RELICS OF COOK’S VISIT

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 930, 25 March 1930, Page 11

RELICS OF COOK’S VISIT

EXHIBITION IN BLENHEIM MASSACRE RECALLED Press Association BLENHEIM, Today. Much corroded but fully-authenti-cated relics of Captain Cook’s visits to Charlotte Sound are on exhibition in Blenheim. Twenty years ago they were dug up by Mr. W. J. H. Greensill, at Wharehunga, in a spot located by the late Hon. Kobert McNab, New Zealand historian, as the scene of the massacre of the crew of the Adventure's cutter by Maoris on December JL 8, 1773. The Adventure, in charge of Captain Tobias Furneaux, was waiting the arrival of Cook and sent a boat’s crew to secure greens. They were dining ashore at Grass Cove, now known as Wharehunga, when they were attacked by Maoris and massacred tp a 1 man and partly eaten. The massacre was avenged on the following day by a party from the Adventure. The relics include two musket barrels. two bayonets, the remains of powder flasks, bolts, etc., together with a number of Maori curios, including a pumice bowl evidently used to carry tire on a native canoe. Mr. Greens ; ll, after retaining possession for 20 years, is offering the relics for sale to the borough council as the nucleus of a museum collection.