Skip to main content

Story: European exploration

Missionaries cross a swamp

Image
Missionaries cross a swamp

Missionaries were active explorers as they searched for new souls to convert. This engraving shows four Anglican missionaries from the Bay of Islands on a journey to Matamata in 1833. The European to the left is the leader of the group, Henry Williams. John Morgan (right) is being helped out of a hole by Māori porters. The two men in the centre are Alfred Nesbit Brown and William Fairburn. The engraving was published in a quarterly paper of the Church Missionary Society in 1836, and was based on a sketch by Henry Williams.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: PUBL-0031-1836-1

by Henry Williams

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

All images & media in this story

How to cite this page

Jock Phillips, European exploration – Missionaries, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/artwork/11250/missionaries-cross-a-swamp (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Jock Phillips, published 1 March 2009.