captain Black, had stopped at East Cape for provisions and during her stay three of the crew had run away. In return captain Black had seized 15 of the local Ngāti Porou and taken them away on the Elizabeth. Burns took a waka with about 60 men and after three days they had travelled from Uawa to Waiapu and found the Englishmen confined at a pā which was probably at Whakawhitira. The chief Kakatarau Turanga Treaty Kakatarau, known as Cotahrow to Barnet Burns, signed the East Coast copy of the treaty in May 1840 agreed to their release in exchange for a ransom that was to be paid at Uawa. However the Ngāti Porou were unfamiliar with the bay at Uawa and their waka capsized with the result that the ransom payment was waived. The schooner, Lord Byron later took the Englishmen to Sydney. The 15 Ngāti Porou had been taken to the Bay of Islands, enslaved by Ngā Puhi, released and introduced to Christianity by the missionaries. In January 1834 the Ngāti Porou were returned to the East Cape on the schooner Fortitude by Rev William Yate and Rev William Williams of the Church Missionary Society.
Departure from Uawa In October 1834 the ship , Captain John Thomas Chalmers, arrived at Uawa. Burns loaded his trade of flax and advised Captain Chalmers that he wished to settle with his employer in Sydney and so Burns paid £5 for a passage. He bid farewell to his wife and children and Burns accompanied the ship to Sydney via Cloudy Bay and Queen Charlotte Sound. His children were daughters Tauhinu, Mokoraurangi and son Hori Waiti, who may have been born soon after Burns's departure. Te Amotawa later married the Māori chief Te Kani-a-Takirau.Tolaga Bay – Uawa