{"story":["The Harriet was carrying the family of Jacky Guard, a whaler based at Kākāpō Bay in Port Underwood. Guard had been transported to Sydney as a convict, arriving in 1815, and later worked as a sealer and trader before running a whaling station on shore at Te Awaiti in Tory Channel. His wife Betty, born at Parramatta in 1814, had married him at 15 and come to New Zealand around 1830. Their son John was born in 1831 and their daughter Louisa late in 1833. In January 1834 the family visited Sydney, and in April they sailed home on the barque Harriet under Captain Hall. Sixteen days out, on 29 April, a southerly gale drove the ship ashore near Rāhotu, close to Cape Egmont. Everyone aboard reached land and camped in tents made from the sails.","Some days later a group of Taranaki Māori plundered the wreck. Ngāti Ruanui then attacked the camp, perhaps aggrieved, NZHistory suggests, that there was little left to take; Te Ara notes that two seamen who had deserted from the Harriet had supplied the attackers with gunpowder. Another writer, Sandra Coney, suggests it may have been retaliation for food that had not been paid for. Twelve crewmen died, Betty's brother among them. Betty was struck with a tomahawk and survived because the blows glanced off a large comb she wore in her hair. She, the children and several sailors were held. A fortnight later Jacky Guard and some others were let go to bring back a cask of powder as ransom. They eventually reached Sydney, where Governor Richard Bourke agreed to send a rescue. For four months the chief Oaoiti protected Betty, and by some accounts she lived as his wife.","The warship HMS Alligator and the Isabella, a colonial schooner, left Sydney on 31 August 1834 with soldiers of the 50th Regiment. NZHistory puts the detachment at 60 men; Te Ara gives three officers and 65 rank and file across the two ships. Ngāti Ruanui expected, as was customary, to be given something in exchange for the captives. Captain Robert Lambert of the Alligator refused any ransom. Eight surviving sailors were handed over first. Oaoiti, who had protected Betty, was bayoneted and seized by Guard's party, and on 25 September Betty and Louisa were found at Te Namu pā, which was attacked and burnt. Their captors moved them to Waimate, and on 1 October they were exchanged for Oaoiti. On 8 October the ships shelled Waimate for three hours before a force came ashore with a six-pounder. John was snatched from an old chief's back, and the chief was then shot. Then, by one participant's account, the Harriet's crew fired on Māori gathered on the beach in revenge for their shipmates, the soldiers joined in, and fighting went on for several days while rough seas kept the troops ashore.","No British troops had fought Māori before. In 1835 a House of Commons committee condemned the force used. The Church Missionary Society took the affair as proof that colonisation without restraint would harm Māori, and in 1837 it and the Wesleyan Missionary Society petitioned London for stronger protection for Māori. Bourke, for his part, used the killings and captivity to argue for keeping a warship permanently in New Zealand waters. Guard may also have wanted to punish Māori for earlier losses, including the plundering of his ship Waterloo the year before. Louisa died in 1835, possibly from injuries suffered in the first attack. Betty returned to Kākāpō Bay early in 1836, had six more children, and died there in July 1870."],"sources":[{"title":"The Harriet affair","url":"https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/maori-european-contact-pre-1840/the-harriet-affair","publisher":"NZHistory, Manatū Taonga"},{"title":"Guard, Elizabeth","url":"https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1g23/guard-elizabeth","publisher":"Te Ara — the Encyclopedia of New Zealand"},{"title":"Betty Guard","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Guard","publisher":"Wikipedia"},{"title":"John Guard","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Guard","publisher":"Wikipedia"}]}