Scottish settlers in New Zealand

Isabella pulled aside the oiled cloth covering the window of their small cabin and anxiously scanned the beach and surrounding bush for what felt like the hundredth time that evening, where was he? Seeing nothing but the gathering shadows of evening and smoke drifting from the other settlers cabins she sighed and replaced the covering to help keep the voracious mosquitos and night damp at bay. Checking on the children, asleep on their bracken filled mattress she drew the cover over the tangle of small arms and legs, and ruffled the closest head affectionately. Gathering up the shirt she had been mending, Isabella tried to focus her tired eyes in the dim light of the oil lamp and continue sewing while she waited for her husbands return, ordinarily they would have turned in well before now, both exhausted, he from a day of working the massive and unyielding Kauri and she from the challenge of keeping her family clothed and fed from an uncertain supply and watching over the children as they explored their new lives with growing confidence. Most evenings the couple would lie next to each other murmuring quietly together until sleep overtook them and she loved the quiet intimacy of their last few minutes of every day.
As she sewed, her mind went back to the day she and her husband Laclan arrived in New Zealand escaping a hugely overcrowded increasingly poverty stricken Glasgow with the promise of a better life for their family.
When they got their first glimpse of Cornwallis as the ship finally came up the harbour. The excitement on board, the sense of relief that swept through the whole ship! We'd made it, the worst was over. It was a sight she' never forget, couples hugging, women crying with relief, men joking and laughing again, knowing that before long they would be able to get off the ship and onto dry land, their own dry land bought and paid for! Boys craning over the side of the boat to be the first to spot the township, women making sure baggage was ready to be unloaded and gathering their bairns, A shame we were only allowed but a wee minute of celebration after nearly a year at sea.
When the smiles faded and the ship grew quiet as the realisation dawned on us that there was no township to welcome us, not a single building, no- one, nothing! Is it any wonder that most of us refused to get off the boat even though we'd dreamed of naethin else for so long, Christ it felt like we were being marooned!

I thought I might die of fright when I saw those Maori canoes rowing toward us from the mission at Awhitu yet those tattooed fierce looking men bought supplies and calmly, efficiently built those wee fern huts for us as we sat shocked, defiant and dejected on the ship, A Christian mercy indeed and no thanks to bloody Manukau and Waitemata Land Company, so eager to tak oor money, promising us an established Christian settlement” she shook her head sadly at the memory.

Her recollections lept forward two years, her husband pacing restlessly in the cramped confines of their hastily erected timber cabin. “Well the whole plan was a bloody shambles from the beginning” Lachlan stated baldly. “Captain Symmonds should never have bought Cornwallis off that timber merchant knowing that the man still owed Te Kawau a tonne of tobacco, then Symmonds gives Te Kawau nothing? Te Kawau left those moldy tobacco crates rotting on the beach to make sure no one forgot the broken deal yet Symmonds still ignored them!” Lachlan spat.

"So what did we got for our money? A leaking hut, back breaking work done under the eye of a Maori chief with a grudge and no chance to make a better life for ourselves when THAT'S WHY WE CAME HERE!” His large fist crashed onto one of the rough sawn planks that served as their table and it jumped up off the stumps supporting it. The children stirred and whimpered in their sleep.
“Wheesht man! I can hear ye well enough along with everyone else for miles around!”
“Sorry Bella” , he said quietly, yet still furiously, his jaw clenched tight as he wrestled to slow his breathing and regain some composure.
“Symmonds helped with provisions and problems in the early days,” he continued, “ but now who have we to deal with? Theo Heale, that bloody sassenach shark would sell his mother if she'd bring a tidy profit! And Sir Lah di dah bloody Dudley Sinclair with his home in Scotland a castle, a 23 year old wean, what would he know about developing a settlement? You didnae see their bairns crouched terrified in a wee bloody fern hut wondering what and who was in that dark forest night after night, no, all three of them have handsome comfortable homes in Auckland where they could eat, drink and bide well in safety and nae fash their selves with what was happening to us, shame on them.”
We manage to get their mill built and running only for them to discover too late that it's cheaper for customers to get timber from the Waitemata Harbour. So the mill's finished and Heale surely willnae stay if there's no money to be made!

“I dinna ken what tae do next, to be honest lass, I'm sorry I agreed to represent the other settlers after Symonds drowned. God knows, I want to see everyone get the land they paid for, but I dinna understand the English laws or Maori language. I'm just a working man with no title or power to compel men to listen to me. All of us put together havenae the money left for a lawyer. What I do ken is that there's been cheating, first the Maori were cheated out of the agreed price for this land, then we settlers are cheated by paying the land company for what they didnae rightfully own in the first place!
“I cannae stand by , this is our chance to make our future, I willnae let us be robbed of it.” They talked on, discussing possibilities long after the lamps were doused in the variety of other shelters which made up their small community.

