3-017-123 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The murder of a missionary by the Maoris in New Zealand: Captain Levy, master of the...Eclipse, 1865. 'The hideous superstition now prevailing, which takes the name of the "Pai Marire" from the Virgin Mary, of whom they [the Maori] have heard from a French Catholic missionary...is held to sanctify the commission of any crime or offence...Prompted by this deadly fanaticism, the natives...committed a horrible crime at Opotiki...the Maoris, being in irresistible force, ordered Captain [Morris] Levy, with his crew and passengers, to come out of the vessel. As soon as they did so, the Maoris seized Mr. Volkner and Mr. Grace, and began to tie them up...but desisted from this when Captain Levy interfered. The two reverend gentlemen, however, with four sailors, the crew of the schooner, were shut up in a...hut, guarded by twenty Maoris...Captain Levy and Mr. Samuel Levy were not personally molested, because, as the Maoris observed, they were Jews...In the morning Captain Levy and Mr. S. Levy were told that the two missionaries would be shot. Captain Levy in vain remonstrated and begged the Maoris to refrain from this bloody act. In order to purchase the lives of his two passengers, he gave up the vessel and its cargo...to be plundered by the Maoris'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.