1772 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 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’. But 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. The length of his visit enabled his surviving crew 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 offended a variety 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. It is probable that a five-week stay that showed no signs of ending also caused serious economic strains. And Māori may have feared that a permanent French settlement would be established.

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