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Story: Hauraki–Coromandel region

Early European visitors: Te Horetā

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Early European visitors: Te Horetā

Surveyor Charles Heaphy made this pencil drawing of Te Horetā, who was living in the vicinity of Coromandel, around 1850. In 1852 the elderly Horeta narrated for posterity his boyhood encounter with the Endeavour and its captain, James Cook, at Mercury Bay in November 1769.

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Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: A-147-001

by Charles Heaphy

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.

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How to cite this page

Paul Monin, Hauraki–Coromandel region – Māori and European: 1769 to 1840, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/artwork/30399/early-european-visitors-te-horeta (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Paul Monin, published 13 December 2010, updated 1 April 2016.