It wasn't until she heard the muffled pounding of approaching horses hooves along the beach that she jerked awake, the shirt had slipped off her lap and lay in a crumpled heap on the beaten earth floor, she quickly rescued it and put fresh kindling on the banked fire to coax it back into life whilst swinging the pot of stew back over the slowly growing flames to reheat. Removing the “curtain” again she saw Lachlan arrive, his horse all but foundered, eyes white rimmed and sides heaving, covered in thick sweat. Isabella felt the knot of anxiety writhe and tighten inside her, Lachlan always looked after his gentle and willing mare carefully, something was very wrong.
A minute or two later the door opened and Lachlan appeared looking not unlike his unfortunate horse, pushed almost past the point of endurance.
“Dead... I can hardly believe it, “he grimaced, crumpling into a chair and running a shaking hand through his hair. He gratefully swallowed the dram of whisky she had quickly poured him.
“What do you mean dead, who's dead” ?
“I swear I didnae want this to happen, I was asked to speak to Sinclair when everyone realised there was nae work and nae land, the whole place in a panic. If he hadnae been so arrogant and condescending aboot it I wouldna have lost my temper but when I saw his impatience to be done with us, his obvious lack of honor or backbone and he a fellow Scotsman, I couldnae help me self, we came all this way to get awa from the likes of him and be our own masters, so I challenged him to a duel. He laughed, and told me he to get oot like I was a stray dog . You know I grabbed his whip off the hall table and showed him the business end of it, a good thrashing to knock some sense into the bugger, but nothing serious Bella, nothing serious... his voice trailed off and reaching for the newly refilled whisky he stared sightlessly into to the spluttering hearth.
“A week later he decides he will fight the duel, he wasna set on it though as his lawyer got him to back down right awa, trying to gather what was left of his honour perhaps. Sent out here to remake the family fortune and what does he do ? Fails to manage to set up a decent business then turns his back on his responsibility to a group of his own countrymen who paid dearly to buy a part of his families get rich again scheme.... bloody adventurers the newspaper called them, and that's aboot the size of it.
Isabella reached across the table and clasped his cold tightly clenched fist, gently rubbing warmth and life into it between her warm, work worn hands, “ I know, I know, but for the love of God who's dead Lachlan? The combination of the urgency in her voice and the loving touch seemed to rouse him from the memory of their last few dramatic and difficult years.
“Tonight I went back to Auckland to see Sinclair again in the hopes that he had settled doon a bit and might be ready to deal with the position we're in here at the camp like a laird should. As I walked up to the house I saw him through the parlour window sitting with his hied in his hands, mostly empty whisky bottle close at hand. As I paused, watching, he turned slowly to where I stood, his gaze fastened on mine and the look I saw there made my stomach swoop. All the strut was gone, defeat and panic showed bare in his eyes like a wounded animal brought to bay. Unnerved I ran to the door and called to him to let me in but as if in a daze he walked past the front door and started briskly up the stairs like he was late for something. Well rattled by now, I raced to the kitchen door which was mercifully unlocked and let mysel in, I called to him that I just wanted to talk as I paced around downstairs waiting for him, I heard a loud crash and a thump and ran up stairs. I cautiously pushed open a bedroom door and saw Dudley slumped on the floor, his expression shocked, woozy and helpless as his head slowly fell sideways and blood flowed relentlessly from the cut on his neck . Razor still clutched in his rapidly weakening grasp there was nothing I could do, he was gone sae quickly...
I stood stunned for a minute or two then realised I must get out of there before I was seen, arrested and charged with killing him, you know how it would have looked...” Mary's face whitened, she moved instinctivley closer to Lachlan seeking comfort in the solid bulk of him, she put both hands tenderly on either side of his face and brought his chin up slowly from its morbid contemplation so she was looking deep into his troubled blue eyes. “ Listen my love, you gave him a thrashing and sure enough he deserved it ! How could you possibly ken how he would react? You mustn't blame yourself for his weakness, too many are depending on you to indulge in remorse, pray for him, for surely his soul needs peace now, leave the rest to God.”
Lachlan rose slowly from the table, “It's a harder road than we could have imagined, we'll get our land and make it work, but fur nou I just need to get his face oot of my hied, young fool..” .As her arms went around his neck and she drew him to her she felt his shuddering sigh and the weight of his head as it rested heavy on her shoulder. Tears of shock gathered, stinging and pricking her eyes in their urgency to be shed but she swallowed hard and forced them back, now is not the time for weakness she chided herself, If I want him to stay strong I canna fall apart like a wee lass mysel.