Marion du Fresne arrives in Bay of Islands

The following month the French explorer and 24 of his crew were killed in an act of utu (revenge) by the local Ngāti Pou iwi (tribe). In the reprisals that followed, the French killed up to 250 Māori, burned several kāinga (villages) and destroyed waka (canoes) and other resources.

Marion du Fresne shared the 18th-century philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s beliefs about the ‘noble savage’. His fate convinced many in France that New Zealand was inhabited by dangerous natives and that its colonisation would be unwise.

He was the second French explorer to visit New Zealand, following Jean François Marie de Surville in 1769. Their extended stay meant that the survivors were able to provide many insights into Māori society. Some communication with Māori had been possible, thanks to an extensive Tahitian vocabulary that they had brought with them.

In their many interactions with Māori the French managed to offend a number of rival groups. They violated tapu by fishing in a bay where bones were scraped before being laid to rest, and they unknowingly allowed themselves to be used by one iwi to diminish the status of another. After a five-week stay that showed no signs of ending, the local economy must have come under serious strain. Māori may even have feared the establishment of a permanent French settlement.

Image: Detail from 'The death of Marion du Fresne’ (Te Ara)