The Rescue of John Guard

This watercolour is a representation of an event that occurred in 1834 in Ngāti Ruanui tribal territory on the Taranaki coast of New Zealand's North Island. Although the event has a factual basis the representation is purely imaginary.

The event
John (Jacky) Guard, who had a shore whaling station in the Marlborough Sounds, took his family on a visit to Sydney in January 1834. In April the Guards returned on the barque Harriet, which was driven ashore near Cape Egmont, Taranaki, in a southerly gale. All on board managed to reach the shore and camped in tents made from the ship's sails. However, a group of Taranaki and Ngāti Ruanui Māori, aided by two deserting seamen from the Harriet who supplied them with gunpowder, attacked the shipwreck victims. A desperate encounter ensued and a number of the ship's crew were killed.

Guard, his wife and two children, and some sailors were captured. After two weeks Guard and several other men were released, on the understanding that they would return with a cask of gunpowder as ransom for the rest of the party. They eventually reached Sydney.

Meanwhile Betty Guard narrowly escaped death at the hands of her captors. Accounts suggest, however, that after the initial affray she was treated well, protected by a chief, Oaoiti, and possibly lived with him as a wife.

Some months later, Guard and his men accompanied a rescue expedition involving the man-o'-war Alligator, commanded by Captain Robert Lambert with twenty-five troops of the 50th Regiment, and the colonial schooner Isabella with forty-two troops of the 50th Regiment.

Conflict
The first prisoners to be released were the eight surviving sailors off the Harriet. Four days later, on 25 September 1834, Betty Guard and her baby daughter Louisa were located at Te Namu pā, which the rescue party assaulted and burnt, causing the Māori to flee with their prisoners to a pā at Waimate, further along the coast. On 1 October Betty and Louisa were given up in exchange for Oaoiti, who had earlier been detained and brutally ill-treated by Jacky Guard and his companions.

Guard's son, John, was the one remaining captive. In an attempt to rescue him the two vessels bombarded the pā and canoes for three hours. On 8 October a full force of officers and men landed with a six-pounder gun. The boy was grabbed off the back of an old chief who had carried him to the beach. The old chief was then shot. With John Guard safe, a full-scale engagement broke out between Māori and the shore party. This continued over the next few days as rough seas prevented a speedy re-embarkation of the troops.