Global Commodity Chains and Local Use-Value: William Colenso, natural history collecting and Indigenous labour

On 20 January 1842, the joint botanical-missionary expedition led by Church Missionary Society printer William Colenso (1811–99) was making its way on foot from the hill of Te Wairere to the pa of Tapiri, through the interior of New Zealand’s North Island. The travelling party was still regrouping following a poor night’s sleep. The day before, two local guides had deserted the expedition, leaving behind some of the gear in a forest after deciding to return to Mokomokorea. Without access to camp bedding, the remaining travellers had been obliged to endure an uncomfortable, rainy night in the company of innumerable mosquitoes. In this final leg of what had been a strenuous three-month journey, the last stages were proving to be the most arduous. It is at this point in his “bush notes” that Colenso records detailed impressions of Abraham, an Indigenous man who had been travelling with the expedition and helping to deliver sermons since it set out from Paihia in November. Noting Abraham’s skills as a negotiator and navigator, alongside his judgements of Abraham’s life-story, Colenso wrote: "In passing over the road Abm. shewed me the spot where when a Child he was seized… by the Ngapuhi Tribe... The present was the first time of his passing the spot since his capture."